Princess Row

Originally known as Costin’s Cottages, the owner of these, one of Brisbane’s earliest rows of terrace houses c1863, was colonial Queen St chemist and onetime property guru William Costin who had acquired three acres on Petrie Terrace.

The four terrace houses, which consisted of four rooms and two small attics each were occupied at the time Brisbane Grammar School was established in 1869 by about a dozen student boarders and later by Queensland’s Registrar General Henry Jordan who had bought the cottages in 1870 after Costin went bankrupt in the late 1860s.

The shop on the corner, built over the front of one of the terraces during the interwar period, was at one time known as ‘The Chinaman’s Shop’ and today is home to funky Scout Cafe.