Education building in Flinders Street (1915), ES&A Bank in King William Street (1883) other Adelaide losses

The South Australian education department building (left) in Flinders Street, Adelaide, demolished in 1973. At right: A view through government house gates in 1936 showing the English Scottish and Australian (ES&A) Bank building, at right, demolished in the mid 1960s. Also shown are survivors: the original AMP building from 1936 and in the distance, the CML building, with radio transmission aerials from Adelaide's first commercial radio station, 5DN, that had its studio at the top of the building from 1930.
Images courtesy State Library of South Australia

The South Australian government education department building from 1915 in Flinders Street, Adelaide, and the English, Scottish and Australian (ES&A) Bank from 1882 in King William Street, Adelaide, were other victims, despite protests from heritage supporters, of 1960s/70s development in the city.

The seven-storey education department headquarters at 31 Flinders Street, Adelaide, was a building of ashlar masonry featuring an entrance framed by Doric columns and topped by the Australian coat of arms. A.E. Simpson of the South Australian government works and building department was the architect. Other government departments were based in the building, too.

It was demolished in 1973. Larger premises were built there for what became the education and child development department that included Families SA.

The English, Scottish and Australian (ES&A) Bank building, built in 1882-83, was at the northern end of King William Street, Adelaide.

(Elisabeth Dyer’s book The bank manager and his family is the story of Charles Tobin Cowle, the bank’s first manager, who lived and worked in Adelaide for 17 years before retiring in 1895: “He won the respect and esteem of all with whom he came in contact.”)

The bank building was demolished in the mid 1960s, along with the Gresham Hotel on the prominent North Terrace-King William Street corner, to make was for the AMP high-rise office block. The Gresham Hotel was built in 1873-74, with Daniel Garlick possibly the architect. A plain building, it had a large cast-iron verandah and balcony, with columns grouped in pairs to emphasise the cut-off corner and the principal entrance.