- Victoria Square, Adelaide
Victoria Square (coord|34|55|50|S|138|36|15|E|region:AU-SA_type:landmark) is a
public square located in theSouth Australia n capital ofAdelaide . The square forms the centre of the city's grid of one square mile. The square was named by the Street Naming Committee on 23 May 1837 after Princess Victoria, heir presumptive of the British throne. [cite web
url=http://www.historysouthaustralia.net/STsquare.htm
title=History of Adelaide through street names - Land forms
publisher=www.historysouthaustralia.net
accessdate=2008-04-09] Less than a month later the King died and Victoria became Queen. TheKaurna know the area asTarndanyangga and in line with theAdelaide City Council 's recognition of Kaurna country, it is officially referred to as Victoria Square/Tarndanyangga.A statue of Queen Victoria stands in the centre of the square. The fountain in the north of the square was designed by artist John Dowie to represent the three rivers from which Adelaide receives most of its water—the Torrens, the Onkaparinga and the Murray. During the Christmas period a Christmas tree is erected in the square. It is 24.5m in height.
Victoria Square is bordered by important public institutions, such as the
Supreme Court of South Australia , the AdelaideMagistrate's Court , theFederal Court of Australia , theTreasury and the Adelaide General Post Office. On the eastern side is the Roman Catholic Cathedral Church of St Francis Xavier and the near completeSA Water Headquarters. The Torrens Building, home to a number of community organisations, is now also used by theHeinz School Australia , an international campus ofCarnegie-Mellon University . TheAdelaide Central Market is located to the west of the Square.King William Street passes around the square making a diamond shape with the southbound carriageway passing to the east, and the northbound carriageway around the west of the square. It is bisected by a short road (technically part of the square) that connects Wakefield Street entering from the east with Grote Street to the west. A tram stop (formerly the terminus) for the
Glenelg Tram is in the southern part of the square; it was shifted from the centre to the western edge of the square on 6 August 2007, as part of the extension that was made to the tram line around that time. [cite web
url=http://www.infrastructure.sa.gov.au/infrastructure/tramline_extension/content/news.html
title=Tramline Extension > News
publisher=www.infrastructure.sa.gov.au
accessdate=2008-04-09]References
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