[1] Initially, the Brisbane General Hospital was managed by a voluntary committee and funded by public subscriptions and government subsidies.

The site, known as "The Quarries", was bounded by Bowen Bridge Road to the east, O'Connell Terrace to the north and the open space of Victoria Park to the west and south.

The General Hospital was an impressive two-storeyed, masonry building with a central tower designed by the Queensland Colonial Architect Charles Tiffin[1] and constructed by John Petrie.

Considerable construction work was undertaken during 1909–20 including open air pavilions, new operating theatre, outpatients building, mental ward and extensions to the Lady Lamington Nurses Home.

[3] Constructed in 1911 the complex included four open air pavilions with a small central brick building for ablutions and a two-storey timber administration block.

The following buildings constructed during this period remain on the site:[1] The Hospital expanded throughout the 19th century in response to increased demands for health care from a growing population.

Modelled on the pavilion plan, this building contained a single open ward surrounded by verandahs providing accommodation for twenty-five patients.

Responding to the constant problem of overcrowding in the Children's Hospital, a two-storeyed brick building, designed by John James Clark and Charles McLay, was constructed in 1895 to the pavilion plan and named the Lady Norman Wing in honour of the wife of Queensland Governor Sir Henry Norman who opened the building.

The building was named in honour of Edith Cavell, a British nurse executed for helping refugees escape in Brussels during World War I.

A swimming pool with associated landscaping was constructed to the north of the building in 1958 and the area remains one of the few extensive open spaces on the site.

Following increased demand to accommodate acute alcoholics and prisoners requiring medical treatment locked cells were erected to the rear in 1948.

[1] Located to the east of the Lady Lamington Nurses' Home, the Residence for the Medical Superintendent designed by Atkinson and Conrad in an Old English style was completed in 1941.

In office from 1935 to 1967, Pye was the longest serving Superintendent of the Hospital, presiding over a period of extraordinary development and dramatic change.

[1] By the end of the 1930s the site had become the largest hospital complex in Australia and has continued to expand to the late 1990s except for disruptions during 1940-45 caused by World War II.

The continuing role in medical education was reflected in the construction of the Edwin Tooth Lecture Theatre (1957) and the Clinical Sciences building (1966).

[1] The grounds contain strong evidence of the layering and close conjunction of garden areas or elements from different periods of hospital development.

The pathway connecting the Lady Lamington Nurses' Home to the main Hospital complex is an integral element of the site.

Recently refurbished to accommodate administration facilities for the Children's Hospital, the building retains the principal spaces and planning.

The building is a memorial to Sister Edith Cavell (1865-1915), a British nurse executed by a German firing squad in 1915 for assisting in the escape of allied prisoners in Brussels.

The portico entrance contains a marble and sandstone memorial commemorating the laying of the foundation stone by the Governor, Sir Matthew Nathan.

[1] Dramatically posed on the west ridge at the summit of the steeply sloping Hospital site, the Edith Cavell Block affords sweeping views across to the north of Brisbane.

The striking north elevation consists of a polychrome arched loggia to the ground level opening from the building to the garden and swimming pool area.

[1] The grounds contain strong evidence of the layering and close conjunction of garden areas or elements from different periods of hospital development.

The pathway connecting the Lady Lamington Nurses' Home to the main Hospital complex is an integral element of the site.

[1] The grounds associated with the Edith Cavell Block are one of the few open spaces remaining on the site and provide the building with a pleasant garden setting and opportunities for sweeping views across the north of Brisbane.

The place demonstrates changes in government involvement in the financing and control of health services in Queensland from the mid-nineteenth century.

The drama of the view up hill towards Lady Lamington Nurses' Home contrasts with the repose of the garden setting for the Superintendent's Residence and Ward 15 nestled in the gully below.

The Edith Cavell Block and associated grounds occupy the upper west ridge of the site and command sweeping views across the north of Brisbane.

[1] Discrete in scale and materials it (the Superindendent's Residence) belongs to a cohesive group of residential buildings within a garden setting in the centre of the Hospital site.

[1] These designated roads, pathways, walls and gardens are important in demonstrating early planning and subsequent development of the Hospital site and contribute to the aesthetic qualities of the settings of the structures, buildings and groups of buildings on the site: the roadway from Bramston Terrace between Lady Norman Wing and the Edith Cavell Block; the pathway from the Lady Lamington Nurses' Home to the main Hospital complex; the porphyry wall to Bowen Bridge Road; the grounds associated with the Edith Cavell Block; the grounds associated with the Lady Lamington Nurses' Home, Superintendent's Residence and Ward 15.