Snippets of SA History - Now vs Then
Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2012 7:36 pm
Apologies if a thread like this already exists. Feel free to merge...
History of The Greek on Halifax
This is one of my fav places in Adelaide. For what is offers now, and what is once was:
http://www.thegreek.com.au/ (75 - 79 Halifax Street)
History of The Greek on Halifax
This is one of my fav places in Adelaide. For what is offers now, and what is once was:
http://www.thegreek.com.au/ (75 - 79 Halifax Street)
- the_greek.jpg (61.31 KiB) Viewed 5778 times
The building in which you are dining and chimney outside are the only surviving elements of the once busy City Destructor Complex that was established in 1909 and exemplified a maxim of that time, ‘waste not, want not.’
The chimney and the disinfector building are a small part of the former complex, which once comprised a refuse Destructor, a tin bailing press, clinker paver mill, a brewery, flour mill and biscuit factory, mortar mill, boot and vinegar factories and a flag making plant.
It’s hard to imagine now, but the Destructor with its 38m tall chimney, was operating until the early 1950’s. For more than forty years the bulk of Adelaide’s rubbish was brought here until a special committee - set up to investigate alternatives for rubbish disposal - opted for landfill at Wingfield in 1952. The Destructor may not have been popular with city residents, but it was certainly effective.
The Destructor worked twenty-four hours a day and the furnaces produced so much heat that the resultant steam powered an electricity generator. The generator supplied this whole site. The complex also used the steam to disinfect laundry.
The steam disinfector building, now known as The Greek on Halifax, was used for the fumigation of bedding and clothing. In 1910 it was reported that a quarter of an hour in the system was sufficient to effectively sterilise garments and bedding. Following the steam process, the items were placed in a steam laundry followed by pressing with electric irons. For this service, individuals were charged a guinea per vanload, although for those too poor to pay, the service was free. Excess electricity was fed back to the Adelaide Electric Company to light the nearby streets.
The Greek has retained the integrity of the original disinfector building with its walls of fine red Hallett bricks - all 400,000 of them - and gaze upwards at the Metropolitan Company’s 150,000 brick chimney.
At night, be captivated by the glowing red, orange and yellow light from the furnace seen through the slumped glass panel set into the chimney opening. The paving design surrounding the chimney connects with the manufacture of clinker pavers on the site as well as the original architecture of the buildings.