The Sir Samuel Way courts building gives a second life for Adelaide Moore's department store, Victoria Square
The grand staircase, designed by English architect William Lucas for the former Moore's store, dominates the foyer of the Sir Samuel Way courts building in Victoria Square, Adelaide.
Images courtesy marketsquare.com.au
The Sir Samuel Way building in Victoria Square, Adelaide, is the major memorial to South Australia’s longest-serving chief justice.
Now home to the district and supreme criminal Courts, court of criminal appeal and environment resources and development court, the building was formerly Moore’s major department store, opened by Charles Moore in 1916 and modelled upon the famous Parisian department store Galeries Lafayette. In 1948, Moore’s store was nearly destroyed by fire. The iconic staircase was one of the few internal features to survive the blaze.
The declining store was sold in 1979 to the South Australian government’s superannuation fund investment trust. Strong public sentiment for it to be preserved saw it redeveloped into law courts. Some of the buildings original features were retained, including the grand staircase, designed by English architect William Lucas.
The new courts building, with terracotta tiled roof and dome added, opened in 1983. It houses 10 criminal courtrooms, 16 civil courtrooms, a library, chambers, conference rooms, court registries, the sherriff’s office, transcription services, media and communications, justice of the peace services and administration areas.
In 2019, the state government bought the Sir Samuel Way Building for $43.5 million. This aimed to save the Courts Administration Authority to paying annual rent of more than $6 million. The building was also being upgraded as part of the $31 million higher courts development.
The 2019-20 state budget also allocated $591,000 to bring in a state-wide in-court document management system (Judge View), leading to more efficiency. Judge View enables court files to be stored and managed electronically, moving away from a labour-intensive, manual- and paper-based system.
