Following the closure of the female prison, destitute women were unable to find medical attention during childbirth until the formation of the Queensland Lying-In Hospital in 1864.

The Queensland colonial government, under Governor Bowen allocated £500 toward the establishment of the first public lying-in hospital.

At this meeting a Ladies' Committee was appointed in which the management of the institution was vested and comprising the wives of many early prominent Brisbane citizens.

A bill was passed in parliament to allow for the sale of the hospital in Ann Street to allow the Ladies' Committee to procure land elsewhere for reasons that:[1]The situation is not by any means healthy, as the aspect is wrong for both breeze and sun; the situation is noisy; the present institution cannot be thoroughly cleaned without closing; and it is quite impossible to separate married women from single women, which separation is of course most desirable.

In October 1888 the Ladies Committee acquired the Wickham Terrace property, where formerly the house of Reginald Heber Roe, Head Master of Brisbane Grammar School was sited.

[8] Roe moved from his Wickham Terrace residence, known as Winholm, to a boarding house on the Brisbane Grammar site.

[1] Following the acquisition of the land, the Ladies' Committee commissioned Brisbane architect, John Hingestone Buckeridge to design the new two storeyed hospital.

[1] The design Buckeridge provided for the Lady Bowen Hospital was for a two storeyed brick building with substantial basement level and with capacity for fifty patients.

No major additions or alterations were made to the complex until 1923 when the government approved the expenditure of £15,000 for the construction of a Nurses' Quarters to the west of the original building.

With growing concern over the high incidence of infant mortality, legislation was passed in the form of the Maternity Act 1922 to provide support and care for children and mothers.

This heralded an era of short term leasees and alterations to the buildings of the former Lady Bowen Hospital which continues to the present day.

The many tenants who have occupied the buildings since 1938 include the Bridge Board, the Social Service League, Essential and Emergency Services of the Civil Defence Organisation, the Australian Army Canteen Services, the Stanley River Works Board, the Returned Sailors, Soldiers and Airmen's Imperial League of Australia, the Queensland State Archives, Agricultural Project (later the Agricultural and Environmental Education Branch and later, the Brisbane Urban Environmental Education Centre), the Australian Music Examination Board, Apprenticeship Board of Queensland, Department of Health (Chest Clinic for the Division of Health and Medical Physics) and the Queensland Writers Centre.

The obvious impact of this tenancy was the construction of the two storeyed timber framed and fibrous-sheeting clad building on the corner of Wickham Terrace and Robert Street.

During this occupation the Royal Australian Engineers Unit were responsible for the conversion of the hospital into a hostel with dining and other recreational facilities.

[1] The Lady Bowen Hospital complex comprises three buildings, situated on the northern side of Wickham Terrace, overlooking Albert Park.

[1] The hospital is a load-bearing structure of rendered brick, with enclosed verandahs of fibrous cement sheeting and glass louvres changing the nature of the facades which assume a less articulated appearance.

[1] The front wing is constructed to the line of the Wickham Terrace footpath and has a hipped roof clad with corrugated iron.

The lower part of the elevation, originally face brick and now painted is capped with a ceramic tiled string course.

The facade of the building is symmetrically composed around a central round arched opening giving access to a recessed porch.

Flanking the archway on the ground floor are two vertical hung sash windows with timber framed and mullioned glass panels.

These openings are fitted with vertical hung sash windows and sit on the line of the first floor string course, and have no decorative mouldings.

The rear of the building has a discrete hipped roof, also clad with corrugated iron sheeting, the verandahs to the east and west are infilled.

[1] General the interior comprises concrete slab floor, rendered brick walls and partitions and fibrous sheeted ceilings housed in a decorative timber grid like system.

[1] The principal entrance to this building on the western end of the southern facade and is through a single half glazed door.

This entrance is emphasised externally by a panel of glazing which extends upward over the two storeys of the building and also serves to light the internal stairwell which is positioned here.

To the north, rear of the building is a brick service wing which houses bathroom and kitchen facilities internally.

The place demonstrates the evolution of health care, particularly obstetrics in Queensland, beginning as a nineteenth century charitable institution and became a core government funded service.

The place is a large complex of sympathetically designed buildings, which despite more recent renovations, are of architectural merit, for their composition and detailing.

[1] The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history.