Constructed at the height of Charters Towers' prosperity, it is notable for its elaborate frontage featuring large display windows of curved plate glass.

This area occupied one square mile centred on the intersection of Gill and Mosman Streets and became the commercial and social heart of the city.

As was common with gold fields, the survey clarified and confirmed what already existed with regard to property and this can be seen in the variety of lot sizes within the grid superimposed on the settlement.

His advertisements in the Northern Miner from the Mosman Street address stated that any article of jewellery could be made on the premises to a standard of workmanship equal to be best in London or Edinburgh.

It was brilliantly lit with electric light, had expensive and fashionable fittings and two striking semicircular display windows made of curved plate glass.

Lyall was financially successful and eventually owned a second premises in Gill Street in 1903 and a house called "Towervilla" on Richmond Hill.

Between 1968 and 1970 the society held several public exhibitions of items donated to its collection in order to gain funds to purchase a building that could be used as a community museum.

Much of the work needed to repair Lyall's was carried out by local volunteers and the materials donated, so that the museum was able to open in the building on 1 November 1970.

It has an unusually fine shop front with a recessed entrance between two large display windows of curved plate glass, above ornate timber ventilation grilles.

[1] At the rear of the store, which has a central door between two large plain windows, there is a new toilet block erected by the neighbouring theatre development which has replaced the original back verandah.

Lyall's Jewellery Store contributes to an understanding of the development of north Queensland because its demonstrates, as a fashionable jeweller's shop of high quality, the wealth and importance of Charters Towers in the late nineteenth century.

The shop is intact and by its display space, working area and strongroom has the potential to demonstrate the way in which the business of a small manufacturing jeweller of the period was run.

The shop is intact and by its display space, working area and strongroom has the potential to demonstrate the way in which the business of a small manufacturing jeweller of the period was run.