Located directly north of the Adelaide CBD across the River Torrens, North Adelaide is an affluent residential suburb, nestled within the Adelaide Parklands. It consists of three grid-like designs planned at different angles to fit within the surrounding geography and is renowned for its heritage-listed buildings, cafe culture and attractive parks.
O’Connell Street is the main commercial thoroughfare in the suburb’s large northwestern grid, lined with cafes, burger joints, shops and historic pubs. Tynte Street which runs perpendicular is home to the public library, civic hall and post office, as well as the heritage-listed Daniel O’Connell hotel. To the north lies the Adelaide Aquatic Centre, the city’s premier swimming and water park facility, while to the south-west is the North Adelaide Golf Club which boasts beautiful views of the city skyline. The grid which stretches to the east is renowned for its nightlife strip of Melbourne Street where fine-dining restaurants and innovative bars stand alongside classic pubs like Lord Melbourne, the British, and the former brewery of the Lion. The southern and smallest grid is occupied by the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in its northeastern corner, with the main thoroughfare of King William Street carving through its centre and connecting with the CBD to the south. On its edge stands Adelaide’s magnificent Saint Peter’s Cathedral which dates back to 1878 and is one of the city’s most prominent landmarks. Directly south are the beautiful Pennington Gardens with their centrepiece fountain, connecting to the city’s premier sporting venue, the Adelaide Oval, together with the Memorial Drive Tennis Club which hosts major international tournaments.
North Adelaide is connected to the city centre and beyond by frequent bus services through each of its three grids. The area’s proximity to the city centre and accessibility along parkland walking trails make it pleasant to visit on foot or bicycle.
It was Colonel William Light, the Surveyor-General of the South Australian colony, who first planned the Adelaide city site in 1837, including 138 hectares to the north of the River Torrens that would evolve into what is known today as North Adelaide. Its most famous resident to date has been William Lawrence Bragg, renowned for discovering Bragg's law of X-ray diffraction, used to determine the structure of crystals, which saw him awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1915.