29 October 1877        Horse Tramway

On 29 October 1877, a wet and windy day, the Governor, Sir William Jervois, laid the first rail of the new tramway system from the city to Kensington, outside the Norwood Town Hall. A Bill authorising the construction of the horse tramway was passed on 27 September 1876 after the Adelaide and Suburban Tramway Company Limited had been successfully floated in August 1875 with a nominal capital of £25,000. The line was double except for a short section in Rundle Street between East Terrace and Pulteney Street. The car shed and stables were situated on a triangular piece of land on the north-west corner of Shipsters Road and Regent Street, Kensington. The stone shed could hold twelve cars and the stables housed 120 horses. The route ran along Shipsters Road to Kensington Road, down High Street to The Parade, north to Sydenham Road, west along Beulah Road and then along Rundle Street, Kent Town to east terrace and then the single track to Pulteney Street, around into Hindmarsh Square, Grenfell Street, north into King William Street, thence back into Rundle Street. The line was opened to the public without ceremony on 10 June 1878 with a half-hourly timetable and the fare to Kensington was threepemce.

L.S. Kingsborough, The Horse Tramways of Adelaide and its Suburbs 1875-1907, Libraries Board Adel. 1967, pp.1-4.