thumb|250px|Queen Street Mall

thumb|250px|Queen Street Mall, 2021

thumb|250px|Edward Street entrance to the mall

thumb|upright|250px|Entrance arch to Queen Street Mall from Albert street

The Queen Street Mall is a pedestrian mall located on Queen Street in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The mall extends approximately from George Street to Edward Street, and has more than 700 retailers over of retail space, which includes six major shopping centres. It was intended to bring more people into the central business district.

The mall was designed by Robin Gibson and opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1982. It has been refurbished and extended a number of times. It features several shopping centres, as well as pedestrian shade structures and an entertainment stage. The mall sits above the underground Queen Street bus station.

History

thumb|upright|250px|[[Facadism, such as this example at Uptown, helped to preserve some Victorian era building facades along the Queen Street Mall.]]

The mall was designed by Robin Gibson. After being closed to traffic in 1981, the initial pedestrian mall was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 9 August 1982, in order to be ready for the 1982 Commonwealth Games. Initially, the section of Queen Street between Albert Street and Edward Street was partitioned off to form a pedestrian-only retail precinct, and it was then extended in 1988 to include the section of Queen Street between Albert Street and George Street, timed to coincide with Expo '88. The Albert Street section of the mall was refurbished again in 2007. The Brisbane City Council announced in 2009 that Burnett Lane, a narrow laneway that runs between George Street and Albert Street, and parallel to the mall, would be refurbished and integrated into the Queen Street Mall precinct.

2013 siege

On 8 March 2013, the mall was the scene of a 90 minute siege. The offender, Lee Matthew Hillier, had a long criminal history. He was shot several times with non-lethal rounds, ending the incident. He pled guilty to charges including assaulting police and going armed to cause fear. In January 2014 he was sentenced to years in jail.

Features

thumb|right|250px|Intersection of Queen Street and Albert Street, 2023

There are a number of shopping centres located in the Queen Street Mall, including:

  • Wintergarden (opened 1982)
  • Uptown (opened 1988 as the Myer Centre)
  • QueensPlaza (opened 2005)

At the intersection of Queen Street and Albert Street at the centre of the mall is a steel structure designed to provide shade and cover from the weather.

In the development of stage one and stage two of the mall, significant heritage-listed building facades were preserved, giving the mall a restored yesteryear feeling.

Shopping centres

There are several significant shopping centres located on the Queen Street Mall. These include the Wintergarden (opened in 1982), Uptown (opened in 1988, formerly the Myer Centre), Broadway on the Mall (opened in 1989, closed 2013) and the lavish Queens Plaza, situated at the northern end of the mall, which was opened in two stages, the first in 2005, and the second in 2008.

The Wintergarden is a three level shopping centre with over 70 specialty stores including a gymnasium, ten pin bowling alley, luxury Hilton hotel, H&M, Zara, Uniqlo and RM Williams.

In March 2023, Myer, Millanos and Pig & Whistle were evicted to allow for preparation works for redevelopment of Uptown and the Queen Street Mall. Myer closed its Queen Street store in July 2023 with Pig & Whistle closing in the following September. This comes ahead of the redevelopment which is expected to commence in early 2024.

Management

Management of the mall was originally covered by the Local Government (Queen Street Mall) Act 1981 (Qld), until it was repealed and replaced by the City of Brisbane Act 2010 (Qld).

References

ms:Queen Street Mall, Brisbane