City streets - Wakefield Press

City streets
Progressive Adelaide 75 years on
Lance Campbell
has long experience
Mick Bradley’s
work bridges the gap
of Adelaide. Born on Unley Road, he
between documentary and fine art
is an arts writer and multiple award-
photography. He was born in London,
winning sports writer. He wrote
but came to Australia as a boy, and
By Popular Demand: the Adelaide
his images tell stories from our lives
Festival Centre Story, and has begun
from the 1970s on. Mick honed his
work on a follow-up for the Centre’s
craft as a fine art printer, darkroom
40th anniversary. Lance also wrote
operator and photographer working
the original Bradman Collection
for studios in Sydney, Canberra,
website and exhibition for the State
Adelaide and London. He has created
Library of South Australia. He was
a niche for himself in the history of
arts editor of the Adelaide Advertiser,
South Australian photography, while
has written satirical columns for The
his work appears in books, exhibitions
Adelaide Review, and has contributed
and collections throughout this
to several books, including McLaren
country and in North America and
Vale: Trott’s View. Lance also is arts
the United Kingdom. He captured
and architecture editor of SALife
post-hurricane New Orleans, and
magazine.
is planning an exhibition of London
images for 2012.
City Streets
Progressive Adelaide 75 years on
Lance Campbell and Mick Bradley
Wakefield Press
1 The Parade West, Kent Town, South Australia 5067
www.wakefieldpress.com.au
First published in association with Adelaide City Council, 2012
New text copyright © Lance Campbell, 2012
New photographs copyright © Mick Bradley, 2012
All rights reserved. This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research,
criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced without written permission.
Enquiries should be addressed to the publisher.
Designed by Liz Nicholson, designBITE
Photoshop work and image retouching by Graphic Print Group
Printed in China through Red Planet Print Management
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Author: Campbell, Lance, 1949– .
Title: City Streets: Progressive Adelaide 75 years on / Lance Campbell and Mick Bradley.
ISBN: 978 1 86254 920 3 (hbk.).
Subjects: Adelaide (S. Aust.) – History. Adelaide (S. Aust.) – Buildings, structures, etc.
Other Authors/Contributors: Bradley, Mick.
Dewey Number: 994.231
Foreword
City Streets provides a unique snapshot of our city at two points in time. The first shows Adelaide in 1936,
the centenary of European settlement of South Australia, and the second 75 years on.
The images provide a fantastic insight into how Adelaide has grown from virtually a country town into a
place of international standing, recently acknowledged as Australia’s most liveable city.
The streetscapes in this book are fascinating. Some appear virtually unchanged, while others have lost
buildings now viewed as iconic, such as the South Australian Hotel.
City Streets: Progressive Adelaide 75 years on had its beginnings in the term of Adelaide City Council
2006–2010, with particular support from Councillor Sandy Wilkinson. I thank the Councillors for
initiating this project, and Wakefield Press for bringing it to life.
I hope you enjoy this book. It’s an intriguing slice of history.
Stephen Yarwood
Lord Mayor of Adelaide
Contents
Introduction 1
King William Street
7
North Terrace
21
Hindley Street
39
Rundle Mall
51
Rundle Street & East End
67
Currie Street
83
Grenfell Street
91
Waymouth Street
103
Pirie Street
111
Gawler Place
121
Flinders & Franklin Streets
129
Grote Street
141
Gouger Street
149
Victoria Square
159
From the Heart, Lance Campbell164
Photograph credits and Acknowledgements
166
Afterword, Timothy Horton, Commissioner for Integrated Design167
Introduction
In 1936, the centenary year of the former colony of South Australia, printer and newspaperman Gustav
Hermann Baring published Progressive Adelaide. The big, handsome book was a mighty achievement.
Baring wanted his State to shine on its 100th birthday.
Progressive Adelaide embraced the capital city and its seaside resorts, along with South Australia’s major
provincial centres. By photographing the city’s street fronts, Baring created a near-perfect record of the
Adelaide CBD of the 1930s.
And by financing his book with advertising, he also left us with a profile of the business life of the State as
South Australia carried itself out of the Great Depression.
Progressive Adelaide is the inspiration for City Streets. Three-quarters of a century on, the City of Adelaide
and Wakefield Press recognised the enduring significance and human interest of the first book. Yet simply
reprinting Progressive Adelaide would have heightened nostalgia, but served no particular purpose.
Adelaide is more than its past. There is its present, and its future.
So you hold the second book. City Streets relives Baring’s pictorial exploration of the city CBD, going to
the same places, taking their photos again and pausing for stories along the way. We also have allowed
ourselves the liberty of extending the range of this book beyond the original’s commercial boundaries into
Adelaide’s rich cultural dimension.
As far as we are aware, a book of this scope chronicling two eras of a capital city has never been published
before.
Certain historic buildings in Progressive Adelaide did not survive to appear here. There will always be a
lesson in that. But Adelaide remains a captivating city in its many forms. City Streets re-interprets the
rich legacy of Progressive Adelaide. It might just start a trend.
–1–
Baring & Bradley
Hermann Baring needed a buckboard
film camera with movements, such as
original settlers were prepared to go
and a black cloth over his head to
a German Linhof Technicka. What he
to, their amazing commitment to the
photograph Progressive Adelaide.
didn’t have was Photoshop.
future of the State of South Australia.
Three quarters of a century later,
Mick Bradley used tripod and ladder.
Baring must have worked hard on
Sunday mornings, when everyone else
was at church and the city streets
For all his skills, some places
“Doing this book has driven home
defeated Baring. He couldn’t straighten
to me the vision of our forebears, the
up the Epworth Building in Pirie
trouble they would go to, the love and
Street, no matter how hard he tried.
care our craftsmen and architects
Gawler Place was a pain, for both
had, so that their buildings would
stand for a significant time.
were clear. He would not have seen
photographers. No room to move.
grown men in Hindley Street hide
Baring couldn’t reach the architecture,
“Where people prefer to gather
behind newspapers at the sight of a
so he shot only the shopfronts. Bradley
is where our architecture has been
Digital SLR. Mick Bradley did.
photographed everything.
preserved, like the East End. Some
He would not have observed a
woman remove most of her clothing
and wrap it around Rundle Mall’s
The compensations far outweighed
the complications, however.
Mick Bradley first came to
of the 1970s facades are starting to
peel off. Maybe we’ll find something
worthwhile behind.”
Such reflections might be
brass pigs to keep them warm in the
Adelaide from the east in 1961, to
middle of winter. Nor did Baring
what he saw as “a smaller, more
interrupted by “Waddaya taking
bump into the singer Cliff Richard
manageable Sydney, with a much
fodas of?” Or an Asian visitor’s “What
leaving A Class Shoe Repairs.
prettier name”. A year later, when
lens you use?” Or on moving the
Bradley was gone again before
ladder to the next location, “The boss
of a year of his working life walking
returning, the Tavistock Hotel
said you were coming, told me to look
the streets of Adelaide for this book,
was torn down for the widening of
after ya. Want a drink?”
a photographic flaneur. He spent
Tavistock Street into Frome Street.
Bradley did. He spent six months
the other six months up the ladder,
a watcher above the crowd.
In his year on the streets, Bradley
Like many South Australians,
shot several thousand photographs
Bradley didn’t know that – until he
to make up the 800 in this book. As
went to photograph the Tavistock
he took them, his kinship with Baring
top of a ladder in a big city, waiting
Hotel. He thanked the gods of building
grew. “Hermann did an extraordinary
for a bus to move or a light to change.
preservation that the rest of the
job, to even conceive of the idea. It’s
Baring was a good photographer,
beautiful array of South Australiana
not a common project. I haven’t seen
Bradley reasoned, to take all those
heading east along Rundle Street
it done to any other city.
pictures in 15 months. Even if he didn’t,
hadn’t been treated the same
and Les J. Kyte helped him, Bradley
heartless way.
There’s a lot of time to think at the
still takes off his hat to Baring.
He didn’t have the traffic lights,
And as a documentary
photographer, Bradley thanked
“Perhaps in another 75 years,
this book will resurface and be as
intriguing as Hermann’s is now.”
Late one afternoon in Currie
bus shelters, wires, street signs
Baring for keeping a pictorial record
Street, as Bradley was shooting his
and roadworks to contend with.
of the Tavistock Hotel, so he could
smaller, more manageable Sydney
But although the principles of
enjoy imagining it.
with a much prettier name, a passer-
photography haven’t changed in 75
Up the ladder, Bradley found
by with an Irish lilt called to him:
years, the technology has. Baring
himself scrutinising Adelaide’s
“God bless you for photographin’ the
had to correct distortions caused by
buildings more closely than your
billdin’s.” He shook Bradley’s hand,
photographing buildings in narrow
average flaneur. He marvelled at the
and walked on.
streets “in camera”, each on a single
“extensive, intricate carving and
piece of 4x5 film.
stonework on these 100-plus-year-
Hermann Baring 75 years ago. If not,
old constructions, the expense the
someone should have.
He might have had the latest roll
Someone might have said that to
75 years on
The State Library of South Australia,
to become one big photo. Baring
contains only a fragment of that city’s
by law, has a copy of the original
used scissors, glue and his own
CBD. He had better luck further out
Progressive Adelaide from 1936. The
discriminating sense of location,
with flatter Parramatta.
Baring family has one.
direction and proportion. Graphic
City of Adelaide senior heritage
architect John Greenshields found
Progressive Adelaide in the Holdfast
Designer Liz Nicholson began
Print Group Mac operator Peter
her career at the end of the cut and
Verheyen used Photoshop.
paste era. She quickly developed an
Even after 30 years in the trade,
appreciation of Baring’s bare-hands
Bay library, which led to a photocopy
Verheyen found himself tested.
achievement while applying the new
for his Council. Adelaide City
Bradley would photograph a building
technology to rationalise not one, but
Councillor Sandy Wilkinson picked up
with an awning or a verandah. That
two, books. Liz also tracked down
an original edition in an Adelaide Hills
same awning or verandah would
support images from the State Library
bookshop.
appear in the photo of the building
of South Australia, the City Council
next door, but with a different
and other sources.
Wilkinson and Greenshields saw
the heritage value of Progressive
perspective, placed at a different
Adelaide. In it, the streetfronts are like
angle. If not corrected, Adelaide would
puzzles to put together, to make it
black and white movie stills. So the old
look like a row of shacks.
read well so people can navigate it,”
book is, and always will be, a resource
The Photoshop trick was to
“It was the master of all jigsaw
Liz said. Along the way her eyes were
for the repair and restoration of our
match the perspectives every time.
opened to the enjoyment of “What a
historic buildings.
Anything in front of a building could
beautiful city we have, with beautiful
cause problems – those awnings and
buildings still in use.”
But Progressive Adelaide was never
meant to be a mere manual. It was a
verandahs, tables, chairs, cars, people.
prestige publication at a prestige time.
Light and season changes had to be
From that, the idea began to grow:
let’s do it again.
The plan was to contrast Adelaide’s
past with its more complex present.
By presenting specific locations three-
considered, too. The job took hours on
the Mac, then months, and sometimes
it couldn’t be done. So Bradley went
back up his ladder with his camera.
North Terrace heading west and
quarters of a century apart, the errors
Rundle Street heading east are on
of destruction across the generations
slopes. If Peter hadn’t straightened
would be there to see. Ideally, in
them, both streetscapes would have
the next 75 years more of our built
wandered down the page and fallen
heritage would be retained.
off. Don’t worry, Baring did exactly
Yet Progressive Adelaide itself
seemed to grow with each fresh look
the same thing, his own way.
Verheyen was very glad that his
at it. So, it followed, did this book.
task was a square city on a grid on a
Instead of shooting a selection of
plain, that it was Adelaide not Sydney.
buildings, photographer Mick Bradley
He doubts that most cities, with
revisited every address in the original.
their undulations and street-level
That meant 1800 images of Adelaide’s
idiosyncrasies, could be captured
CBD eventually appeared on the
as Adelaide has been captured
computer screen at Graphic Print
here. Baring did, indeed, try to do a
Group in Richmond.
Progressive Adelaide on Sydney, but
For each street section, every
photo had to be “stitched” together
he appears to have retired defeated.
Z The photographer and the writer at work, in what
His Progressive Sydney of 1938
was once the front bar of the Tavistock Hotel.
Pageant of Progress, South Australia’s centenary, 1936
–6–
King William Street
Lady visitors staying at North Terrace
Hotels are advised that the Toilet Salon
of MISS ELSIE TONKIN is the nearest,
and that expert attention is assured in
all branches of ladies hairdressing.
Situated at 10 King William Street, just
a few doors south of North Terrace,
you are saved the inconvenience of
traversing crowded streets. Permanent
waving a specialty. Phone: C. 2884.
F.W. PREECE & SONS,
Rundle Street
Apollo Place
North Terrace
Fowlers Lane
Booksellers and Librarians.
Importers of foreign books
and periodicals.
KING WILLIAM STREET (East Side), Between North Terrace and Rundle Mall
Former bank of new south wales
Beehive Corner Building (1896)
(1939–1942)
The Bank of New South Wales building, Adelaide’s finest modernist commercial building of its era, was still on the drawing boards in the centenary year. The Beehive Corner, Adelaide’s Piccadilly
Circus or Times Square, had been a landmark already for 90 years. It took its present liquorice allsorts form in the late 19th century, and became the city’s first picture theatre. Then, like the
chocolates sold there for generations, Beehive Corner was steadily devoured. It was restored 100 years after it was built, and just as well. The city would not be what it is without the Beehive Corner,
where Adelaide people meet on the widest capital city main street in Australia.
–8–
WATERHOUSE CHAMBERS, Corner
Rundle Street, 44 King William Street.
M.S. DURANT , Practical Watchmaker,
does work of the highest class on the
second floor of Waterhouse Chambers.
Shuttleworth & Letchford , Licensed
Land Brokers, Auctioneers and Real
Estate Agents.Waterhouse Chambers.
Established 1857.
SANDS &
56 King William
Street. The only complete
store for men. Founded
on the principles of
Truth, Style, Quality and
Value—both in Mercery
and Hand-Tailoring.
CHARLES WELLS & CO. ,
McDOUGALL
main & Son–Chemists ,
Chemists, 60 King William
Street, Phone: C 4717.
Adelaide’s Most Central
Hotel. Hot and cold water
in every room. Spacious
Balconies. Moderate Tariff.
PTY. LTD. ,
66 King William Street,
“Accuracy”–”Service”–
”Quality”. “Mains for
Medicine”.
NOONAN’S SOUTHERN
CROSS HOTEL .
M.J.
Noonan, Managing
Director. Phone: C. 563
(2 Lines).
64
King William
Street, Printers,
Manufacturing
Stationers.
Established 1882.
Covent Garden
Restaurant and Cafe
S.O. BEILBY , Shipping
and Retail Grocer and
Provision Merchant,
70 King William
Street, Adelaide (late
Crawford’s). C. 5000.
CENTRAL PROVISION
STORES ,
King William
Street, High-Class
Grocers, Provision, and
Tea Merchants. Phone:
C. 1263 (3 lines).
Clarence Place
Grenfell Street
GRAY’S ,
KING WILLIAM STREET (East Side), between Rundle Mall and Grenfell Street
Former Waterhouse Chambers (1848)
Sands & McDougall
Building (1881, 1933)
Directly across from the Beehive Corner, the former Waterhouse Chambers has, by South Australian standards, much antiquity. It might not be an attention seeker like its partner at the entrance
to Rundle Mall, but it has stood there since the 1840s, when the famous Burra Burra copper “monster mine” paid for it. Adelaide takes the old Waterhouse Chambers for granted. Brought back to its
original limewash, it would reveal itself as a graceful Regency Georgian building. Along the street, tucked in like a book on a bookshelf, the slim volume Sands & McDougall Building, or “Sands and
Mac”, is one of the city’s great survivors. Presumably its minimal ground floor space, and consequent lower rental income, saved the loveable art deco building. In 1948 the Covent Garden Restaurant
and Cafe next door went up in smoke, killing five in the kitchen and provoking a call for more ambulances. A man slid down a drainpipe to safety prompting further calls, this time for fire escapes.
The modernist ex bank building there now contributes to a small yet distinctive “main drag” precinct, often overlooked despite its variety of buildings from different eras.
–9–