Pulteney Street is a main road which runs north-south through the middle of the eastern half of 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 Ad ...
, 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 runs north-south from
North Terrace, through
Hindmarsh and
Hurtle Square
Hurtle Square, also known as Tangkaira, is one of five public squares in the Adelaide city centre, South Australia. Located in the centre of the south-eastern quarter of the city, it surrounds the intersection of Halifax and Pulteney Streets. ...
s, to
South Terrace South Terrace may refer to:
*South Terrace, Adelaide, Australia
*South Terrace, Fremantle, Australia
{{Road disambiguation ...
, where it becomes
Unley Road
Unley Road is a road in the City of Unley, located south of the City of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It runs from South Terrace to Cross Road, where it becomes Belair Road. The road was named after the family name of the wife ...
. It is the only one of the city centre's major north-south thoroughfares that does not continue northwards over North Terrace.
History
Pulteney Street was named after Admiral Sir
Pulteney Malcolm
Admiral Sir Pulteney Malcolm (20 February 1768 – 20 July 1838) was a British naval officer. He was born at Douglan, near Langholm, Scotland, on 20 February 1768, the third son of George Malcolm of Burnfoot, Langholm, in Dumfriesshire, a sheep ...
on 23 May 1837, at the behest of
Governor Hindmarsh
Rear-Admiral Sir John Hindmarsh KH (baptised 22 May 1785 – 29 July 1860) was a naval officer and the first Governor of South Australia, from 28 December 1836 to 16 July 1838.
Family
His grandfather William Hindmarsh was a gardener in Con ...
.
On the south-east corner of Pulteney and Rundle streets was the elegant York Hotel, built by entrepreneur and publican
C. A. Hornabrook
Charles Atkins Hornabrook (1833 – 26 August 1903) was a businessman in the colony of South Australia who made a fortune from property development in the city of Adelaide and investments in Broken Hill Proprietary and other mining prospects. He ...
in 1849. This was replaced in 1911 by the palatial Grand Central Hotel, owned by Foy & Gibson. By 1924 the hotel had gone
bankrupt
Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...
, and was converted into Foy & Gibson's department store. After Foy & Gibson moved into Rundle Street as Cox Foys in the mid-1950s, the building was used as government offices, and eventually demolished to make way for a multi-storey car park in 1975–76.
The southern portion of Pulteney Street, between
Wakefield Street
Wakefield Street is a main thoroughfare intersecting the centre of the South Australian capital, Adelaide, from east to west at its midpoint. It crosses Victoria Square in the centre of the city, which has a grid street plan. It continues as ...
and South Terrace, was originally named Hanson Street, after
Richard Hanson (later Sir Richard), a London solicitor and journalist, and founding member of the
South Australian Literary Society
The South Australian Literary and Scientific Association, formerly the South Australian Literary Association and also known as the South Australian Literary Society, was active in London before the British colonisation of South Australia after i ...
in August 1834. In 1846, nearly a decade after the naming, Hanson moved to South Australia, where he served as
Premier (1857-1860),
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (from 1861) and as acting
Governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
(1872-1873). Hanson Street was subsumed into the expanded Pulteney Street in August 1967. The Hanson Street Memorial in
Hurtle Square
Hurtle Square, also known as Tangkaira, is one of five public squares in the Adelaide city centre, South Australia. Located in the centre of the south-eastern quarter of the city, it surrounds the intersection of Halifax and Pulteney Streets. ...
maintains the commemoration of Sir Richard.
Pulteney Street is the only one of the city centre's major north-south thoroughfares that does not continue north from North Terrace. This is due to Sir
John Langdon Bonython
Sir John Langdon Bonython (;Charles Earle Funk, ''What's the Name, Please?'' (Funk & Wagnalls, 1936). 15 October 184822 October 1939) was an Australian editor, newspaper proprietor, philanthropist, journalist and politician who served a ...
donating over £50,000 to the
University of Adelaide
The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...
for it to build its Great Hall, (named
Bonython Hall
Bonython Hall is the " great hall" of the University of Adelaide, located in the university grounds and facing North Terrace, Adelaide. The building is on the now-defunct Register of the National Estate and the South Australian Heritage Register ...
). One of the conditions of Bonython's bequest was that the hall be built on North Terrace opposite Pulteney Street, thus ensuring that the thoroughfare could not continue north through the
parklands and divide the already small campus.
Location
Pulteney Street runs north-south through the middle of the eastern half of the Adelaide city centre, from North Terrace, through
Hindmarsh and
Hurtle Square
Hurtle Square, also known as Tangkaira, is one of five public squares in the Adelaide city centre, South Australia. Located in the centre of the south-eastern quarter of the city, it surrounds the intersection of Halifax and Pulteney Streets. ...
s, to South Terrace, where it becomes
Unley Road
Unley Road is a road in the City of Unley, located south of the City of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It runs from South Terrace to Cross Road, where it becomes Belair Road. The road was named after the family name of the wife ...
, and subsequently, (at
Cross Road), becomes
Belair Road.
[
]
Significant buildings
"The Mansions"
Ruthven Mansions, at 15−17 Pulteney Street (and occupying 1−7 Austin Street), is a large residential building, with commercial premises on the ground floor. It was built in two stages, in 1911–12 and 1915, for London investor Ruthven Frederic Ruthven-Smith, with the first stage designed by local architects Black and Fuller and built by A. R. Maddern and Son. Built as luxury apartments, it included automated vacuum cleaning, automated doors, mechanical ventilation
Mechanical ventilation, assisted ventilation or intermittent mandatory ventilation (IMV), is the medical term for using a machine called a ventilator to fully or partially provide artificial ventilation. Mechanical ventilation helps move a ...
, electric light and an electric lift. Stage one comprised 12 apartments, with an additional five storeys, comprising 28 apartments, added by builders W. C. Torode in 1915. The building is considered a good example of residential Gothic Revivalist and Art Nouveau architecture
Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...
. Prominent inhabitants included members of the Kyffin Thomas family, proprietors of the '' South Australian Register'', and W. A. Webb, Commissioner of the South Australian Railways
South Australian Railways (SAR) was the statutory corporation through which the Government of South Australia built and operated railways in South Australia from 1854 until March 1978, when its non-urban railways were incorporated into Aust ...
from 1922 to 1930.
The building was sold to the South Australian Government
The Government of South Australia, also referred to as the South Australian Government, SA Government or more formally, His Majesty’s Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of South Australia. It is modelled o ...
in 1954 and became neglected. By 1976, the building's balconettes had been removed, the interior was deemed unsafe, and the former occupants of the ground floor, the Chest Clinic, had moved out. One long-term and much-loved occupant through the middle of the 20th century was Adelaide bookseller Harry Muir's Beck Book Company (also known as Beck's Bookshop), which later became Wakefield Press.
After some time, the building was extensively renovated, including partial rebuilding of the exterior.[ The building was heritage-listed by the ]South Australian Heritage Register
The South Australian Heritage Register, also known as the SA Heritage Register, is a statutory register of historic places in South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. ...
on 11 September 1986, recognised as an historically and architecturally important building.[ the building, known as "Mansions on Pulteney", is owned by La Loft, which lets the residences (all studio or one-bedroom size) as ]serviced apartment
Short-term rental describes furnished self-contained apartments that are rented for short periods of time, usually by the month as opposed to annual rentals in the unfurnished apartment rental market. They are seen as an alternative to hotels. "Sh ...
s. The Mansions Tavern is in the Mansions Arcade, which has its entrance on Pulteney Street and runs through the middle of the building.[
]
References
See also
*Pulteney Grammar School
Pulteney Grammar School is an independent, Anglican, co-educational, private day school. Founded in 1847 by members of the Anglican Church, it is the second oldest independent school in South Australia. Its campuses are located on South Terrace ...
{{Adelaide CBD Streets
Streets in Adelaide