Newmarket Hotel – facade and staircase

At this site on 11 January 1837, barely two weeks after the Proclamation of South Australia’s new colonial government, Colonel William Light began his famous survey to lay out the city of Adelaide and its 1000 saleable lots from a point near what was later known as Town Acre 1. An early market was established opposite and the New Market Inn was quickly established here.

The existing grand hotel building designed by Daniel Garlick was erected in 1884 and came to be known as the Newmarket Hotel. The cast iron balustrading to the balcony of the top floor was removed in 1955. The hotel has been changed substantially within but retains a fine spiral staircase. The uniquely South Australian beer size ‘the butcher’ is said to have originated at the Newmarket Hotel as butchers gathered there from the stock market and later cattleyards opposite.