Gladstone House, Adelaide

City of Holdfast Bay Civic Centre, Brighton

This is the Municipal Offices and Council Chamber for the City of Holdfast Bay in Jetty Road, Brighton, Adelaide dating from 1937.

A House in Somerton Park

This is a house in the Adelaide suburb of Somerton Park. It has many deco features. Curved walls and windows on the second storey, metal railings and glass brick walls at the entrance. I can't tell if it is new or old or a bit of both. Regardless, the front wall is really nice. I like it a lot.

Light Buildings, Adelaide

The Light Buildings, Adelaide stand in Light Square, named in honour of William Light (1786 - 1839) who surveyed and planned the original layout for Adelaide. Light is buried in the square and it could be that the buildings were constructed around the centenary of his death in 1939 but that is pure supposition on my part.

While the flagpole and lettering on the tower are probably original, I doubt that the decals of the naked women are.

Reference:
Light, William (1786-1839), Australian Dictionary of Biography - Online Edition

Gilbert Place Apartments, Adelaide

These apartments are the latest use of these buildins at 31 & 33 Gilbert Place, Adelaide.

There were already buildings here when The Royal Exchange Assurance Company set up their chambers here in 1924. Then in 1936 the architectural firm of Philip Claridge were commissioned to refurbish the premises with the most visible change being the facade that we still see today.

I especially like the decoration above the entrance which painted silver works well against the dark colouring of the rest of the building.

Reference:
Notes, Inaugural Walking Tour of Art Deco and Modern architectural highlights of the Adelaide CBD, Sat 26 Apr 2008, Adelaide Chapter, Art Deco and Modernism Society

Elizabeth House, Adelaide

Well, I am straying into dangerous territory today with this building.

I don't know a lot about Elizabeth House in Adelaide but I suspect it dates from the 1950s and is more Modernist than Art Deco but then I have always maintained that I subscribe to the broadest possible definition of Art Deco that lets me include all manner of 20th Century buildings in this blog that more scholarly types would exclude.

I just love the windows.

former Roxy Theatre, Everard Park

The former Roxy Theatre in Adelaide is a stunning building. Although it is now a Blockbuster video store, you can imagine the glamorous people who attended 'Piccadilly Jim' on openning night, Wednesday, 7 October 1937.

And how many of those same people attended on closing night, a mere 24 years later on Saturday 25 November 1961.

Disaster struck in 1985 when the theatre was gutted by fire but two year later the facade was restored. I think they did a good job.

Reference:
cinemantreasures.org

former Hindmarsh Town Hall, Adelaide

Like many public buildings, the Hindmarsh Town Hall has a long history of rebuilding, renewal and adaptation.

The first district hall was built in 1860. A new hall was designed by Thomas Frost and added behind the original in 1880. Then in 1936 the stone portico was removed and the building refaced in Art Deco style to the design of Christopher Smith. Smith designed several Adelaide cinemas and at this time a cinema was also included as part of the town hall.

Following the amalgamation of the Hindmarsh and Woodville Councils in the 1990s it became the Education Development Centre under the South Australian Department of Education and Children's Services.

This photo shows the Milner Street entrance.

Reference:
Hindmarsh Town Hall Theatre/Hall, University of South Australia, Architects of South Australia database
The heart of Hindmarsh, by Lia Harris, Weekly Times Messenger, 20 Oct 2010

Shop and Flats, Semaphore

An interesting conbination of a 1938 shop and residence in Semaphore, South Australia.

former Glenelg Fire Station

Here are a few pictures of the former Glenelg Fire Station.

Certainly to take my mind, and perhaps your's, off the events of yesterday at the MCG. Congratulations to Collingwood they were the better team by far but that doesn't mean that I have to think any more about it.

So back to Adelaide ... Gordon St, Glenelg to be exact.

When I took these photos a few years ago, it was the Glenelg Fine Art Gallery and I believe it still is. As far as I can tell they do not have a website and in fact I can find very few references to the building at all on the web.

Still it is a beautiful little fire station designed with some flair yet fulfilling the functional requirements of the Fire Brigade.

Last Ditch Effort to Save Glenelg Cinema

The Adelaide Chapter of the Art Deco Society are making a last ditch effort to save the former Wallis Cinema in Glenelg.

As reported in the Guardian Newspaper today, they have already collected over 1100 signatures and are trying to have the building listed on the South Australian Heritage Register.

Convenor of the Adelaide Chapter, David O'Loughlin, says the cinema is incorrectly recorded as being built in 1956 in a Holdfast Bay Council heritage review undermining the historical importance of the building. The cinema was actually designed in 1936 by F Kenneth Milne.

For more information you can visit the Adelaide Chapter Facebook page or go directly to the online petition and add your name Save the Glenelg.

Council Offices, Port Adelaide

The Council Offices in Port Adelaide dating from 1939 were designed by Adelaide architect, Christopher A Smith.

Note the rounded corner of the building and the horizontal bands above each bank of windows. A small balcony above the main entrance with metal railings also features similar banding and is offered a little shelter by a series of three eyebrows stacked on top of each other, underlining the city crest.

Reference: Twentieth Century Heritage Survey, Stage Two (1928-1945), Peter Bell, Carol Cosgrove, Susan Marsden & Justin McCarthy 2008, volume 2, P40

Globe Hotel, Port Adelaide

When I took this picture about 5 years ago, this was a hotel with a crisis of identity. There are clearly two names. Globe Hotel along the top of the building and Golden Port Tavern in the faded paintwork of the wooden verandah. I have seen a more recent photo and the verandah has been repainted covering the Golden Port Tavern name but the Globe Hotel name has also been painted the same colour as the hotel facade suggesting to me that it no longer goes by that name either.

In any case, it is a fine looking Art Deco pub in Port Adelaide that was probably called the Globe Hotel in the 1930s when it was built (or renovated). A bit of detective work looking at the photos, shows that the signage on the left of the building covers the older Globe Hotel name indicating that the Golden Port Tavern is a more recent incarnation.

Does anyone in Port Adelaide know the history of this pub?

Sands & McDougall Building, Adelaide

The former Sands & McDougall Building in King William Street, Adelaide is a small building with a narrow facade.

In 1933 that narrow facade was redeigned by architectural firm Philip Claridge in association by L Gregory Butler and Norman G Fisher producing a multitude of Art Deco features.

There is decorative metalwork above the top floor windows and bands of chevrons below the windows and across the top of the building. The very top of the facade has stylised floral forms on the edges of the parapet and in the stonework capping of the columns either side of the windows.

Reference
ADS Adelaide Chapter, Inaugural Adelaide CBD Walking Tour, April 2008.

Wallis Cinema, Glenelg

The Glenelg Wallis Cinema closed on Sunday 1st February 2009 with a free showing of Gone with the Wind.

The 1937 cinema was designed by Kenneth Milne and in 1971, then called the Ozone, it was purchased by the Wallis family.

Patronage had dropped off since a 30-screen megaplex had been opened at nearby Marion in 1996 eventually making it no longer viable to operate.

A blog post by the Adelaide Chapter of the Art Deco Society around the time the cinema closed indicates it would be incoporated as retail space in a re-developed shopping centre.

References:
Glenelg Cinema Exits the Stage, Guardian Messenger, 29 Jan 2009
More bad/good news, Adelaide Chapter Journal, Art Deco Society, 24 Jan 2009

Fletcher Jones, Adelaide

This is an interesting store in Hindley Street, Adelaide. Obviously it is now a Fletcher Jones store, a company which has it's origins in the western district of Victoria in the years between the wars.

The Fletcher Jones website reports that having established stores in Warrnambool and Hamilton in 1924, the company expanded to have a store in Collins St, Melbourne in 1946 with stores in Adelaide, Sydney and Hobart between 1949 and 1952.

That Adelaide store may have been this one however the style of the building looks earlier than 1949 to me and Fletcher Jones may have taken over an exisiting premises.

Perhaps one of my Adelaide friends knows a bit more about this handsome shop.

former Synagogue, Adelaide

This is a former Synagogue in Synagogue Place off Rundle Street, Adelaide.

When I took this photo a few years ago it was operating as Church Nightclub. A bit ironic since churches today seem to be taking many of the former entertainment palaces of the deco era, the cinema.

I don't think it is a nightclub anymore. I think it is former Synagogue, former nightclub.

West Torrens District Council, Adelaide

As you can see from the date on the West Torrens District Council offices in Adelaide they were built in 1935.

The stylised lettering is typically deco and I especially like the letter 'S'.

This building illustrates another Art Deco trait with the main entrance set into the corner of the building.

Gibb & Miller Ltd, Port Adelaide

This squat horizontal building is Gibb & Miller Ltd Engineers in Port Adelaide.

I can't imagine that the narrow band of windows along the front of the building let in much, if any, light but no doubt there would be windows in the roof to provide light.

The perfectly proportioned lettering spelling out the company name adds to the simplicity of the facade but my favourite is the metal "GM" monogram above the entrance.

former Council Chamber, Marion

The former Council Chambers for the City of Marion in Adelaide offers this fine Art Deco facade on Sturt Road.

The date above the door reads '1937' and this building shows that even such a modest structure can still promote modernity and civic pride.

The former Council Chambers have been recognised as a place of local heritage value by the City of Marion.