William Cooper's house from 1866 in Carrington Street, Adelaide city, preserved as offices for senior legal figures
William Cooper's 1866 house in Carrington Street, Adelaide city, became offices for some of Adelaide senior legal figures.
Bar Chambers building in Carrington Street, Adelaide city, state heritage listed in 1986 and used a legal chambers in the 21st Century, was erected in 1866 as a house for South Australian public servant William Tomsey Cooper.
Cooper was born in London in 1826 and arrived in South Australia in 1853. He was appointed private secretary to governor Henry Edward Fox Young. In 1860, he moved to the government waterworks department becoming assistant accountant, then valuator in 1873, a position he held for almost 30 years. The Adelaide Observer noted that “Mr. Cooper was most painstaking and conscientious in the fulfilment of his public duties, and by the fairness to property holders and his courteous manner gained the confidence and esteem of his fellow-colonists”.
Cooper lived in the Carrington Street house until about 1885 when he leased it to Dr Niesche. During Cooper's occupation, in about 1881, the property was significantly altered and enlarged.
The building illustrated a typical development of the 1860s. It had raised gable ends, a parapet to the single-storey section and restrained detailing. The unshaded facade and the simple surrounds to windows were distinctive components of the structure typically constructed of bluestone rubble with stuccoed enrichment and red-brick trim. The heritage integrity of the two-storey section of the building was high. The front fence has been altered although the piers are probably original. The single storey addition to the east had been extensively rebuilt.