Pirie Street Brewery
The Pirie Street Brewery was a brewery situated on Pirie Street and Wyatt Streets, Adelaide, in the early days of the British colony of South Australia. It was succeeded on the same site after a few years by the Adelaide Brewery. Its original address was 50-62 Wyatt Street; today the buildings at 54–60 are heritage-listed in the South Australian Heritage Register, and there is a remaining building at 113 Pirie Street now occupied by the Hill Smith Gallery. This Adelaide Brewery is not to be confused with the Adelaide Brewery founded by Charles Mallen for  W. K. Simms in Waverley, New South Wales. History of the company. Pirie Street Brewery was operated by James Walsh (1847 to 1851), Simms & Hayter (1851 to July 1853) then Simms & Humble (July 1853 to August 1855), followed by E. J. F. Crawford. Walsh founded the Pirie Street Brewery in 1847 or earlier. It was not popular with those living nearby. In 1851 he sold the business to William Knox Simms and John Hayter, who operated the business as Simms & Hayter. Samuel Humble joined in 1853, and they traded as Simms & Humble until 1854, when the partnership (which by then  included James Chambers) was dissolved. and the business disposed of to E. J. F. Crawford, who ran it until at least 1859. Simms & Co., took over W. H. Clark's Halifax Street Brewery in 1856. In 1861 J. T. Syme and F. S. Sison formed a partnership Syme & Sison, and established the Adelaide Brewery on the same Pirie Street site. Syme & Sison were also associated with several hotels in Adelaide: the Queen's Arms in Wright Street, the Somerset at the corner of Pulteney and Flinders Streets, and the White Conduit House Hotel in North Street. In June 1882 they  sold the business to Andrew McIntyre, William Wicksteed and Henry Anthony, none of them with any brewing experience, who continued trading as Syme & Sison. while the originals left for England. Wicksteed and Anthony were found insolvent July 1886. The Adelaide Brewery was acquired "on very advantageous terms" by the South Australian Brewing Company around 1900. The buildings. The original land grant was made to William Wyatt on 23 December 1837 by the Resident Commissioner of the colony of South Australia, James Hurtle Fisher. In 1862, James Walsh owned the property, in April 1864 leasing it to Syme and Sison, who  were "brewers at the adjacent brewery". In 1871 Syme and Sison bought a small section of the buildings, continuing to lease the rest of the premises until purchasing it in November 1873. In June 1882 William Wicksteed, Henry Anthony and Andrew McIntyre bought the property, with the title transferred in November 1886 to Mary Jane Syme (widow) and James Russell. The original part of the 113 Pirie Street building (on the corner) was built as a warehouse for the Pirie Street Brewery around 1864, when Syme and Sison acquired it and renamed it the Adelaide Brewery. As brewing expanded in  the 1870s, so did the building, with a second storey being added to the warehouse in the 1880s, and much of the site extensively rebuilt. Daniel Garlick designed several new extensions: in 1871 new stables and offices were built; in 1872 a malt house and cellar; and in 1876, further rooms for storage and equipment. It was possibly the biggest and most well-equipped brewery in Adelaide at the time. After the brewery was closed in 1902, the buildings were used as commercial warehouses, with an extension and new frontage on Pirie Street around 1910. The printers Hunkin, Ellis & King  occupied the premises from June 1924 to April 1974. In 1982 the well-regarded firm Kenneth Milne Architects refurbished the building, with Samuel Hill Smith, purchasing the property for use as an art gallery known as the Hill Smith Gallery in July 1983, still in existence in 2020. Heritage status. The old brewery buildings with the present address of 54-60 Wyatt Street were heritage-listed on the state register in 1986. The building now occupied by the Hill Smith Gallery at 113 Pirie Street, once part of the brewery, was recommended for heritage listing in 2008 by Adelaide City  Council, described in its report as "A prominent early commercial building, clearly expressing in its materials, form and detailing a long history, first as a warehouse for the associated Adelaide Brewery, and subsequently as a well-detailed shop/office presenting an Edwardian classical frontage to Pirie Street. It is one of the very few surviving brewery buildings in the city, and was a significant part of the adjacent (heritage-listed) Adelaide Brewery". However it is not listed. Other breweries. Other breweries operating in the late 1860s included: