Beehive Corner

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2015}}

{{Use Australian English|date=August 2015}}

File:Beehive Corner Adelaide CBD.jpg

File:Beehive Corner 1849 B60076.jpg

File:Waterhouse Chambers (1847) opp. Beehive Corner, Cnr King William & Rundle Streets, 1866.jpg

File:Closure for redevelopment, Rundle Mall.jpg

The Beehive Corner is a landmark in the Adelaide city centre, on the north-eastern corner of King William Street and Rundle Mall, centrally placed between the railway station and the city's shopping precinct.

History

The name gained currency from "The Beehive", a draper's shop opened by Brewer and Robertson from October 1849 then J.V.B. Ryley from 1850 to 1858,John Venables Ball Ryley and William Moore were in partnership followed by Israel Simmons (ca.1831 – 9 June 1893) who ran the shop until 1886, when his business, with many others, failed.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25655358 |title=Suspected Suicide in the Botanic Park |newspaper=The Advertiser |location=Adelaide |date=10 June 1893 |accessdate=12 January 2013 |page=5 |publisher=National Library of Australia}} According to one reference it had a beehive motif on the glass door portrayed in gold leaf. Nearby tenants included Edmund Wright the well-known architect, William Ekins the gunsmith{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article94748381 |title=Advertising. |newspaper=South Australian Chronicle and Weekly Mail |location=Adelaide |date=13 December 1879 |accessdate=12 January 2013 |page=23 |publisher=National Library of Australia}} and James Allen's printing shop.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46097288 |title=Jubilee of South Australian Journalism |newspaper=South Australian Register |location=Adelaide |date=3 June 1887 |accessdate=12 January 2013 |page=6 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}{{cite web |url=http://www.sahistorians.org.au/175/chronology/april/13-april-1895-beehive-corner.shtml |title=13 April 1895 Beehive Corner |first=Alison |last=Painter |editor-last=Marsden |editor-first=Susan |editor2-first=Paul |editor2-last=Stark |editor3-first=Patricia |editor3-last=Sumerling |work=Heritage of the City of Adelaide |publisher=Corporation of the City of Adelaide |year=1990|pages=96–97}} The name is even older – archivist G. H. Pitt found the name was chosen by the original owners to denote a busy trading centre.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55867605 |title=Illustrated article |newspaper=The Mail |location=Adelaide |date=7 August 1943 |accessdate=12 January 2013 |page=7 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

It had been a well-known landmark for fifty years in 1895 when what is essentially the present Beehive Buildings were built for the owner, Henry Martin to replace the antiquated structure. In the new design by George Klewitz Soward,{{Citation|last=Gilbert|first=S. H.|title=Soward, George Klewitz (1857–1941)|url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/soward-george-klewitz-8592|work=Australian Dictionary of Biography|publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University|access-date=2018-12-12}} four shops had frontages on King William Street and three facing Rundle Street, each 8 ft. (2.4 m) high, with jarrah floors and plastered walls and rear access and one shop 14 ft. (5.3 m) high, all having large plate-glass windows and nickel-plated columns. It was built three storeys above the pavement, and was Gothic in character, each gable finishing with crockets and a finial, and with open balustrades between them. At the main angle an ornamental turret was corbelled out, surmounted by a gilded beehive and bee and on the shaft of the turret the words 'Beehive Corner 1895' among foliage. The piers dividing the shopfronts were of Palmer granite. Sliding shutters were fitted to the windows facing King William Street, with a handsome iron verandah made by Fulton & Co. The sills of the windows facing Rundle Street were fitted with a small iron railing. The architects were English & Soward.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article54465131 |title=New Buildings in the City |newspaper=South Australian Register |location=Adelaide |date=19 April 1895 |accessdate=12 January 2013 |page=6 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

In 1950 the prime corner section of the complex was sold to confectioner C. A. Haigh for his iconic shop (Haigh's Chocolates) after his leasing it for some 35 years.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article45671331 |title=Part Of "Beehive" Block Sold. |newspaper=The Advertiser |location=Adelaide |date=25 September 1950 |accessdate=12 January 2013 |page=4 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

The neo-Gothic facade and prominent tourelle were refurbished in 1998 by the firm of Harrold and Kite.{{Cite web |url=http://www.harrkite.com.au/secondary%20pages/Heritage%20Restoration%20%26%20Recycling.html#Beehive |title=The Beehive Corner facade reconstruction and restoration |publisher=Harrold & Kite Pty Ltd |access-date=13 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160414215740/http://www.harrkite.com.au/secondary%20pages/Heritage%20Restoration%20%26%20Recycling.html#Beehive |archive-date=14 April 2016 |url-status=dead }}

References

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