Grenfell Street () is a major street in the north-east quarter of the

Adelaide city centre Adelaide city centre () 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 Adelaide and from the City of Adelaide l ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

. The street runs west-east from King William Street to

East Terrace East Terrace is a road that marks the eastern edge of the Adelaide city centre in Adelaide, South Australia. Description East Terrace is one of the main north–south thoroughfares through the east side of the city. Although the terrace esse ...

. Its intersection with

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 ...

is formed by

Hindmarsh Square Hindmarsh Square/Mukata (formerly Mogata) is one of five public squares in the Adelaide city centre, South Australia. It is located in the centre of the north-eastern quarter of the city, and surrounds the intersection of Grenfell and Pulten ...

. On the west side of King William Street, it continues as

Currie Street Currie Street is a main street in the Adelaide city centre, South Australia.Map
of the

Pascoe St Leger Grenfell, a Cornish businessman and member of the South Australian Church Society. His significant donation of an acre of land on North Terrace was used for the construction of the Holy Trinity Church — one of the first churches built in the city. Grenfell also donated another of country land for the use of the church as

glebe A glebe (, also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s)) is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved to the church. ...

lands. This land later became the suburb of Trinity Gardens.

Description

Grenfell Street runs from King William Street to

. It is one of the intermediate-width streets of the Adelaide grid, at wide. On the west side of King William Street, the western continuation of Grenfell Street is Currie Street, named after Raikes Currie, a member of the South Australian Association and

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 So ...

. The section of the street which runs parallel to

Rundle Mall Rundle Mall is a pedestrian street mall located in Adelaide, South Australia. It was opened as a pedestrian mall in September 1976 after the closing of the western section of Rundle Street between King William Street and Pulteney Street, to ...

(west of Hindmarsh Square) on the northern side features many retail outlets, as well as the southern entrances of many of the arcades, side-streets, and eateries of the mall. The southern side is populated mainly by office buildings, including the

Grenfell Centre Grenfell Centre, formerly known as Oracle House and JLW Building, nicknamed Black Stump, is a high rise office building located at 25 Grenfell Street in the Adelaide city centre, South Australia. History and description The Brookman Build ...

("the Black Stump") at no. 25. A dedicated

bus lane A bus lane or bus-only lane is a lane restricted to buses, generally to speed up public transport that would be otherwise held up by traffic congestion. The related term busway describes a roadway completely dedicated for use by buses, whilst ...

runs the whole length of both Grenfell and Currie Streets, limiting private vehicles to one lane for most of its length, and carrying nearly all bus traffic traversing the city in an east–west direction. At the eastern end of Grenfell, a dedicated bus track carries buses across East Terrace into the

O-Bahn Guided buses are buses capable of being steered by external means, usually on a dedicated track or roll way that excludes other traffic, permitting the maintenance of schedules even during rush hours. Unlike railbuses, trolleybuses or rubber ...

tunnel under

Rymill Park Rymill Park / Murlawirrapurka (previously spelt Mullawirraburka), and numbered as Park 14, is a recreation park located in the Adelaide Park Lands, East Park Lands of the South Australian capital of Adelaide. There is an artificial lake with r ...

. The eastern end is occupied on the south side by the

Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute The Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, usually referred to as Tandanya, is an art museum located on Grenfell Street in Adelaide, South Australia. It specialises in promoting Indigenous Australian art, including visual art, music a ...

, an art and cultural museum also used as a venue for the

Adelaide Fringe Adelaide Fringe, formerly Adelaide Fringe Festival, is Australia’s biggest arts festival and is the world's second-largest annual arts festival (after the Edinburgh Festival Fringe), held in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Between ...

and other events, and on the north side by the East End Markets redevelopment.

Former buildings

Central Hall/Queen's Hall/Embassy Ballroom

Central Hall, at no. 102a Grenfell, was built by a Mrs Phillipson, of Glenelg, for the use of the Adelaide German Club (''Allgemeiner Deutscher Verein'') in 1894, opening in June of that year. It was subsequently used for a variety of community events (many unrelated to the club), for around 20 years. Charles Cawthorne took over the lease and reopened it Queen's Hall on 7 August 1915. Its use turned to performances, mainly concerts,

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

s, dramas, and fundraisers for

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, and it also hosted occasional

variety show Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical performances, sketch comedy, magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is normally introduced by a comp� ...

s. Its use as a theatre diminished from 1923, and by 1929 it was operating as a

dance hall Dance hall in its general meaning is a hall for Dance, dancing, but usually refers to a specific type of twentieth-century venue, with dance clubs (nightclubs) becoming more popular towards the end of the century. The palais de danse was a term ap ...

. The building was partially destroyed by fire on 4 November 1929, and it fell into disuse until it was refurbished and reopened in 1933 as the Embassy Ballroom, which had an

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

facade. In the 1950s it was converted into a cinema, first called the Plaza Theatre and renamed Paris Cinema in 1965. It was later demolished and Regent Arcade built on the site.

Heritage-listed buildings

Grenfell Street Power Station

On the corner of Grenfell Street and East Terrace there is the old

Grenfell Street Power Station The Electricity Trust of South Australia (ETSA) was the South Australian Government-owned monopoly vertically integrated electricity provider from 1946 until its privatisation in 1999. Precursors Early days (1882–1900) Charles Todd, an e ...

building. Much of the building now houses the

, facing Grenfell Street, which was

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

on the

SA Heritage Register The South Australian Heritage Register, also known as the SA Heritage Register, is a statutory register of historic places in South Australia. It extends legal protection regarding demolition and development under the ''Heritage Places Act 1993'' ...

in November 1984, while the old

converter station An HVDC converter station (or simply converter station) is a specialised type of substation which forms the terminal equipment for a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line.Arrillaga, Jos; High Voltage Direct Current Transmission, s ...

s face East Terrace. A "Historic Engineering Plaque" is located on a ground level

plinth A pedestal or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In civil engineering, it is also called ''basement''. The minimum height o ...

just east of the north-east corner of the Tandanya building, which was dedicated by the

Institution of Engineers, Australia Engineers Australia (EA), known formally as the Institution of Engineers, Australia, is an Australian professional body and not-for-profit organisation whose purpose is to advance the science and practice of engineering for the benefit of the ...

, the

Electricity Trust of South Australia The Electricity Trust of South Australia (ETSA) was the Government of South Australia, South Australian Government-owned monopoly vertically integrated electrical power industry, electricity provider from 1946 until its privatisation in 1999. ...

and 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. It is legally defined as the capital city of Sout ...

on 6 April 1995.

Pubs

* The Producers Hotel (formerly Old Exchange Hotel, Producers Club Hotel, Woodman's Inn), at no. 233-235, was built on the site of the first pub built and licensed in the East End, the Woodman, in 1839. It was first licensed by John Ragless Jr, and so named because it was the first stop for timber merchants carting timber from "the Tiers" (as the

Adelaide Hills The Adelaide Hills region is located in the southern Mount Lofty Ranges east of the city of Adelaide in the state of South Australia. The largest town in the area, Mount Barker, South Australia, Mount Barker, is one of Australia's fastest-growi ...

were called). In 1900 it was renamed the Electric Light, after the power station. It was rebuilt for the

South Australian Brewing Company The South Australian Brewing Company, Limited was a brewery located in Thebarton, South Australia, Thebarton, an inner-west suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. It is a subsidiary of Lion (Australasian company), Lion, which in turn is owned by ...

in Queen Anne style in 1906 as the Producers. It was listed on the SA Heritage Register on 5 April 1984. After the East End markets moved away in 1986, the hotel became the East End Exchange Hotel for a short while before being renamed the Woodman's Inn in the mid-1990s. It became a major venue for live music of many genres, under its later name, the Producer's Bar, known simply as "The Producers". It also hosted

events, until its closure in 2018. It was functioning mainly as a nightclub in 2022, with a large knife fight reported in March of that year. In 2023 it was known as Friday's Lounge. * The Griffins Hotel, built 1886, on the corner of Grenfell Street and Hindmarsh Square (address 40 Hindmarsh Square), is state heritage-listed. * Crown and Anchor Hotel, cnr Grenfell/Union (built 1879; extensive alterations in 1929; local heritage-listing in 2001, facade only) Wiggs Building B-10365

Other historic buildings

Other state heritage-listed buildings in Grenfell Street include: * Parts of the former Adelaide Fruit and Produce Exchange facing the street * British & Foreign Bible Society office (Bertram Hall) * Executor Trustee Office, no. 22 *

Tattersalls Tattersalls (formerly Tattersall's) is the main auctioneer of race horses in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Founding It was founded in 1766 by Richard Tattersall (1724–1795), who had been stud groom to the second Duke of Kingston. ...

Building, 10-14 * Ferrari House (former

Eagle Star Insurance The Eagle Star Insurance Company plc (formerly Eagle Star Insurance Company Limited) was a leading British insurance business. It underwrote the full range of risks including liability, fire, accident, marine, motor, life, contingency and Pluvius ...

Building), 28-30 * Former

Alliance Assurance Company Sun Alliance Group plc was a large insurance business with its main offices in the City of London and later Horsham. It was created in 1959 by the merger of Sun Insurance, founded in 1710, and Alliance Assurance founded in 1824. In 1996 Sun Allia ...

Building, 18 Other local heritage-listed buildings include: * Wiggs Building (former home of stationers E. S. Wigg & Son) * Wyatt House, 113-119 * Warehouse, 121-127 * Hindmarsh Buildings, 134-140

Transport changes

In July 2012, dedicated bus lanes were introduced along the full length of Grenfell Street in both directions, in operation from 7am to 7pm each weekday. When operational,

taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a Driving, driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of thei ...

cyclist Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world fo ...

s and

emergency vehicle An emergency vehicle is a vehicle used by emergency services. Emergency vehicles typically have specialized Emergency vehicle lighting, emergency lighting and Emergency vehicle equipment, vehicle equipment that allow emergency services to reach Ca ...

s are also able to use the lane, but private vehicles can only travel up to in the bus lane. In December 2016, after the

extension tunnel was built underneath

at the eastern end of the street, buses formerly routed along North Terrace were permanently routed along Grenfell (although they had been temporarily diverted from North Terrace via East Terrace, since construction of the Botanic Line of the Adelaide trams had begun in early October that year). After this, nearly all buses travelling in an east–west direction across the city use Grenfell.

Junction list

References

{{commons category, Grenfell Street, Adelaide, Grenfell Street Streets in Adelaide