MacArthur Chambers
| MacArthur Chambers | |
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MacArthur Chambers, 2011
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| Location | 229 Queen Street, Brisbane City, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia |
| Coordinates | 27°28′06″S 153°01′38″E / 27.4684°S 153.0273°ECoordinates: 27°28′06″S 153°01′38″E / 27.4684°S 153.0273°E |
| Design period | 1919 - 1930s (interwar period) |
| Built | 1931 - 1934 |
| Architect | Francis Richard Hall |
| Official name: MacArthur Chambers, AMP Building | |
| Type | state heritage (built) |
| Designated | 21 October 1992 |
| Reference no. | 600147 |
| Significant period | 1931-1934 (fabric) 1934-1978, 1942-1945 (historical) |
| Significant components | banking chamber, furniture/fittings |
| Builders | George Alexander Stronach |
 Location of MacArthur Chambers in Queensland
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MacArthur Chambers is a heritage-listed former office building at 229 Queen Street (corner of Edward Street), Brisbane City, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Francis Richard Hall and built from 1931 to 1934 by George Alexander Stronach. It was also known as the AMP Building. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
The MacArthur Chambers building and sites adjacent to the building, comprising an entire city block, were redeveloped in the late 1990s, creating the shopping mall MacArthur Central. In 2016, MacArthur Chambers contains the MacArthur Chambers Apartment Hotel, the MacArthur Museum and an Apple Store.
This building was constructed between 1931 and 1934 as the Queensland headquarters of the Australian Mutual Provident Society (AMP), replacing two earlier AMP buildings on the site (built in 1877-1879 and 1885).
The AMP Society was formed in Sydney, New South Wales in 1848-1849 under the Friendly Society's Act of 1843, and was one of a number of benefit and friendly societies established in the Australian colonies in the mid to late 19th century. Founded by a group of prominent Sydney philanthropists, the AMP Society initially offered life assurance policies, endowments and annuities aimed principally at ensuring that women and children were not left destitute on the death of the principal income earner. Growth in the early 1850s was slow, but in 1857 the Society was incorporated by act of parliament, and by the 1890s it was the most prominent of the Australian benefit and insurance societies, with a worldwide reputation.
The first Queensland office (an agency) was opened in Brisbane in 1875. Purpose-designed offices were erected for the AMP in Brisbane in 1877-1879 and 1885 at the corner of Queen and Edward Streets, but these were replaced by the 1931-1934 building. It was a measure of the success of the society that its new Queensland headquarters were erected during the worst years of the 1930s depression.
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