Brisbane’s iconic and heritage-listed cinema, The Regent, has been reborn as the new home of the Brisbane Visitor Information and Booking Centre.
The majority of the theatre was demolished in 2011, with only the Grand Foyer, staircase and ticket box remaining.
Lord Mayor Graham Quirk says the relocation of the visitor information centre from a free-standing structure in the Queen Street Mall to The Regent would breathe new life into the building.
“Dating back 85 years, The Regent is a much-loved historic icon of Brisbane, being characteristic of a classic 1920s picture palace which at the time marked the development of Queen Street as a cultural precinct,” Cr Quirk said.
“It even has some mysteries including a bullet hole in the ceiling which has been the source of many stories over the years.
“Our visitor information centre plays a vital role in growing leisure tourism in Brisbane, providing around 1800 people per day with events and entertainment information, itinerary planning, brochures and maps, public transport advice, general tourist advice and tour and accommodation bookings on behalf of our operators.
“The move to The Regent has provided the centre with more space, the opportunity to install new technology, extended areas for travel bookings and improved tourist information facilities.”
The information centre will operate concurrently in both The Regent and the free-standing mall premises during the busy holiday season, before the mall structure is demolished in February or March next year. The demolition of the structure will leave more space for pedestrians and help to open up the layout of the mall.
The new information centre has been designed and fitted out by ISPT, The Regent building owners, at no cost to the city.
“It is a prime opportunity to reactive the building’s ornate Grand Foyer into a wonderful space for residents and visitors, with public areas and seating designed to fully engage with its significant heritage qualities,” IPST Development Services general manager Chris McCluskey said.
Do you miss The Regent? Will you visit the new information centre? Let us know in the comments below!
A national disgrace.
And to market it to the public like it’s something to get excited about…something good for the city.
Desecrating beautiful buildings and turning them into Visitor Information centres is surely not the kind of city we want to promote. Especially as it was against the will of thousands of people who petitioned the council for many years to keep the Regent as it was – and after 4 years of lying dormant, it gets turned into this.
In actuality, it’s entirely emblematic of just how out of touch the Brisbane City Council (Corporation) is with the residents of Brisbane.
A fact that will hopefully be recognised come the next election.
it should have been kept a theatre, there are no beautiful classic style theatres in brisbegas, just boring generic ones. Bad decision.
Oops……brisvegas
At least the beautiful building is being used for something accessible to the public. Yes it was heartbreaking to see the theatre destroyed but obviously it was not well patronised, otherwise the owners would’ve kept it going. As much as I adored it, I was one of the 1000’s who didn’t do anything to keep the business viable. Easy to bag councils and businesses when it’s not your livelihood at stake. I can’t wait to reacquaint myself with the glorious interior design!
Is this really the way we need to display to the world how we respect (or in this case don’t respect) how heritage in Brisbane ? The Regent has suffered over the years at the hands of politcians and developers, leaving us now with the heritage listed lobby (no theatre exists now so why do they keep calling it a theatre). Yet developers and Brisbane City Council have shown how they DON’T respect heritage. This foyer/lobby has not been restored but altered beyond belief. Purple carpet tiles…really….clutter…modern furniture in this historic building and very ultra bright lights ready to fade the ceiling . Brisbane….sorry but disgusting !
All your comments are valid. Even though it is heritage listed, the taxpayers of Queensland would be the ones footing any bills. Nth Queenslanders would object to having their taxes pay for something only the south east of the State would enjoy most of the time. Would it have been better used as a mini museum with posters and paraphernalia from bygone times to show people how it was back then? I for one would love to see some of that. Screen old movies on computers or similar. It is definitely worth using for something better than just an information centre unless they show the history of the building at the same time. They should change the name to Regal as that’s how it looks although I don’t like the purple carpet either. I loved it as a theatre. Show it as it was back in the day.