Princess Theatre is a heritage-listed theatre at 8 Annerley Road, Woolloongabba, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by architect John Beauchamp Nicholson and built in 1888.

Venue: Princess Theatre (Woolloongabba)
Town: Queensland, AU

Princess Theatre is a heritage-listed theatre at 8 Annerley Road, Woolloongabba, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by architect John Beauchamp Nicholson and built in 1888. It is also known as South Brisbane Public Hall and Boggo Road Theatre. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992. This large brick building was constructed in 1888 for prominent Brisbane solicitor Phillip Hardgrave and the South Brisbane Public Hall Syndicate which was incorporated as a Company in 1890. Its construction was an entrepreneurial venture responding to the needs of a rapidly expanding South Brisbane, East Brisbane, Woolloongabba, and Thompson Estate population. It provided the newly created Borough of South Brisbane with a central public hall which could be hired for public meetings, lectures, balls, theatrical and musical performances and other public functions. In 1887 Hardgrave acquired the Boggo Road (later Annerley Road) site, set up the subscription company, and commissioned Brisbane architect John Beauchamp Nicholson to design the hall. It was erected the following year by builder Blair Cunningham, for a contract price of £5,220. In the early years, the privately funded hall was known variously as the South Brisbane Public Hall (1888-91) and the Boggo Road Theatre (1892-1904). In 1893, the title to the property was transferred from Hardgrave to his father, John Hardgrave, a former mayor of Brisbane who was also the major investor in the Boggo Road Theatre Company. The building was used during the 1890s for sporadic productions of live performances, vaudeville and as a skating rink, but did not emerge as a major theatrical venue in Brisbane. The South Brisbane Hall Company was voluntarily wound up in 1895. From 1894, the Salvation Army began using the theatre and they took out a lease in 1896. Brisbane draper Thomas Finney acquired the property in 1899 and used the theatre as a clothing factory, although the stage was still hired for occasional perf