Wakefield Street is a main thoroughfare intersecting the centre of the

South Australian 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 ...

capital,

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...

, from east to west at its midpoint. It crosses Victoria Square in the centre of the city, which has a

grid street plan 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 ...

. It continues as Wakefield Road on its eastern side, through the eastern

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 surr ...

History

The street was named after Daniel Bell Wakefield, the solicitor who drafted the Act which proclaimed Adelaide. Like his brother

Edward Gibbon Wakefield Edward Gibbon Wakefield (20 March 179616 May 1862) is considered a key figure in the establishment of the colonies of South Australia and New Zealand (where he later served as a member of parliament). He also had significant interests in Britis ...

, he was also involved in the South Australia Association in London, but never visited Adelaide. In 1911 the Willard Hall and Willard Guest House were opened by the

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 ...

n branch of the WCTU, named after

Frances Willard Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard (September 28, 1839 – February 17, 1898) was an American educator, temperance reformer, and women's suffragist. Willard became the national president of Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1879 ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

national president of

Woman's Christian Temperance Union The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is an international Temperance movement, temperance organization, originating among women in the United States Prohibition movement. It was among the first organizations of women devoted to social ref ...

(WCTU). The building, previously St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, was situated on the south side of the road, west of the east side of Gawler Place. In 1928 an old bell was found in the tower, which was probably the first bell cast in Adelaide and made for the church. A 1939 photograph shows the new

art deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

additions to the building, and the premises of Frank J. Siebert, Funeral Director, on the left. Wakefield Street Star

The Central Picture Theatre, designed by R. R. G. (Rowland) Assheton (who also designed the

Grand Picture Theatre Rundle Mall is a pedestrian street mall located in Adelaide, South Australia. It was opened as a pedestrian mall in September 1976 by closing the section of Rundle Street between King William Street and Pulteney Street, to vehicular traff ...

in Rundle Street, among others) opened at no. 70 in 1912, featuring

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) ...

s until its first

talkie A sound film is a motion picture with synchronization, 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 decad ...

screened in 1930. On Saturday 14 May 1938, after a change of ownership and complete refurbishment, the cinema was opened as the Star, as part of the

Clifford Theatres Circuit Dan Clifford (1887 – 9 December 1942) was a well-known cinema entrepreneur and philanthropist in South Australia. He was also a keen promoter of the cinema industry, and owned 20 cinemas across the state at the time of his death, including ...

(and variously referred to as the New Star Theatre, Wakefield Street; Wakefield Street New Star; and the Wakefield Street Star Theatre.). One reviewer described it as "the most modern theatre in S.A.". Architect Chris Smith had designed the new interior, and furnishings were supplied by John Martin & Co. The refit was in Art Deco style. The Star closed around 1959 or 1960 and reopened in 1962/63 as a Greek theatre, the Pantheon. It was demolished (date unknown) and is now the site of a carpark next to an office block tenanted by SAPOL. The building was constructed around 1980, with its address no. 60. Wakefield Hotel B-3276

The cinema was situated adjacent to the

Wakefield Hotel 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 ...

on its western side. The hotel had existed on this site, on the corner of Divett Place, since 1864, and the stone building stands at no. 76. In 1927 its licensees were M.G. Henderson and V. Kenny. It is a stone building with cream brick decoration. The first training hospital for nurses in the colony and then state, Private Hospital, Wakefield Street, occupied various sites between Daly and

Hutt Street Hutt Street is the easternmost of the five major north–south roads running through the City of Adelaide. It runs from Pirie Street to South Terrace, from where it continues south as Hutt Road. Flanked by leafy side streets with many late 19 ...

from 1883–4 until January 2020, when the new

Calvary Adelaide Hospital Calvary Adelaide Hospital is a private hospital on Angas Street in the central business district of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, that opened in 2020, taking over and expanding the services of Calvary Wakefield Hospital and Calvar ...

opened on Angas Street. The Unitarian Christian Church which once stood opposite Francis Xavier's Cathedral was sold to the Public Service Association in 1971. It was replaced with a government building known as the "Wakefield House", a 20-storey building in

brutalist Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the ...

style completed in 1980.

Location and description

It runs in from east to west between East Terrace and Victoria Square, and is one of the three streets (along with Grote Street and King William Street) to run through Victoria Square in the middle of the

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

. The same three streets are also the widest streets in the city centre, at wide (refer to Adelaide city centre#Layout). The western end of Wakefield Street is continued across Victoria Square as Grote Street, which extends 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 ...

. The eastern end of Wakefield Street continues as Wakefield Road across the

to Britannia Roundabout on the City Ring Route, Adelaide. Wakefield Road continues on the eastern side of the roundabout as

Kensington Road Kensington Road is a section of road in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the City of Westminster, London, forming part of the A315 road. It runs along the south edge of Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. To the west it becomes ...

Notable buildings

Buildings on Wakefield Street include (more or less west to east): *

St Francis Xavier's Cathedral, Adelaide St Francis Xavier's Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Adelaide, South Australia. It is classified as being a Gothic Revival building in the Early English style. The tower stands 36 m high and is 56.5 m lengthwise and 29.5 ...

* Adelaide Holocaust Museum and Andrew Steiner Education Centre in the

heritage-listed This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and man-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In many i ...

Fennescey House * St Aloysius College, Adelaide * SA Police city branch * Wakefield Hotel (no. 76) *The

South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service The South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service (SAMFS) is the fire service for metropolitan and urban South Australia, as well as large townships. The Metropolitan Fire Service is constituted under the ''Fire and Emergency Services Act''. The M ...

* Our Boys' Institute building, now a boutique hotel *

Christian Brothers College, Adelaide Christian Brothers College (CBC) is a private Catholic school in Adelaide, South Australia. It was founded by a group of Irish Christian Brothers in 1878, and it is now one of three Christian Brothers schools in the state. CBC is predominantly ...

* Former Calvary Wakefield Hospital

Junction list

References

{{Adelaide CBD Streets Streets in Adelaide