The General Post Office is a colonial-era building situated on 141 King William Street on the north-west corner of King William Street and Victoria Square. It is the former General Post Office for South Australia. Postal services operated from the building between 6 May 1872 and 11 October 2019. A 14-story hotel was built behind the historic structure. It opened as the Adelaide Marriott Hotel in 2024.

History

General Post Office

The original building was constructed in the period 1867–1872, and was the most expensive building constructed to that time by the colonial government in South Australia. It was constructed from Glen Osmond and Glen Ewin stone, and ornamented with

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

limestone. A competition was held in March 1866 for the design of the building, with the winning design submitted by Edmund Wright in collaboration with Edward Hamilton. They were at the time in practice with

Edward John 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 h ...

, and Robert Thomas may have had a hand in the design. Prince Alfred, The Duke of Edinburgh, was involved in laying the foundation stone, who also officially named the

clock tower Clock towers are a specific type of structure that house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another building ...

Victoria Tower on 1 November 1867. The capstone was put in place at a ceremony on 25 May 1870. The height of the tower was put at , a little taller than the Albert Tower of the

Town Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

on the other side of King William Street. The original plans had the tower somewhat taller, but R. G. Thomas was obliged to redesign it, as a cost-saving measure. The building was extended in 1891-92. There was also an office tower addition to the original post office in the 1920s.

Hotel

On 14 October 2019, Adelaide's GPO was relocated to the adjacent GPO Exchange tower at 10 Franklin Street. Plans were announced for the original building to have with a

Westin Westin Hotels & Resorts is an American upscale hotel chain owned by Marriott International. , the Westin Brand has 226 properties with 82,608 rooms in multiple countries in addition to 58 hotels with 15,741 rooms in the pipeline. History Wes ...

hotel built atop it. In April 2021, South Australian premier

Steven Marshall Steven Spence Marshall (born 21 January 1968) is a former Australian politician who served as the 46th premier of South Australia between 2018 and 2022. He was a member of the South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia in the ...

attended a sod-turning ceremony, to mark the beginning of construction on the hotel. The hotel was estimated to cost $200 million, with property developer Greaton handling the construction. Designed by local architects Baukultur, the tower, on the site of the 1920s addition, will retain the entire original GPO building, with some sections incorporated into the new hotel. Upgrades to the structure as well as additional

seismic retrofit Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes (or generally, quakes) and the generation and propagation of elastic ...

have been added, to ensure the structural integrity of both the old and new buildings. The

topping out In building construction, topping out (sometimes referred to as topping off) is a builders' rite traditionally held when the last beam (or its equivalent) is placed at the top of a structure during its construction. Nowadays, the ceremony is ofte ...

ceremony took place in October 2023, and included an Aboriginal smoking ceremony by

traditional owner Native title is the set of rights, recognised by Australian law, held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups or individuals to land that derive from their maintenance of their traditional laws and customs. These Aboriginal title right ...

representatives Kuma Kaaru. The 285-room, 14-story hotel opened as the Adelaide Marriott Hotel on 22 August 2024.

Gallery

File:Samuel Sweet - King William Street Adelaide, looking north from Victoria Square - Google Art Project.jpg, 1872. Looking north from Victoria Square File:Adelaide town hall 1950.jpg, Looking north-east from Victoria Square with the GPO and Treasury buildings in the foreground in 1950 File:OIC victoria square N from grote.jpg, Looking north from the centre of Victoria Square in 2012 File:Victoria Square Adelaide 408.JPG, Looking north from Victoria Square in 2014 File:Adelaide Post Office architectural detail.jpg, Main entrance detail

References

External links

Adelaide Marriott Hotel website
{{Adelaide landmarks Buildings and structures in Adelaide Tourist attractions in Adelaide History of Adelaide South Australian places listed on the defunct Register of the National Estate Neoclassical architecture in Australia

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

Commonwealth Heritage List places in South Australia Hotel buildings completed in 1872 Hotel buildings completed in 2024 Hotels established in 2024