Currie Street is a main street in the

Adelaide city centre Adelaide city centre (Kaurna: Tarndanya) is the inner city locality of Greater Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. It is known by locals simply as "the City" or "Town" to distinguish it from Greater Adelaide and from the City of Ade ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

.Map
of the

North Adelaide North Adelaide is a predominantly residential precinct and suburb of the City of Adelaide in South Australia, situated north of the River Torrens and within the Adelaide Park Lands. History Surveyor-General Colonel William Light of the colo ...

and the

Adelaide Park Lands The Adelaide Park Lands are the figure-eight of land spanning both banks of the River Torrens between Hackney and Thebarton and separating the City of Adelaide area (which includes both Adelaide city centre and North Adelaide) from the surro ...

. It runs east–to–west from King William Street, through

Light Square Light Square, also known as Wauwi (formerly Wauwe), is one of five public squares in the Adelaide city centre. Located in the centre of the north-western quarter of the Adelaide city centre, its southern boundary is Waymouth Street, Adelaide, Wa ...

, to

West Terrace West Terrace is a populated place in the parish of Saint James, Barbados. The National Cultural Foundation of Barbados is located in West Terrace. See also * List of cities, towns and villages in Barbados This is a list of cities, towns and ...

on the western edge of the city centre.

History

OIC currie street from light square-crop

The street was named after British MP

Raikes Currie Raikes Currie (15 April 1801 – 16 October 1881) was Member of Parliament (MP) for Northampton from 1837 to 1857. He was a partner of the bank Curries & Co, along with his father, Isaac Currie, in Cornhill, City of London, and had several in ...

(1801–1881), a founder of the

South Australian Company The South Australian Company, also referred to as the South Australia Company, was formed in London on 9 October 1835, after the '' South Australia (Foundation) Act 1834'' had established the new British Province of South Australia, with the S ...

and treasurer of the South Australian Church Society. Currie was a beneficiary of slavery through his family bank, Curries & Co. The street was named after Currie by the Street Naming Committee in 1837. English benefactor

William Augustine Leigh William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Eng ...

(1802–1873), who bought many parcels of land in South Australia through his agent Sir

John Morphett Sir John Morphett (4 May 1809 – 7 November 1892) was a South Australian pioneer, landowner and politician. His younger brother George Morphett was also an early settler in South Australia. Early life Morphett was born in London, th ...

, bought two

town acre In urban planning, the grid plan, grid street plan, or gridiron plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at right angles to each other, forming a grid. Two inherent characteristics of the grid plan, frequent intersections and orthogona ...

s between Currie and Hindley Streets; hence the naming of Leigh Street, a now

pedestrianised Pedestrian zones (also known as auto-free zones and car-free zones, as pedestrian precincts in British English, and as pedestrian malls in the United States and Australia) are areas of a city or town reserved for pedestrian-only use and in whi ...

street between the two, and a popular dining area. Thomas Topham Petheridge, of

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

, was a land grantee of Town acre 138 on Currie Street south side, and of Town acre 176 on

Waymouth Street Waymouth Street, often spelt as Weymouth Street in the early days, is an east–west street running between King William Street and West Terrace in the Adelaide city centre in South Australia. The street is named after Henry Waymouth, a foundi ...

north side. Topham Street, now closed, which ran between Currie and Waymouth Streets over the land granted to Petheridge, was named

eponym An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

ously. The street is now the site of Topham Mall. The Currie Street Model School, one of four "model schools" in the city centre, was established in 1893. In July 2012,

bus lane A bus lane or bus-only lane is a lane restricted to buses, often on certain days and times, and generally used to speed up public transport that would be otherwise held up by traffic congestion. The related term busway describes a roadway ...

s were introduced along the full length of Currie Street.

Continuing east and west

Glover Avenue

The street changes its name to Glover Avenue at

as it continues west through the

and Bakewell Underpass. Glover Avenue was opened in 1925 and was named after the previous Lord Mayor of Adelaide,

Charles Richmond Glover Charles Richmond John Glover (1870–1936) was the Mayor of Adelaide from 1917 to 1919. He was in office when the City of Adelaide became a Lord Mayoralty in 1919, and so became Adelaide's first Lord Mayor. He served two further terms as Lord ...

. The Bakewell underpass opened in 2008, and replaced the Bakewell Bridge which opened with Glover Avenue in 1925. The Bakewell Bridge was named after Edward Bakewell, the chairman of the

Municipal Tramways Trust The Municipal Tramways Trust (MTT) was established by the Government of South Australia in December 1906 to purchase all of the horse-drawn tramways in Adelaide, Australia. The Trust subsequently also ran petrol and diesel buses and electric t ...

. The purpose of the Bakewell Bridge was to reduce motor vehicle and tram traffic congestion on limited routes between the western suburbs and the

. Glover Avenue and the Bakewell Bridge replaced a level crossing and Henley Beach Road crossing the parklands on a different alignment. The bridge carried tram and motor traffic over some busy railway lines. The trams were removed in the 1950s. The bridge continued in use until it was in need of replacement. It was demolished in 2006. The bridge was replaced by the Bakewell Underpass which continued under

James Congdon Drive Adelaide has two city ring routes, that loop around the Adelaide city centre and North Adelaide, known as the Inner and Outer Ring Routes. Inner ring route The Inner Ring Route is a collection of major roads signposted as state route R1 (was A2 ...

to provide a grade-separated intersection. It opened for traffic on 13 January 2008.

Henley Beach Road

It then changes name to Henley Beach Road as it continues through the western suburbs to the seaside, terminating at Henley Beach South. Prior to construction of Glover Avenue in 1925, Henley Beach Road did not align to Currie Street. Glover Street veers right (north) from Currie Street. Prior to its construction, Henley Beach Road crossed the railway at a level crossing and continued as Mile End Road straight across the

to align with

Hindley Street Hindley Street is located in the north-west quarter of the centre of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It runs between King William Street and West Terrace. The street was named after Charles Hindley, a British parliamentarian and soc ...

. The tram line followed North Terrace and the first part of Port Road on the bridge over the railway, then swung south to join Henley Beach Road.

Grenfell Street

On the east side of King William Street, it changes name to

Grenfell Street Grenfell Street () is a major street in the north-east quarter of the Adelaide city centre, South Australia. The street runs west-east from King William Street to East Terrace. On the other side of King William Street, it continues as Currie S ...

. A common belief for the name change that happens at King William Street with Grenfell/Currie St is that the namers believed no one should be able to cross the King's path. This applies to all streets that meet King William Street.

Notable buildings

The Queen's Theatre, on Playhouse Lane and connected to Currie Street by Gilles Arcade, is the oldest theatre in mainland Australia. Built in 1840 (the present façade dates from 1850). the building has had a number of uses: *1840-1842 Queen's Theatre & Shakespeare Tavern *1843-1850 Supreme Court & Temple Tavern *1850-1868 Royal Victoria Theatre & Theatre Tavern *1877-1928 Horse and Carriage Bazaar *1928-1988 Car park and light industry The building is now owned by

Arts South Australia Arts South Australia (previously Arts SA) was responsible for managing the South Australian Government's funding for the arts and cultural heritage from about 1996 until late 2018, when it was progressively dismantled, a process complete by early ...

, and after partial restoration in the 1990s, is now used as a performance space and function venue.

References

{{Adelaide CBD Streets Streets in Adelaide