Opening of the Inns of Court – 29 November 1986

There had been talk for years about redevelopment. Schematic drawings of a new building were floating around. Financing the venture remained the stumbling block. Talks were held with Mr Phil Ridings, the general manager of SGIO.  These envisaged a sale of the site to the insurer and a buyback or leaseback of a brand new building. The idea was promising but the impetus was not there.

Cedric Hampson QC was elected chairman of Barristers Chambers Ltd (BCL), in 1972. Redevelopment became an important agenda item. More discussion was had with SGIO but bogged down over the value of the site. A complicating factor was the company shareholding. Not all members of the bar were shareholders of Barristers Chambers Ltd. The purchase price of shares in a redevelopment would be more expensive for them because they would not enjoy a credit for the value of the shares held. Some felt this was unfair. Other members had exaggerated views of the land’s value.

In the early ‘80s’ Barristers Chambers threw its lot in with AV Jennings. That company agreed to build a new Inns. It proposed to build first on the carpark behind the old Inns and when that was finished members would move in, and the old one would be demolished and rebuilt.  No movement off the site was involved and so the proposal had general agreement. At the last moment it was discovered that Jennings’s feasibility studies had revealed that it was not possible to build that way. Members would have had to vacate and no arrangements had been made for alternative accommodation. A crisis ensued. Barristers Chambers sacked Jennings and went into the market.

A new company Watpac Pty Ltd which contained elements of the old Watkins family building group was approached. They tendered for the job. The ubiquitous (at that time), Remm Constructions Pty Ltd, also provided a tender. Both employed the buyback formula.  Each company showed directors on successive days why it should be selected and Watpac won the “beauty competition”.

Bligh Jessup Brentnell were engaged as architects, planning approval was obtained and working drawings requested. In early 1985 Watpac Pty Ltd was signed up, the building vacated, alternative premises at Brisbane Administration Centre (BAC) and in ASL building in North Quay rented, and building work commenced.

The final arrangements had been achieved through the labours of a building sub-committee (BSC) of Barristers Chambers Ltd, Cedric Hampson QC, Gary Crooke QC, and Glenn Martin. The proposed building, to be economically viable, would have to house at least 150 barristers. The old Inns housed about 50. Shareholders from outside the building were needed. The task of enlisting them was done by members of the sub-committee. They toiled unceasingly to encourage others to take shares.

This is not the time to talk about Cedric Hampson in extenso, but it was only through his verve, his enormous power of persuasion, and his robust determination, that the task was accomplished. Not only that; he more or less designed the building. Catharina Hampson made it a nice double when she persuaded Gary Crooke that her maquette for the foyer should be accepted and she was commissioned to model and then have cast the group that stands in the foyer today.

The Right Honourable Sir Harry Gibbs kindly opened the building on 29 November 1986. That evening members and their guests held a dinner in the common room with about half the party seated in Rumpoles. Closed circuit television linked the two rooms. Lew Wyvill QC proposed the toast to the sub-committee and Glenn Martin responded. Glenn’s was, in my view, the wittiest address ever delivered in the writer’s time at the Bar.*

James Crowley QC

*   A DVD of the speeches has been supplied to Hearsay by Cedric Hampson Chambers with a view to providing it online. Unfortunately technical difficulties have conspired to prevent that occurring in time for this edition. Hearsay hopes to provide the speeches in a future edition.