Flinders Street is a main street in the

city centre A city centre is the commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely equivalent terms exist in other languages, such as "" in Fren ...

Adelaide, South Australia Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...

. It runs from the northern end of Victoria Square to East Terrace, Adelaide. It is one of the intermediate-width streets of the Adelaide grid, at wide.Map
of the Adelaide CBD, North Adelaide and the Adelaide Parklands.

History

The street is named after the navigator and

cartographer Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an im ...

Captain

Matthew Flinders Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was a British navigator and cartographer who led the first inshore circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then called New Holland. He is also credited as being the first person to u ...

. On 22 November 1878 the East Adelaide Model School, later Flinders Street Public School or Flinders Street Model School, was opened in large bluestone buildings designed by

E. J. Woods Edward John Woods F.R.I.B.A. (1839 – 5 January 1916) was a prominent architect in the early days of South Australia. History Woods was born in London and educated at several private schools, then, deciding to become an architect, served ...

. A primary school occupied the premises until 1969, when the Flinders Street Adult Education Centre was established there. In 1978 it became the Flinders St School of Music, a campus of

TAFE Technical and further education or simply TAFE (), is the common name in English-speaking countries in Oceania for vocational education, as a subset of tertiary education. TAFE institutions provide a wide range of predominantly vocational cours ...

. Many churches were built on Flinders Street in the 1860s and 1870s, and several survive today. In August 2022, the City of Adelaide renamed a laneway off Flinders Street, behind

Adelaide Town Hall Adelaide Town Hall is a landmark building on King William Street in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. The City of Adelaide Town Hall complex includes the Town Hall and the office building at 25 Pirie Street. Description and history Adelai ...

, Paul Kelly Lane. Previously named Pilgrim Lane after the adjacent church, the lane is now called Paul Kelly Lane. It is the fourth such renaming after musicians associated with the city, the others being Sia Furler,

No Fixed Address In law, no fixed abode or without fixed abode is not having a fixed geographical location as a residence, commonly referred to as no fixed address. This is applicable to several groups: * People who have a home, but which is not always in the ...

, and Cold Chisel.

Historic buildings

Churches

churches on Flinders Street include: * Bethlehem Lutheran Church, at no. 170, on the corner of Sudholz Place *

Flinders Street Baptist Church Flinders Street Baptist Church is a church in Flinders Street, South Australia. History In response to a call by George Fife Angas for a Baptist minister to found a new church in Adelaide, Rev. Silas Mead emigrated aboard ''Parisian'', arriving ...

, at no. 65; includes manse, now Baptist Church Offices, and Mead Hall; all heritage-listed. * Pilgrim Uniting Church, at no. 12

Other historic buildings

*Flinders Hall, originally built as school accommodation for St Paul's Church of England, sold to Hamilton Laboratories in the 1950s *Observatory House, at no. 84-86, originally built for a scientific instrument-making business run by Otto Boettger, who emigrated to South Australia from Germany in 1877 *Office of Multi-Cultural Affairs, originally the

manse A manse () is a clergy house inhabited by, or formerly inhabited by, a minister, usually used in the context of Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist and other Christian traditions. Ultimately derived from the Latin ''mansus'', "dwelling", from '' ...

of the Stow Memorial Church (now Pilgrim), used as a sanitarium 1901–1911. before being sold to the

state government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonomy, or ...

*St Paul's Church, built 1972, known as a High Anglican church, whose congregation included many prominent families; converted into a nightclub during the 1980s; now St Paul's Creative Centre, accommodating people working in the arts and creative industries

Junction list

Footnotes

References

Streets in Adelaide {{adelaide-stub