Pirie Street

Pirie Street is a road on the east side of the Adelaide city centre, South Australia.^[2] It runs east–west, between East Terrace and King William Street. After crossing King William Street, it continues as Waymouth Street. It forms the southern boundary of Hindmarsh Square which is in the centre of the north-east quadrant of the city centre.

Pirie Street South Australia
Pirie Street looking west, circa 1928
West end East end
Coordinates	34.925777°S 138.599776°E / -34.925777; 138.599776 (West end) 34.925126°S 138.611827°E / -34.925126; 138.611827 (East end)
General information
Type	Street
Location	Adelaide city centre
Length	1.1 km (0.7 mi)[1]
Opened	1837
Major junctions
West end	King William Street Adelaide
	Hindmarsh Square Pulteney Street Frome Street Hutt Street
East end	East Terrace Adelaide
Location(s)
LGA(s)	City of Adelaide

Pirie Street is served by a stop on the Glenelg tram line on King William Street. It is mainly occupied by office buildings, restaurants, and nightspots. It is one of the narrower streets of the Adelaide grid, at 1 chain (66 ft; 20 m) wide, and has a bicycle lane.

It has a number of notable buildings, including several heritage-listed ones, and was once home to the biggest brewery in the colony of South Australia, the Adelaide Brewery. In 2019 it was used as a location for the film Escape from Pretoria, starring Daniel Radcliffe, substituting for Cape Town, South Africa.

History and notable buildings

Former Hill Smith Gallery, cnr Pirie and Wyatt streets

The Epworth Building on the south side of Pirie Street, between King William Street and Gawler Place

Pirie Street was named after Sir John Pirie, Lord Mayor of London and a founding director of the South Australian Company.^[3]

The Pirie Street Methodist Church was located on the site that is now the Adelaide Town Hall office building, with the 1862 Methodist Meeting Hall (see below) behind.

The Adelaide City Council headquarters are on Pirie Street.

The Pirie Street Brewery, later known as Adelaide Brewery,^[4] occupied a number of buildings down Wyatt Street, as well as no. 113 Pirie, which was occupied by the Hill Smith Gallery from July 1983^[5] for 37 years.^[6] While no. 113 has not been heritage-listed, the other brewery buildings in Wyatt street were listed on the South Australian Heritage Register on 20 November 1986.^[7]

Buildings which are heritage-listed at state level as of April 2024^[update] are:^[8]

• the Queen's Chambers at no. 19^[8]
• the Old Methodist Meeting Hall at no. 25^[8]
• Darlington House offices, formerly the Salvation Army's People's Palace, where Archie Roach met Ruby Hunter),^[9] and before that the original German Club building (1879)^[8]
• the old Tivoli Hotel at no.248 (state and local listing)^[8]

Other buildings which are heritage-listed as of local heritage interest as of April 2024^[update] are:^[8]

• The Epworth Building at 31–35 Pirie Street was built in 1926 as a commercial property for the Methodist Church.^[10] Designed by the architectural practice of English and Soward,^[11] it is listed among 120 nationally significant 20th-century buildings in South Australia.^[12]
• A c.1920s façade of the former Bank of South Australia at no. 51; however, in August 2020, developers were given permission to demolish the whole building ahead of the construction of a new Hyatt Regency Adelaide Hotel^[8][13]

Film location

In March 2019 a section of Pirie Street was closed for the day and transformed to represent Cape Town in the 1970s, for filming of the thriller film Escape from Pretoria, starring Daniel Radcliffe.^[14][15]

Junction list

Location	km[1]	mi	Destinations	Notes
Adelaide city centre	0	0.0	King William Street	Continues as Waymouth Street
	0.2	0.12	Gawler Place
	0.55	0.34	Pulteney Street	At southern edge of Hindmarsh Square
	0.75	0.47	Frome Street
	1.1	0.68	Hutt Street (to south), East Terrace (to north and east)	Continues as East Terrace for 100 m, then Bartels Road
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

Transportation

Pirie Street is also the location of a stop on the Glenelg tram line.^[16]

Preceding station	Adelaide Metro			Following station
Rundle Mall towards City West		Glenelg tram line		Victoria Square towards Moseley Square

See also

Australian Roads portal

References

1. "Pirie Street" (Map). Google Maps. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
2. 2003 Adelaide Street Directory, 41st Edition. UBD. 2003. ISBN 0-7319-1441-4.
3. "History of Adelaide Through Street Names - Streets Named on the 23rd May, 1837". 4 March 2005. Retrieved 9 November 2009.
4. "The Adelaide Brewery, Pirie Street". Adelaide Observer. Vol. XXVI, no. 1392. South Australia. 6 June 1868. p. 14. Retrieved 14 December 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
5. "City of Adelaide Heritage Survey (2008) [Section on Hill-Smith Fine Art Gallery, 113 Pirie Street]". Adelaide City Council.
6. "Hill Smith Gallery". Hill Smith Art Advisory. Retrieved 20 April 2024.
7. "54-60 Wyatt Street ADELAIDE". The South Australia Heritage Places database. Retrieved 20 April 2024.
8. "Heritage places [Search results, Adelaide LGA]". SA Heritage Places Database Search. Retrieved 20 April 2024.
9. Marsh, Walter (3 November 2019). "Archie Roach tells his story right and true in memoir Tell Me Why". The Adelaide Review. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
10. Architecture Museum, UniSA > - Architects of South Australia > Epworth Building Accessed 10 June 2014.
11. Architecture Museum, UniSA > Architects of South Australia > Herbert Montefiore Jackman Accessed 10 June 2014.
12. 120 notable buildings - Australian Institute of Architects Archived 13 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine Accessed 8 May 2014.
13. Richards, Stephanie (27 August 2020). "Heritage facade to be demolished as Pirie St Hyatt gets green light". InDaily. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
14. Sutton, Malcolm (13 March 2019). "Adelaide transformed into apartheid-era Cape Town for Escape From Pretoria filming". Australian Broadcasting Corporation News. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
15. Polychronis, Gabriel (14 March 2019). "Adelaide's Pirie St transformed into 1978 Cape Town for Daniel Radcliffe's movie Escape from Pretoria". Adelaide Now. The Advertiser. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
16. Glenelg Tram Timetable (2018) Archived 2 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine, Adelaide Metro