North Adelaide

North Adelaide is a predominantly residential precinct of the City of Adelaide in South Australia, situated north of the River Torrens and within the Adelaide Park Lands.

History
Surveyor-General Colonel William Light of the colony of South Australia completed the survey for the capital city of Adelaide by 10 March 1837. The survey included 1042 acres (4.2 km²), including 342 acres (1.4 km²) north of the River Torrens. This surveyed land north of the river became North Adelaide.

Design
North Adelaide consists of three grids of varying dimension to suit the geography. North Adelaide is surrounded by parklands, with public gardens between the grids. The North Adelaide Parklands (the Adelaide Parklands north of the River Torrens) contain gardens, many sports fields (including the Adelaide Oval), a golf course, horse agistment paddocks and some areas sympathetic with the native environment.

The largest grid is on a hill, and is sometimes referred to as Upper North Adelaide. It has Wellington Square at its centre, and O'Connell Street (named after Daniel O'Connell) as its main commercial street. O'Connell Street is the continuation of King William Road, and links the main street of Adelaide City with Main North Road. A tram used to run up O'Connell Street; the government is investigating extending the Glenelg tram along King William Road to terminate at Brougham Place. O'Connell Street has many cafes, restaurants, burger bars, shops and six pubs. Lincoln College and Aquinas College are also situated in this grid. Tynte Street is another commercial street in the largest grid running between Wellington Square and the east parklands. It contains the North Adelaide Primary School, a public library, a civic hall, a post office and a pub. Also on Tynte Street are the studios of Adelaide's NWS-9, the local Nine Network affiliate.

The smallest grid contains the Women's and Children's Hospital, the Memorial Hospital, St Peter's Cathedral, St. Mark's College, the Cathedral hotel (popular with cricket fans due its proximity to the Adelaide Oval), and the Queen's Head hotel (the oldest Adelaide pub, renovated in 2003).

The remaining grid is termed Lower North Adelaide. It is nearest the Torrens floodplain. It contains Brougham Place Uniting Church, St. Ann's College, and four pubs. Melbourne Street, with cafes, restaurants, galleries, shops and two pubs, is its commercial street.

Hotels
Many of the North Adelaide pubs and hotels are heritage-listed. There are fourteen in total: eight in Upper North Adelaide, four in Lower North Adelaide, and two in the Cathedral grid. Six of the Upper North Adelaide pubs are on O'Connell Street: the Caledonian, the Royal Oak, The Banque, the Cambridge, the Oxford and The Archer. The Daniel O'Connell (formerly the North Adelaide Hotel) is on Tynte Street, and the Wellington Hotel (which also serves as the local TAB) is located at the eastern side of Wellington Square. The Dover Castle is heritage listed but is no longer a hotel, having been turned into apartments. Lower North Adelaide contains the Kentish Arms, The Lion hotel (formerly a brewery), the Lord Melbourne, and the British (Adelaide's second oldest public house).

North Adelaide's O'Connell Street is also very popular for its many well known restaurants such as Fellini, cafe Paesano, Scuzzi, Linebait Fish cafe, Palazzo, 24 hour bakery and many more.

Education
The North Adelaide Primary School on Tynte Street was established in 1877 and is one of the oldest schools in South Australia. At 2007 its enrolment from reception to year seven was 250. The school's motto recorded on its World War One honour board is Esse quam videri, "To be, rather than to seem" and the school colours are red and blue.

Many residential colleges affiliated with the University of Adelaide are in North Adelaide, including Aquinas College, Lincoln College, St. Ann's College, St. Mark's College, Kathleen Lumley College (Postgraduate) and Australian Lutheran College, the Lutheran tertiary institution and seminary. Queen's College North Adelaide was the longest lasting proprietary boys' college in Australia, closing in 1946.

Transport
North Adelaide is well served by road, although in peak hour some roads, particularly O'Connell Street and Melbourne Street, are quite congested.

North Adelaide railway station is located on the Gawler Line of the Adelaide rail network. The railway station is however on the western edge of North Adelaide with infrequent services and is little used.

There are several Adelaide Metro bus routes that that service the area on their way through to other suburbs. Buses run along several routes:
 * King William Road, Ward Street, Hill Street, Mills Terrace then a bus only link to Barton Road
 * King William Road, Pennington Terrace, Jeffcott Street and Jeffcott Road
 * King William Road, O'Connell Street and Prospect Road
 * King William Road, O'Connell Street and Main North Road
 * King William Road, Sir Edwin Smith Avenue and Melbourne Street
 * Frome Road and Melbourne Street
 * Montifiore Road and Jeffcott Street (since October 2006)

There is provision for bicycles along LeFevre Terrace/Frome Road and Montefiore Road/Jeffcott Street/Wellington Square and many of the streets have little traffic and are bicycle friendly.

Residents
In the 2006 Australian Bureau of Statistics Census of Population and Housing, the population of the North Adelaide (people usually resident, excluding visitors) was 6,432 people, an increase of 179 from the 2001 census figure of 6,253 people. North Adelaide has a much lower proportion of its population below 14 years (3.6% 0-4 years, 4.3% 5-14 years) compared to Adelaide as a whole (5.6% 0-4 years, 12.2% 5-14 years). Conversely, the proportion of the population aged 15-24 years is 25.5%, much greater than Adelaide as a whole at 14.0%. There are 0.4% indigenous persons compared to Adelaide average of 1.1%.

The strongest religious affiliations in the area (based on the 2006 census figures) were (in descending order): No Religion, Catholic, Anglican, Uniting, and Lutheran.

The median household income of $1151 was more than the Adelaide average of $924. A majority of workers are employed in professional or white collar fields.

There were 3,302 private dwellings with the most common form being row or terrace house (44.8%), and units (30.4%). By comparison the Adelaide average were 12.3% and 11.1% respectively. The average household size in North Adelaide is 1.9, less than the Adelaide average of 2.4.

Politics
North Adelaide is part of the state electoral district of Adelaide, which has been held since 2010 by Liberal MP Rachel Sanderson. In federal politics, the suburb is part of the division of Adelaide, and has been represented by Labor MP Kate Ellis since 2004. North Adelaide usually has two polling booths for federal and state elections, North Adelaide (East) at the North Adelaide Primary School and Lower North Adelaide at St Cyprian's Church. The first preference votes for these two booths for the 2010 state and federal elections are shown in tables.

In local government, North Adelaide forms the North ward within the City of Adelaide, and the current Lord Mayor for Adelaide is Stephen Yarwood. North Adelaide is currently represented by councillors Susan Clearihan and Sandy Wilkinson.