Brisbane’s Great Wall goes back in time to find its future

The building is next to the Family nightclub off Brunswick Street.

The old drapery business on McLachlan Street became Alexander Stewart and Son, and then was known as the Stewarts Factory.

Over time it was transformed into the Great Wall Shopping Centre, as Chinese property owners became dominant in the Valley.

In its heyday, the Stewarts Factory was home to several hundred seamstresses making clothes for the fast-growing port city.

Northshore Group, which has acquired the building, recently restored the Valley’s Carrington Chambers and turned a rundown ground floor space on Wickham Street into contemporary office…