Miller Anderson's last of Adelaide drapery shops and city's oldest department store, 1839 to 1988 in Hindley Street
The Miller Anderson sign on its Hindley Street, Adelaide, store, seen looking west from Rundle Street in 1938. At left is the sign for Sigalas Cafe and the aircraft display is promoting the George Formby film It's in the air at the Mayfair Theatre.
Image courtesy State Library of South Australia
Miller Anderson’s 148 years of trading made it the oldest survivor of “scores of” drapery shops in early Adelaide city and the longest-lasting department store.
Miller and Gale, a small drapery shop, had opened at 52 Hindley Street, Adelaide, in 1839. Robert Miller of the original Miller & Gale drapery shop in Hindley Street (opposite Rosina Street) had several drapery partnerships (Sanders & Miller, Miller & Bryden, Miller & Lucking) before he returned to Scotland in 1848 but kept a link in the business through nephew J.M. Anderson.
After a third partner Robert Hawkes died, the business in 1859 became J. Miller Anderson & Co. that built a shop on the site of Jaffrey’s Waterloo House in 1863. This became a department store for the next 100 years.
The company was floated as Miller Anderson & Co. Ltd. in 1914-15 and in the 1920s built a five-storey store at 16-26 Hindley Street. As a public company from 1927, it was soon bought by Marcus Clark and Co. Ltd of Sydney. In 1966, Waltons took over Marcus Clark and in turn was bought by Venture Stores in 1987.
Miller Anderson’s finally failed in 1988 after an short-lived move to Station Arcade in Hindley Street.
Miller Anderson’s owners had bought Hindley Street’s Theatre Royal, opened in 1868, for £175,000 in 1955. The theatre had become rundown and the company said it was concerned by the safety of the proscenium wall. This became the determining factor in demolishing the theatre in 1962, to build a multi-level carpark. The store made a big early effort in having assistants help motorists use the carpark but this doesn’t quell the controversy over the loss of the old theatre.
