Miss Midgley's

The building at 135 James Street has been a schoolhouse, a community hall, and a neighbourhood landmark for more than 160 years. Now it is Miss Midgley's, a collection of five individually designed apartments that sit inside the restored heritage shell like a series of carefully curated rooms in a private house. Featured in Broadsheet, The Urban List, The Design Files, and Escape, this is the kind of place that Brisbane locals tell visiting friends about in a lowered voice, as if sharing access to something not quite public. The perfect 5.0 Google rating across 78 reviews suggests the secret is well kept but deeply appreciated.

Each apartment takes its name from the building's former life as a school. The Assembly Hall, the largest, occupies the upper floor with two bedrooms, ornate heritage plasterwork ceilings, stained glass windows, and a back deck with Story Bridge views. The Drawing Room sits in the oldest part of the building where 160-year-old hand-painted wallpaper has been preserved in the kitchen, a detail that captures the careful balance between restoration and reinvention that defines the whole property. On the ground floor, the Locker Room leads through internal stairs to the original cook house (now a kitchen) and out to a private dog-friendly garden. The Refectory offers its own courtyard entry through a garden gate and a hidden archway discovered during construction. The Principal's Office, the only one-bedroom apartment, is the most contemporary: a king bed behind a retractable curtain wall, a 10-metre original stone wall, and folding glass doors opening to a sunken garden. All apartments include a full kitchen, bathroom, and living area.