Iconic North Adelaide landmark and vacant site – the Le Cornu fence comes down

In late December 2017, Adelaide City Council indicated that it would buy the vacant Le Cornu site at North Adelaide – the iconic Adelaide landmark. The Adelaide City Council bought the former Le Cornu furniture showroom site on O'Connell Street in North Adelaide.

The site has been vacant since 1989.

Premier Jay Weatherill said the site was "being taken out of hands of private developers (the Markris Group) and put into the hands of the local community. Through community consultation we will see the site develop in line with what the community wants after so many years of inactivity."

Makris Group's Con Makris said, "Because of a recent opportunity, I have made the decision to work collaboratively with the Adelaide Council to utilise the former Le Cornu site for open space and community use and to relieve the extreme parking issues and pressures in North Adelaide."

The Le Cornu site has come to be regarded as one of the city's worst eyesores and its future has been a longstanding local issue. Development plans for the site have repeatedly been announced and abandoned since the furniture business closed 29 years ago. In 2015, plans were released for the construction of a complex that included a 160-room Sheraton hotel, 131 apartments and office and retail space. But this was abandoned after community pressure.

In 1861 Phillip Joshua Le Cornu established a cabinet making business in Adelaide. In 1885 his business was destroyed by fire. It reopens in a former church in North Adelaide. In 1921 Phillip Joshua Le Cornu died, aged 85, and his business passed into the hands of his son Phillip. The son expanded the business in 1924 as a supply wholesale furniture store, employing 25 people. In 1927 another fire destroyed the factory, but the furniture sales continued. By 1954 Le Cornu began its first direct sales to the public.

In 1967 the company expanded its retail operations in North Adelaide where it installed its famous 40-metre-long window of curved glass, the longest display window in the southern hemisphere at the time. The architecture of the building was iconic – with 18 massive panels of deeply-curved non-reflecting glass. This ensured that customers could easily see the furniture on display.

In 1974 Le Cornu bought the old Chrysler car assembly plant on Anzac Highway at Keswick to expand its operations by building a second store.

In 1989 Le Cornu closed down its North Adelaide store, and Fantastic Holdings bought the store in 2008. Le Cornu closed its Keswick store in 2016.

Since the closure of the North Adelaide store, nothing has been developed on the site for 29 years. Instead, the building was demolished and an iron fence was erected around the unused site.

Cafe Paesano on the North Adelaide Le Cornu site re-established their business across the road in the Village Mall, where it still exists today.

Today, at the Le Cornu site, Adelaide City Council workers were dismantling the boundary fence, laying lawn, and preparing half of the site as a car parking area.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog