In 1862, a competition was held for the design of a Town Hall to be built on land which the city already owned at the corner of King William and Pirie streets. Former mayor (1859) Edmund Wright, an accomplished architect, won the competition and construction began in 1863 (completed theee years later). At that time, this was the largest municipal building in the Southern Hemisphere. It’s Bell Tower was named in honor of Prince Albert. From the beginning, the design of the building included not only space for the city council chamber and offices, but also a large ballroom/auditorium in which civic meetings and concerts could be held. With that in mind, in 1875, the city council ordered a magnificent organ to be constructed and installed in the auditorium. The first concert was held here on October 2, 1877. Initially, the position of “City Organist” was an honorary one, but by 1891 it had become a salaried one. In 1895, Town Hall was the site of the inaugural meeting of the Australasian Federation League of South Australia, an organization pushing to create the State of South Australia. While many important and noteworthy events have occurred in this building since its construction was completed, to some, the most extraordinary was the 1964 appearance of the Beatles on its balcony to greet 300,000 of their biggest fans. It has been said that this crowd was their largest of any of their tours up to that point. Today, Adelaide’s Town Hall not only serves as the seat for the City Council, but also plays host to the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.
If course, the main function of Town Hall is to host the City Council meetings...
While the Queen Adelaide room is adequate for most meetings...