The Downs Club is a heritage-listed gentlemen's club at 15 Mylne Street, Toowoomba, Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by James Marks and Son and built in 1900. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 4 December 2020.
History The Downs Club is situated in a central location in Toowoomba on the corners of Margaret, Mylne and Isabel streets. Constructed in 1900 as the second clubhouse for the exclusive gentlemen's club, the Downs Club (established in 1889), the stately brick building with generous grounds and gardens, reflects the members' desire to convey a sense of prestige, exclusivity, and privacy. Designed by prominent and innovative Toowoomba architecture firm, James Marks and Son, the club was modelled on the principles of 19th century British gentlemen's clubs and showcases the firm's characteristic architectural features. Within the grounds is an original stable (1900) and a detached steward's room (1909). As at 2020, the Downs Club continues its tradition as a gentlemen's club.
European settlement of the Toowoomba area, traditional country of the Giabal and Jarowair people, commenced in 1840 when squatters occupied pastoral runs on the Darling Downs. The small settlement of Drayton evolved from 1842, but was soon surpassed by a more desirable location six kilometres to the northeast, known as Toowoomba from the 1850s. Better suited to market gardening, with a more reliable water supply, and supported by squatters and land speculators, Toowoomba was incorporated as a municipality in 1860. Its rapid economic and social development was influenced by local residents who strongly promoted the prospects of the town, and political representatives who successfully lobbied for government funding for civic improvements.Entry on the Queensland Heritage Register, Harris House (QHR 650237).
As Toowoomba progressed in the 1870–80s, a commercial centre emerged. The construction of a police station and post office near the courthouse firmly established the upper (eastern) end of Margaret Street as a government precinct. By the 1880s the Russell, Ruthven, and Margaret Street block (western end) was pre-eminent as the commercial centre of Toowoomba.Entry on the Queensland Heritage Register, Exchange Building (QHR 601319). Banks, retail stores, hotels, and commercial businesses flourished as the population of the town increased. The surrounding pastoral properties depended on these businesses to provide services and products. Visits to town often became social occasions.Wise's Queensland Postal Directory, 1895, p.174AMaurice French, Toowoomba, A Sense of History, 1840-2008, University of Southern Queensland, 2009, pp, 48-94.
The first gentlemen's club in Toowoomba was established by a group of wealthy squatters (pastoralists with large holdings often termed 'Pure Merinos') in the early 1860s, eager to have their own private club in town, where they could stay overnight and socialise with other men of similar social standing. Just prior to this, in 1859 the prestigious Queensland Club had been founded in Brisbane. Once established, the new Toowoomba club became known as "The Union Club", with a stately clubhouse constructed on Russell Street (as at 2020, known as Clifford House). Only the wealthy could afford membership fees, ensuring the club's exclusivity. This was, however, short-lived, and by 1870 the building had been sold and the club dissolved.Entry on the Queensland Heritage Register, Clifford House (QHR 600857)Allom Lovell Marquis-Kyle Architects, Clifford House, Toowoomba, A Conservation Study for Concept Developments, 1994, p.8Robert Hogg, "The Most Manly Class that Exists: British Gentlemen on the Queensland Frontier", Journal of Australian Colonial History, Vol.13, 2011, p.69Toowoomba Chronicle and Queensland Advertiser, 21 June 1866, p.3.
By the 1880s in Toowoomba, the dominance of the squattocracy in Darling Downs society had been supplemented by a wealthy and influential professional and business class.DB Waterson, Squatter, Selector, and Storekeeper, A History of the Darling Downs, 1859-93, Sydney University Press, 1968, p.68. A desire emerged amongst men in both the town and pastoral districts, for the establishment of a new gentlemen's club.Margaret Krimmer, The Downs Club, 1889-1989, Toowoomba, 1989, "Introduction" At a meeting held 20 July 1889 in the Club Hotel (on the corner of Margaret and Ruthven streets), the decision was made to form such an association. The club was to base their rules on those of the Queensland Club and membership would consist of a four guinea entrance fee (just over £4) and an annual subscription of two guineas for town members, with country members (those who lived more than from Toowoomba) to pay approximately half this amount. Although not as expensive as the Queensland Club's membership at the time, which was £12 per year, it was still a considerable sum.Krimmer, The Downs Club, 1889-1989, "Membership and Members". The club was a private club for men of distinction and provided a social and recreational venue for those with common interests and socio-economic backgrounds.Entry on the Queensland Heritage Register, Queensland Club (QHR 600113). Initially called the "Darling Downs Club", it began with a membership of 44. By July 1890, this had increased to 66.The Brisbane Courier, 28 July 1890, p.6 One could only become a member if voted in by the members, thus ensuring exclusivity. The first president of the club was William Alexander Jenyns Boyd, headmaster of the Toowoomba Grammar School. Members included "Pure Merinos" such as Robert Ramsay of Eton Vale Homestead and William Ball Slade of Glengallan Homestead. Several doctors, solicitors and politicians were also amongst the first club members, including the Minister for Railways at the time, Hon. Hugh Nelson.The Brisbane Courier, 4 December 1889, p.4
The Darling Downs Club's first club rooms were within the Club Hotel. These were specially built for them, to a design by Toowoomba architect James Marks, described at the first annual meeting as "the billiard room, card-room, and general room", with all the furniture, including a Burroughes and Watts' of London billiard table, paid for by club funds; the Queensland Club also had this make of billiard table. These club rooms were later demolished as was the hotel.Krimmer, The Downs Club, 1889-1989, 'First Annual Report, 18 July 1890'Donald Watson and Judith McKay, Queensland Architects of the 19th Century: A Biographical Dictionary, Queensland Museum, Brisbane, 1994, p.123Queenslander, 7 June 1884, p.915. By the mid-1890s the club was better known as the "Downs Club". As membership continued to increase, the club's accommodation proved inadequate. Problems had also arisen when members did not receive adequate service from the hotel staff.Krimmer, The Downs Club, 1889-1989, "The Building".
The construction of a new clubhouse was deemed essential and in January 1900 a property on the corner of Margaret and Mylne streets was purchased from James Taylor jnr, a founding member of the club and the son of prominent Toowoomba resident, James Taylor. The property totalled , consisted of 5 lots (L16-20 RP16262 in 2020) and cost £500.Certificate of Title, No. 155790, Department of Natural Resources, Mines and EnergyDarling Downs Gazette, 28 October 1899, p.2. Architects were invited to submit designs in early 1899, for a brick clubhouse that would not cost more than £1000, with a five guinea prize for the successful firm. Two Toowoomba-based architecture firms, James Marks and Son and William Hodgen, submitted designs, the former becoming the winner.Toowoomba Chronicle and Darling Downs General Advertiser, 15 April 1899, p.1.
On 26 August 1899, James Marks and Son called for tenders "for the erection of a Club Building in Margaret street, for the Downs Club".Darling Downs Gazette, 26 August 1899, p.8 The contractor was Harry Andrews. Funds were raised for the £1526 clubhouse through a debenture scheme, with each member offered £5 debentures. Work on the new clubhouse commenced swiftly and by May 1900 the building had been completed. To celebrate the opening of the clubhouse, a ball was held.Darling Downs Gazette, 28 April 1900, p.2. The event was featured in the social pages of the newspapers, "The Downs Club ball on Thursday evening was a brilliant one ... The reception rooms were beautifully decorated".Darling Downs Gazette, 5 May 1900, p.7.
The Downs Club was modelled of a 19th-century British gentlemen's club, as was the 1884 Queensland Club building in Brisbane. Clubs were established throughout the British Empire at this time in an attempt to affirm members' affiliations (perceived or actual) with Britain, through the social and recreational traditions held by the club. Food, drink, and convivial company with like-minded gentlemen attracted members. Many clubs also offered overnight accommodation.Amy Milne-Smith, 'A Flight to Domesticity? Making a home in the Gentlemen's Clubs of London, 1880-1914', Journal of British Studies, Vol.45, No. 4 (October 2006), pp. 802, 811, 816BJ Black, "Membership Has its Privileges: The Imperial Clubman at Home and Away", A Room of His Own: A Literary-Cultural Study of Victorian Clubland, Ohio University Press, Ohio, 2012, p.5-7. Of utmost importance in the design was the provision of members' privacy, exclusivity, and prestige. Only members were permitted into the "inner sanctum" of the club rooms, which generally included a reading room, smoking room, card room, billiard room, club room, and dining room; guests were known as "strangers" and relegated to a strangers' room close to the entrance, but apart from the main club rooms, ensuring members' privacy. If guests were allowed into the club proper, they were required to sign a book and were allowed only limited access. Stewards were employed to police this tradition and to provide service to members. Clubs also offered their members recreational activities including team sports.
When first completed, the one-story brick Federation era-style clubhouse, situated on the rise of the hill on the corner of Margaret and Mylne streets, conveyed a sense of prestige and distinction, which followed the tradition of gentlemen's clubs both in England (in particular London) and colonial clubs throughout the British Empire. The layout of the club ensured control of the members' and non-members' spaces from inside and privacy from outside. An entrance vestibule separated the clubhouse from the outside world, and connected separately to a strangers' room at the front of the building. Heavy double doors led into the club rooms via a stately central hall. The luxuriously appointed rooms included the reading room, billiards room, small washroom, and banquet room. To the rear of the clubhouse was a detached timber auxiliary building with the kitchen, a (steward's) bedroom, and storeroom. There was also a modest timber stable at the rear. The club did not offer overnight accommodation to its members.Darling Downs Gazette, 8 February 1909, p.4.