8 September 1936 Bonython Hall

On 8 September 1936 1400 guests saw the Governor General Lord Gowrie open Bonython Hall in the University grounds. The medieval style hall was built with funds from a bequest of Sir John Langdon Bonython who left £40,000 for a Great Hall for the university. Shortly before construction began a letter to The Mail from ‘A correspondent’ pointed out Light’s original plan which had Pulteney Street extended by a road sweeping across the then existing Exhibition ground to Frome Road. He went on:

To block future extension of Pulteney Street, even by the erection of a beautiful building, would be an unpardonable sin to posterity and probably serve to complicate the traffic problems in the future.

However, land had already been invested in the University in fee simple by Act and the road would have cut the University in two. The matter was referred to parliament but the issue was not taken up by any politician and the building went ahead as planned.

City of Adelaide Heritage Survey 1981-86 Volume 7 Parklands, p.29.