Grenfell Street, Adelaide

Grenfell Street was named after 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.[3] Grenfell also donated another 40 acres (16 ha) of country land for the use of the church as glebe lands. This land later became the suburb of Trinity Gardens.

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, taxis, cyclists and emergency vehicles are also able to use the lane, but private vehicles can only travel up to 100 metres (330 ft) in the bus lane.[4][5]

In December 2016, after the O-Bahn extension tunnel was built underneath Rymill Park 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).[6] After this, nearly all buses travelling in an east-west direction across the city use Grenfell.[7]

Grenfell Street runs from King William Street to East Terrace. It is one of the intermediate-width streets of the Adelaide grid, at 1 ¹⁄₂ chains (99 ft; 30 m) wide.

On the other 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.[8]

The section of the street which runs parallel to Rundle Mall (west of Hindmarsh Square) features many retail outlets, as well as the southern entrances of many of the arcades, side-streets, and eateries of the mall. Office buildings and night spots also populate the street. The eastern end is occupied on the south side by the Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, an art and cultural museum also used as a venue for the Adelaide Fringe and other events, and on the north side by the East End Markets redevelopment.

E. S. Wigg & Son stationers and adjoining buildings in Grenfell St, Adelaide, 1922

Adelaide Electric Supply Co. power station, East Tce, c.1926

On the corner of Grenfell Street and East Terrace there is the old Grenfell Street Power Station building. Much of the building now houses the Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, facing Grenfell Street, which was heritage-listed on the SA Heritage Register in November 1984,[9] while the old converter stations face East Terrace. There is an "Historic Engineering Plaque" on a ground level plinth just east of the north-east corner of the Tandanya building, which was dedicated by the Institution of Engineers, Australia, the Electricity Trust of South Australia and the Adelaide City Council on 6 April 1995.[10]

Other heritage-listed buildings in Grenfell Street include:[11]

• the Wiggs Building (former home of stationers E. S. Wigg & Son[12][13]);
• the Crown and Anchor Hotel (first licensed 1853, rebuilt 1880s[14][15]);
• parts of the former Adelaide Fruit and Produce Exchange facing the street;
• the British & Foreign Bible Society office (Bertram Hall); and
• several other office buildings.

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