Rundle Mall is a
pedestrian street mall located in
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
,
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 ...
. It was opened as a pedestrian mall in September 1976 by closing the section of
Rundle Street
Rundle Street, often referred to as "Rundle Street East" as distinct from Rundle Mall, is a street in the East End of the city centre of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It runs from Pulteney Street to East Terrace, where it becomes ...
between
King William Street and
Pulteney Street
Pulteney Street is a main road which runs north-south through the middle of the eastern half of the Adelaide city centre, in Adelaide, South Australia. It runs north-south from North Terrace, through Hindmarsh and Hurtle Squares, to South ...
, to vehicular traffic. The street continues as
Rundle Street
Rundle Street, often referred to as "Rundle Street East" as distinct from Rundle Mall, is a street in the East End of the city centre of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It runs from Pulteney Street to East Terrace, where it becomes ...
(as before) to the east and
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 ...
to the west.
The pedestrian mall has become the centrepiece of
Adelaide's city centre, home to some of the most expensive real estate in the state. It competes with the large
shopping complexes in the suburbs, (e.g.
Westfield Marion
Westfield Marion (colloquially known as simply "Marion") is the largest mall in Adelaide, South Australia, located in Oaklands Park, serving greater Southern Adelaide. It contains approximately 342 stores, with anchor tenants including David ...
,
Armada Arndale Shopping Centre
Armada Arndale is a shopping centre located in the suburb of Kilkenny in South Australia and is managed by Armada Funds Management. It used to be managed by Vicinity Centres (formerly Federation Centres) and Westfield. The facility is located ...
,
Westfield Tea Tree Plaza
Westfield Tea Tree Plaza is a large shopping centre located in Modbury serving as a shopping hub for Adelaide's growing north eastern suburbs, it’s linked to the city by Adelaide's unique O-Bahn Busway, which terminates at the Tea Tree Plaza I ...
, etc.) In 2009, retail space directly on the mall leased for up to $3,700 per square metre per year.
The mall is home to the South Australian flagship stores of many large Australian retailers and many smaller independent and
chain store
A chain store or retail chain is a retail outlet in which several locations share a brand, central management and standardized business practices. They have come to dominate the retail and dining markets and many service categories, in many pa ...
s. The mall also features a number of arcades and plazas containing smaller boutiques and eateries. These include the
Italianate
The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...
-style Adelaide Arcade (also being the first retail establishment in Australia with electric lighting, and allegedly home to six
ghost
A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...
s), Regent Arcade,
Gay's Arcade, City Cross, Southern Cross, Adelaide Central Plaza, Myer Centre, Renaissance Arcade, and Rundle Place.
There are usually several
buskers
Street performance or busking is the act of performing in public places for gratuities. In many countries, the rewards are generally in the form of money but other gratuities such as food, drink or gifts may be given. Street performance is pr ...
performing in the mall, licensed by the
Adelaide City Council
The City of Adelaide, also known as the Corporation of the City of Adelaide and Adelaide City Council is a local government area in the metropolitan area of greater Adelaide, South Australia and is legally defined as the capital city of Sout ...
. The mall's stores are generally open seven days a week.
History
![Rundle Street, Adelaide, South Australia 1938](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Rundle_Street%2C_Adelaide%2C_South_Australia_1938.jpg)
Rundle Street
Rundle Street
Rundle Street, often referred to as "Rundle Street East" as distinct from Rundle Mall, is a street in the East End of the city centre of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It runs from Pulteney Street to East Terrace, where it becomes ...
, from which the mall takes its name, is named after
John Rundle
John Rundle (1791 – January 1864) was a British Whig politician and businessman.
From 1835 to 1843, he was a Member of Parliament, representing Tavistock in the House of Commons. He was one of the original directors and financiers of the So ...
, a member of the
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England.
The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 mem ...
and an original director of the
South Australia 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 Sou ...
. The street was named on 23 May 1837 by the
Street Naming Committee. In 1895, the first electric street lighting was installed at the intersection of Rundle Street (as it was then), King William Street and
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 ...
. It also had a
tram
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
line run through it when it was still part of Rundle Street.
Regent Theatre
The Regent Theatre, after which the Regent Arcade took its name, opened on 29 June 1928. It was one of the most ornate cinemas and glamorous
picture theatre
A movie theater (American English), cinema (British English), or cinema hall (Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater, the silver screen, the big screen, or simply theater is a ...
s of its time,
and, along with the
Wondergraph
Wondergraph, Wondergraph Theatre and variations were names given first to a technology, and then to picture theatres run first by the Continental Wondergraph Company (represented by two German men who arrived in Perth, Western Australia, in 1910 ...
in
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 ...
, was the first in Adelaide to feature
talkies
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...
.
After several conversions and changes of hands, including the creation of the Regent Arcade, it finally closed on 2004, after becoming part of a shopping centre.
[ In April 2022 the upper level of the cinema opened as a ]Dymocks
Dymocks Booksellers is an Australian-founded privately owned bookstore chain, that also specialise in CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray discs, e-books and related merchandising. It currently has 65 stores locally
and has had several stores in New Zealand and ...
bookstore.
Pedestrianisation
In November 1972, the then South Australian Premier, Don Dunstan
Donald Allan Dunstan (21 September 1926 – 6 February 1999) was an Australian politician who served as the 35th premier of South Australia from 1967 to 1968, and again from 1970 to 1979. He was a member of the House of Assembly (MHA) for th ...
, issued the closure of the western part of Rundle Street to create Rundle Mall, due to extreme congestion caused by traffic and the increasing number of pedestrians. It opened on 1 September 1976. Other than police and other government vehicles, drivers need permission to drive on the pedestrian strip. The mall is a dry zone as well as a smoke-free zone.
Notable sites
The Rundle Mall Fountain is one of a pair which formerly stood at the entrance to the Jubilee Exhibition Building
The Jubilee Exhibition Building in Adelaide, South Australia, was built to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession to the throne on 20 June 1837. The jubilees of her Coronation on 28 June 1838, and of the Proclamation of Sout ...
on North Terrace between 1887 and 1962 (the other is now located in the Creswell Gardens). When Rundle Mall was being established, the cast-iron fountain. painted in Victorian colours, was relocated to the centre of the intersection of the mall and Gawler Place; it was later moved to the entrance to Adelaide Arcade. The fountain bears a foundry plate showing it was manufactured in England by Andrew Handyside and Company
Andrew Handyside and Company was an iron founder in Derby, England, in the nineteenth century.
Biography
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1805, Handyside worked in his uncle Charles Baird's engineering business in St. Petersburg before takin ...
.
There are several items of modern sculpture
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
in the mall. The best-known is the tall ''The Spheres'' by Bert Flugelman
Herbert Flugelman (28 January 1923 – 26 February 2013), usually known as Bert, was a prominent Australian visual artist, primarily a sculptor, who had many of his works publicly displayed. He is known for his stainless steel geometric public s ...
; two large stainless steel spheres with a diameter of balanced one on top of the other (commonly referred to as the "Mall's Balls" or "Rundle Mall balls"), and is a common meeting place for visitors to the mall. Erected in 1977, they were commissioned by the then Hindmarsh Building Society (subsequently absorbed into the Adelaide Bank
The Adelaide Bank was a publicly listed bank with its head office in Adelaide, South Australia. It was established on 1 January 1994 from the Co-operative Building Society of South Australia Limited, which was Australia's largest building socie ...
) and donated to the City of Adelaide
The City of Adelaide, also known as the Corporation of the City of Adelaide and Adelaide City Council is a local government area in the metropolitan area of greater Adelaide, South Australia and is legally defined as the capital city of South ...
to mark the building society's 1977 centenary.
Other sculpture includes a group of life-size bronze pigs − Horatio, Truffles, Augusta and Oliver - rooting around a rubbish bin. South African-born artist Marguerite Derricourt created the bronze sculptures in a national competition instigated by the City of Adelaide.
Of note is the historic Beehive Corner
The Beehive Corner is a landmark in the Adelaide city centre, on the north-eastern corner of King William Street and Rundle Street, centrally placed between the railway station and the city's shopping precinct.
History
The name gained curren ...
, completed in 1896. It lies at the western end of the Mall, on the corner of King William Street, and was originally owned by John Rundle. Beehive Corner is built in the Neo-gothic
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
style, which is generally reserved for church
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship
* Chris ...
es.
Not to be left in the dark, Rundle Mall also boasts the ELITEM Rundle Mall Super Screen—a 35SQM P12 LED display which broadcasts city and state notices as well as other local business messages. Another noteworthy large lighting display is the Rundle Lantern which marks the eastern end of Rundle Mall and the beginning of Rundle Street
Rundle Street, often referred to as "Rundle Street East" as distinct from Rundle Mall, is a street in the East End of the city centre of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It runs from Pulteney Street to East Terrace, where it becomes ...
.
Towards the end of 2014, there was work being undertaken to demolish the café which was located near the junction with King William Street and build an open area replete with benches. The Adelaide City Council info centre was also relocated to the other end of the strip. More work was completed toward the end of 2014.
In 2013, there was giant cockroach statue added to the mall. This statue was salvaged from a junk yard and cleaned up, before being placed in the mall. Police reported two men for dragging the statue six metres along the mall.
In December 2020, there was a giant 2 metre tall steel pigeon statue placed at the Gawler Place entrance of the mall. The sculpture was commissioned by Adelaide City Council and was completed by South Australian artist Paul Sloan.
Development
In 1995−96, the mall received its first major upgrade. The upgrade saw most of the mall's fixtures replaced and the erection of permanent market stalls down the centre of the mall. The market stalls were later demolished as part of a 2013 redevelopment.
There were also some escalators in the middle of the Rundle mall in the 1990s, but this was taken down later.
In 2013, the Adelaide City Council commenced a $27 million upgrade of the mall that was completed in four stages over a 16-month period. New paving, benches, trees, bins, a multi-purpose structure and ground services were installed. The Rundle Mall master plan also included a catenary lighting system to be supported by four 20m poles at either end of the mall and brackets on a number of building facades.
In June 2015, it was announced that an additional cost of $3 million was required to complete the lighting system and to undertake further storm water works in the mall.
The catenary lighting system for the mall was completed in November 2015 after being delayed by several months.
Buildings and tenants
The majority of buildings on the Mall contain a small number of retail tenancies. There are also many larger arcades and shopping centres that lead off the Mall or blocks around it. No single company or organisation owns a significant proportion of the Mall's real estate.
A number of public laneways lead off the mall, such as Gawler Place
Gawler Place is a single-lane road in the city centre of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It runs north to south from North Terrace to Wakefield Street, parallel to and approximately midway between King William and Pulteney Streets. ...
, James Place, Charles Street, Twin Street, and No Fixed Address Lane. These are home to more retail tenants.
There are a number of arcades and plazas off the mall and its laneways, including:
*Adelaide Arcade
Adelaide Arcade is a heritage shopping arcade in the Adelaide city centre, centre of Adelaide, South Australia. It is linked to, and closely associated with, Gay's Arcade.
History
The property on which the Arcade was built was the scene of two d ...
, with Gay's Arcade leading off it
* Adelaide Central Plaza
*Charles Street Plaza
* Citi Centre Arcade
* City Cross Arcade
*Da Costa Arcade (off James Place)
* The Myer Centre
* Parc Arcade
*Regent Arcade
*Renaissance Arcade
*Rundle Mall Plaza
*Rundle Place
*Rundle Square
*Twin Plaza Arcade (off Twin Street)
Anchor tenants
Department stores:
* David Jones
*Kmart
Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States.
The company was inc ...
*Myer
Myer (stylised MYER, sometimes known as Myers) is an Australia, Australian mid-range to upscale department store chain. It trades in all Australian states and one of Australia's two self-governing territories. Myer retails a broad range of ...
*Target
Target may refer to:
Physical items
* Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports
** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports
** Aiming point, in field artillery, fi ...
(Pulteney Street)
Other large tenants:
*Apple Store
The Apple Store is a chain of Retail, retail stores owned and operated by Apple Inc. The stores sell various Apple products, including Macintosh, Mac personal computers, iPhone smartphones, iPad tablet computers, Apple Watch smartwatches, Apple ...
*Coles Supermarkets
Coles Supermarkets Australia Pty Ltd, trading as Coles, is an Australian supermarket, retail and consumer services chain, headquartered in Melbourne as part of the Coles Group.
Founded in 1914 in Collingwood by George Coles, Coles operates ...
* Dymocks Bookstore
*Harvey Norman
Harvey Norman is a large Australian-based, multi-national retailer of furniture, bedding, computers, communications and consumer electrical products. It mainly operates as a franchise, with the main brand and all company-operated stores owned ...
* H&M
*JB Hi-Fi
JB Hi-Fi Limited is an Australian consumer electronics and home appliances retail company. It is publicly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. Its headquarters are located in Southbank, Melbourne, Victoria.
The company has 316 stores ...
*Lincraft
Lincraft is a retail chain in Australia that specialises in the sale of homewares, including crafts, material, and patterns. As of October 2022, it has 48 locations around Australia and New Zealand.
Lincraft (formerly Suzanne Silks) was nurtured ...
*Rebel Sport
Rebel (formerly Rebel Sport) is an Australian sport equipment and related apparel chain.
History
Rebel Sport was established in 1985 with its first store in Bankstown. After being listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 1993, it was p ...
* Uniqlo
*Woolworths Supermarkets
Woolworths Supermarkets (colloquially known in Australia as "Woolies") is an Australian chain of supermarkets and grocery stores owned by Woolworths Group. Founded in 1924, Woolworths today is Australia's biggest supermarket chain with a mar ...
Former major tenants:
*Amart Sports
Amart Sports (formerly Amart All Sports) was an Australian sports equipment and related apparel chain and was part of the Super Retail Group.
History
Amart All Sports was founded in 1976 with the first store located in Underwood, Queensland. Si ...
*Best & Less
Best & Less is an Australian retailer of clothing and household linens. As of 2020, Best&Less has 246 stores as well as an online platform.
History
Best & Less was founded by Berel Ginges in January 1965, by occupying part of the ground floor of ...
*Borders
A border is a geographical boundary.
Border, borders, The Border or The Borders may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Film and television
* ''Border'' (1997 film), an Indian Hindi-language war film
* ''Border'' (2018 Swedish film), ...
* Cox-Foys
*Harris Scarfe
Harris Scarfe is an Australian retailer that sells bed linen, kitchenware, homewares, electrical appliances and apparel. It has a e-commerce retail presence in Australia and is considered a multi-channel lifestyle and homewares store.
Founded in ...
*Hoyts Cinemas
The Hoyts Group of companies in Australia and New Zealand includes Hoyts Cinemas and Val Morgan. Hoyts operates more than 450 cinema screens and 55,000 seats, making it Australia's second largest movie exhibitor after Event Hospita ...
*John Martin's
John Martin & Co. Ltd, colloquially known as John Martin's or simply Johnnies, was an Adelaide-based company which ran a popular chain of department stores in South Australia. It operated for more than 130 years, from 1866 until its closure in ...
*Radio Rentals
Radio Rentals was formed in 1930Radio Rentals Staff Handbook in Brighton, Sussex, UK to rent out radio sets by Percy Perring-Thoms with a turnover in the first year of £780 (). It later offered televisions and ultimately video recorders for re ...
*Sanity
Sanity (from la, sāntā) refers to the soundness, rationality, and health of the human mind, as opposed to insanity. A person is sane if they are rational. In modern society, the term has become exclusively synonymous with ''compos mentis'' ( ...
*Toys "R" Us
Toys "R" Us is an American toy, clothing, and baby product retailer owned by Tru Kids (doing business as Tru Kids Brands) and various others. The company was founded in 1957; its first store was built in April 1948, with its headquarters loc ...
*Virgin Megastores
Virgin Megastores is an international entertainment retailing chain, founded in early 1976 by Richard Branson as a record shop on London's Oxford Street.
In 1979 the company opened their first Megastore at the end of Oxford Street and Tottenha ...
Gallery
File:Shopping Center SA.JPG, Interior of The Adelaide Arcade
File:Pop up florist, Rundle Mall.jpg, Pop up florist in the mall
File:Pop up drink stall, Rundle Mall.jpg, Pop up drink stall outside of Rundle Place
File:Rundle Mall Myer Centre view down.jpg, The atrium of the Myer Centre from the third floor
File:Pig bronze and bin - rundle mall.jpg, One of the famous bronze pigs
File:Adelaide's Apple Store.jpg, Apple Store, Rundle Mall, Adelaide
File:Closure for redevelopment, Rundle Mall.jpg, Rundle Mall in the evening, partially closed for redevelopment (May 2013)
File:Fruit vendors, Rundle Mall.jpg, Fruit stalls in the mall
File:Rundle Mall, Oct 2008.jpg, Crowds in the mall during a march, near the Target
Target may refer to:
Physical items
* Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports
** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports
** Aiming point, in field artillery, fi ...
store
References
External links
Rundle Mall
Adelaide City Council
{{Coord, display=title, -34.92290278, 138.601875, type:landmark_region:AU
1976 establishments in Australia
Busking venues
Culture of South Australia
Pedestrian malls in Australia
Shopping districts and streets in Australia
Shopping malls established in 1976
Streets in Adelaide
Tourist attractions in Adelaide