Contribute

From churches to used car yards, Flinders Street has reflected changes in the city’s character. It has never been a main thoroughfare, but rather an affordable location for early residents and later small businesses.

Flinders Street was one of the 63 streets in Colonel William Light’s Plan of Adelaide named by a Street Naming Committee of prominent colonists on 23 May 1837. It acknowledges Captain Matthew Flinders who, as commander of the Investigator, conducted the first detailed survey of the South Australian coast. On the same voyage (1801–03) his ship completed the first circumnavigation of Australia.

Street of churches: 1860s and 1870s

Away from the initial settlement in the northwest corner of the city, Flinders Street was slow to develop. George Kingston’s map of 1842 shows few buildings. By 1865, when Townsend Duryea photographed his panorama of Adelaide from the tower of the Town Hall, construction was evident, but of a limited kind.

Churches dominated the street in the 1860s and 1870s. They reflected the diversity of Christian denominations represented in the colony, being erected by Anglican, Baptist, Presbyterian, Congregational and Lutheran communities. Religious groups outside the established Anglican Church had been active in the planning of the colony of South Australia in the United Kingdom in the 1830s. They formed a substantial proportion of the population of early settlers.

One of the first churches was St Paul’s Anglican Church built on the corner of Flinders Street and Pulteney Street in 1863. A rectory facing Flinders Street was added shortly after. The congregation of this High Anglican Church included prominent Adelaide families. Henry Ayers worshipped there as did members of the Bonython, Schomburgk, Everard and Bray families. St Paul’s was deconsecrated in 1983 and its Tiffany stained glass windows, donated by Henry Ayers’ daughter, Lucy, relocated to Pulteney Grammar School on South Terrace.

Closer to Victoria Square, Flinders Street Baptist Church opened on 26 April 1863. This church symbolised the consolidation of a previously divided Baptist community in Adelaide under the leadership of the young and dynamic Reverend Silas Mead. Mead was instrumental in the erection of the church between 1861 and 1863, the hall (opened 1870) and the manse (opened 1877). The church is noteworthy for the fine detail of the façade and exquisitely carved stone capitals on the porch pillars.

A Presbyterian Church was constructed across the road from the Baptist Church. Its severe façade was lightened by the addition of an elegant spire in 1865. A manse was built next door in the same year. In 1929 this church amalgamated with Chalmers Presbyterian Church on North Terrace to form Scots Church, North Terrace. The Flinders Street property was sold in 1956 and the church was demolished the following year.

Also close to Victoria Square, Stow Memorial Church was erected in 1865–67 as a memorial to Reverend Thomas Quinton Stow. Stow, the first Congregational Minister in the colony, preached his first sermon on 5 November 1837 on the southern side of the River Torrens, near the present Morphett Street Bridge. He was associated with the first Congregational Church building in Adelaide (in Freeman Street, now part of Gawler Place) and the beginnings of higher education in the colony. Stow Memorial Church was renamed Pilgrim Church in 1977.

A large manse was constructed alongside Stow Memorial Church in 1869. Substantial additions were made in 1877 and in the 1920s. Early in the twentieth century the entire building was encased in a colonnaded façade in the Italianate style that can be seen today. Sold by the church in 1901, the one-time manse has housed a sanatorium, the government’s Registry Office and the Ethic Affairs Commission.

The other major church built on Flinders Street was the Evangelical Lutheran Bethlehem Church. Opened on 23 June 1872, this church is associated with the German migrant community. Its bell tower was intended to house three bells. The bells were reputedly cast in Germany from cannons captured from the French and presented by Prince Bismarck on behalf of the emperor. Two alternative explanations as to why these bells were not installed are that the ship carrying the bells was lost and that they arrived in Sydney in 1879 and were exhibited at the Sydney International Exhibition where they won a first prize. Regardless, they never reached their destination in Adelaide (Marsden, Stark & Sumerling, p136; State Library of South Australia B1937).

Living on Flinders

Poorer residents occupied premises along Flinders Street, away from Victoria Square. Early cottages and terraces were predominantly single storey and very small. Many had wood shingle roofs and rough-cut wood paling fences. By the end of the nineteenth century corrugated iron roofs and verandas were common. Some cottages occupied land sufficient to grow vegetables and fruit trees. Children played on the small plots of land and on the dirt road outside their homes.

An atypical larger residence was the Servants’ Home, built mid century by the government on the corner of Flinders Street and Freeman Street (now Gawler Place). This two-storey establishment provided food and shelter for newly arrived migrants, especially young women straight off the boat, until they could find work. In 1863 the home’s management committee stated its aims:

The Adelaide Servants’ Home is designed as a temporary abode for those of every creed and country, when out of place, or convalescent from the Hospital, or newly arrived in the colony, who possess a good character for respectability and fitness for their duties. It will afford them the protection and comfort of a plain well-ordered home, and through the registry to be kept, bring them into contact with respectable employers only.

Demand for accommodation at the home led to overcrowding and insanitary conditions. Additions were made to the front and rear of the premises in 1877; a washhouse was constructed, sanitation was improved and the attached yard was drained and paved with flagstones.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century more substantial villas featuring wrought iron decoration, striped corrugated iron verandas and ornamental gardens began to be built on Flinders Street for wealthier families. Building contractor Richard Verco and carpenter/builder George Langdon Bonython occupied classic Adelaide villas on Flinders Street.

Workers’ cottages also featured a little wrought iron decoration on the edging of their verandas by the turn of the century. However, by the 1920s homes were being demolished in favour of expanding industry. Remaining residences were allowed to deteriorate. Families hung on in poor quality accommodation surrounded by small-scale factories and businesses. By the 1960s most homes on Flinders Street had been either demolished or taken over by industry.

Observatory House

One elegant building that survived the successive demolitions and rebuilding of the twentieth century was Otto Boettger’s Observatory House. Boettger was born in Germany in 1842. He was apprenticed to an instrument maker and became the foreman of a firm in St Petersburg, Russia. He also worked in Hamburg as an astronomer’s apprentice before migrating to South Australia in 1877. In Adelaide he established a successful business manufacturing and repairing scientific instruments. Boettger lived next door to the site of Observatory House from about 1879 until it was built for him in 1906.

Although small, Observatory House stands out. Its look-out tower, tiled roof and detailing create a distinctive and attractive building. Observatory House is heritage listed.

Education

Prior to 1875, when primary education was made compulsory in South Australia, most education services were provided by schools run by individual women or by churches. Flinders Street housed several such establishments.

Foremost amongst these was St Paul’s Day School for the Poor, which was constructed in 1872–73 on the south side of Flinders Street, near Hutt Street. Designed by architect EJ Woods, Flinders Hall, as it became known, was intended to have a spire, but limited funds meant that was never built. Alterations were made to the two-storey building in 1891 and the schoolroom extended in 1896. It continued to operate as a school in the twentieth century. The building was sold in 1950.

The Lutheran Church’s Martin Luther School operated into the twentieth century in Flinders Street. Images show a basic, cramped facility in which children of the poor are well represented.

A school for older girls run by a local, Miss Martin, was at 110 and 114 Flinders Street between 1906 and 1918. Opposite on the south side of the street was the Adelaide Shorthand and Business Training Academy, which began in the 1890s.

Following the Education Act 1875, the government became more directly involved in the provision of education. Several ‘Model Schools’ were soon constructed in the city. Governor Sir William Jervois opened the ‘City Model School’, Flinders Street Public School, on 22 November 1878. The large bluestone buildings designed by EJ Woods were intended to house about 800 students. The school continued to function as a primary school until 1969, when it became the Flinders Street Adult Education Centre. In 1978 it became the Adelaide College of Further Education, School of Music. In 2012 the restored heritage-listed building housed the Baha’i Centre of Learning.

The Department of Education constructed its headquarters at 31 Flinders Street on the southwest corner with Gawler Place in 1912. This seven-storey building of ashlar masonry featured an entrance framed by Doric columns and surmounted by the Australian coat of arms. Other government departments were based in the building too. Despite protests, it was demolished in 1973. Larger premises for the greatly expanded Education Department were constructed there: it is now occupied by the Department of Education and Child Development which includes Families SA.

Business and motoring

Small businesses and factories gradually took up premises in Flinders Street. The first businesses were dominated by the construction trades required by a growing town: builders, masons and timber merchants, followed by plumbers, gasfitters and iron merchants. In amongst these enterprises were a sprinkling of shops and hotels serving residents and workers. One noteworthy shop was that of accomplished photographer Captain Samuel Sweet. His photographs of Adelaide in the 1870s and 1880s provide an invaluable record of the city and surrounds.

By the second decade of the twentieth century the rapidly increasing number and type of businesses along Flinders Street reflected the growth of the motor industry in South Australia and the take up of various forms of motor transport by the public. Car sale rooms first appeared, followed by garages and service premises for motor bikes and side cars. A driving school was established. Mechanics advertised their services and by the 1920s Frank Warden’s tyre and tube service station was in business. In 1939 the Radio Corporation, selling, installing and servicing car radios was operating near Gawler Place.

New and used car sales, service and repair businesses and garages continued to be well represented on Flinders Street until the 1980s when they began to shift to busier arterial roads. The last car showroom closed in the first decade of the twenty-first century and today just a tyre centre remains.

By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia

Add media
Images
Image: a large group of girls in early 20th century dresses, some wearing straw hats, pose in four rows for this formal school photograph.

Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B 35662, Public Domain.

Image: a round miniature watercolour of the head and shoulders of a man with short dark brown hair posed in 3/4 profile wearing a high collared black military style coat with gold epaulettes, piping and buttons over a white shirt
Matthew Flinders, c.1800

Courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales MIN 52

Churches

Images
Image: A stone church with a square central spire. To the left is a simple, rectangular two storey building with a central door flanked by windows on each side on the ground floor and three windows in line with the openings below on the second floor.

Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B 1935, Public Domain

Image: a stone church with a rose window beneath a central spire, four smaller decorative towers with spiked finials arranged along the front side and a single arched central door.

Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B 26178, Public Domain.

Image: a stone church with a clerestory roof sits along side a two storey rectangular stone building with two gable roofs with scalloped ends topped with finials on the street side.

Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B280, Public Domain.

Image: a gothic style church with arched porch and clerestory windows and associated two-storey manse made of the same dark stone with arched windows and portico.

Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B 369, Public Domain.

Image: a stone church with clerestory windows, a transept featuring a rose window, a square tower at the junction of the transept and nave and a arched porch at the front entrance.
Courtesy of/Photographer:South Australian Government Photographic Collection

History SA. South Australian Government Photographic Collection, GN01969

Image: a stone manse with a low pitched roof mostly hidden behind a parapet, an arched return verandah and columned balcony, and rectangular windows with triangular pediments.
Courtesy of/Photographer:South Australian Government Photographic Collection

History SA. South Australian Government Photographic Collection, GN02275

Education

Images
Image: a large brick building with arched windows and doors. Lighter coloured bricks are arranged in decorative diamond patterns between the first and second storeys and in an alternating pattern with the darker bricks on the arches above the windows.
Courtesy of/Photographer:Samuel White Sweet

Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B10714, Public Domain.

Image: a round bordered illustration of a church with a single spire on it's right hand side
Courtesy of/Photographer:South Australian Government Photolithographer

Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B 12340, Public Domain.

Image: a large group of boys and girls in early 20th century clothing pose sitting at their desks in a school room. In the background their teachers watch over them.

Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B B31371, Public Domain.

Image: A single fronted two storey building dominates this view. It is built from rendered stone with cement dressings and arched doorway and windows. It features a stepped parapet with decorative urns and the inscription "ESTb 1893".

Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B 3864, Public Domain.

Image: a man in a coat and bowler hat stands on a small platform while below a headmaster in a dark suit addresses a group of boys and girls standing in neat rows.

Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: PRG 280/1/26/225, Public Domain.

Image: a group of boys and girls in early 20th century clothing and hats stand in lines in a field with their arms outstretched to either side.

Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: PRG 280/1/39/1, Public Domain.

Image: an imposing six storey stone building with bay windows, a columned portico, balconies, mansard roof, curved parapets and a flagpole on the roof stands on the corner of two roads. A 1920s era car can be seen to the right of the photo..
Courtesy of/Photographer:South Australian Government Photographic Collection

History SA. South Australian Government Photographic Collection, GN05910

Living on Flinders Street

Images
Image: a large, leafless tree dominates the photograph. Behind are single storey cottages and large warehouses and commercial buildings. A number of 1950s era cars can also be seen.
Courtesy of/Photographer:State Library of South Australia

Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B 14249, Public Domain.

Image: a street-scape featuring a row of single storey cottages with tin roofs and verandahs behind picket fences. At the far right of the image a small stone church can be seen. The street is also lined with heavily pruned trees and telegraph poles.
Courtesy of/Photographer:State Library of South Australia

Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B 1839, Public Domain.

Image: Three girls in late 19th century dresses play in a wide dirt road while older women stand together outside stores with wooden shingled roofs and verandahs.  In the centre of the image a gas street light can be seen.

Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B 2513, Public Domain.

Image: a group of three pairs of semi-detached simple fronted cottages with a single door and window each and a central chimney rising from each roof. In front of the buildings stand women and children in late 19th century clothing.

Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B 2514, Public Domain.

Image: horse and cart on dirt street with group of people, including young children, surrounding

Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B 2521, Public Domain

Image: A family (a man, woman, three boys and two girls) and their dog pose in an overgrown garden outside a single storey cottage with verandah.

Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B 2522, Public Domain.

Image: fruit trees, tin roofs and brick chimneys rise above a paling fence bordering a dirt road. A number of people in late 19th century dress can be seen standing in front of the fence.

Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B 2524, Public Domain

Image: a street-scape of dilapidated single storey cottages with wooden shingle roofs. The verandahs are in particularly poor repair.

Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B 2530, Public Domain.

Image: A symmetrical fronted bluestone villa with decorative wrought iron verandah, tin roof and decorative gable end with finial centred above the front door sits in a established garden with a number of flowering bushes.
Courtesy of/Photographer:Ernest Gall

Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B 2815, Public Domain

Image: a man and a woman stand behind a wooden fence in front of a bluestone cottage with tin roof and verandah. The man stands at the gate and wears a dark suit and bowler hat, the woman who is to the right of the photograph wears a white dress.

Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B 30389, Public Domain.

Image: A simple two-storey stone building with three main entrances, one on a corner, shuttered windows and a parapet sign reading "Servants' Home".

Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B 8112, Public Domain.

Image: a small semi-detached cottage with tin roof, rear lean-to and central chimney. Each residence has a door and single window on the front side of the house. A figure stands in the open door of one side of the building.
Courtesy of/Photographer:South Australian Government Photographic Collection

History SA. South Australian Government Photographic Collection, GN02572

Motoring

Images
Image: a number of 1940s and 1950s era cars are parked in rows outside a single storey building with a sign reading "used car division"
Courtesy of/Photographer:State Library of South Australia

Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B 13565, Public Domain.

Image: a single storey shop with a verandah and triangular parapet with a painted sign reading "Lenroc Limited Central Service Station for Harley-Davidson, Triumph & Raleigh motor cycles & side cars". A flag flies from the peak of the parapet.
Courtesy of/Photographer:State Library of South Australia

Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B 2258, Public Domain.

Image: a row of 1920s era cars are parked on a 45 degree angle facing a dirt road. Behind them is a single storey commercial building, part of a row of terraced shops, with a curved parapet and a sign which reads "Autocars Limited".

Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B 49531, Public Domain.

Image: a man in a 1930s era coat poses on a motorcycle outside a shop with a rectangular arched entrance and sign reading "Globe Motor Park"
Courtesy of/Photographer:State Library of South Australia

Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B 6464, Public Domain.

Image: a group of men in early 20th century clothing pose around a number of cars parked outside a two storey building with a sign reading "Motors Limited"

Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B 8044, Public Domain.

Observatory House

Images
Image: A narrow two storey building with a Queen Anne style turret rising from the centre of the building's frontage. Recessed arched windows on the second floor allow for small balconies with decorative fretwork.
Courtesy of/Photographer:Francis Gabriel

Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B 1804, Public Domain

Add story