Academy of Music, Adelaide

They engaged architect Ernest H. Bayer, and builder A. G. Chapman, who demolished the four existing shops, and excavated the whole area to a depth of 9.5 feet (2.9 m) for a cellar, floored with slate, subsequently rented to Primrose & Co., brewers.

The seating was built up in tiers towards the back in order to remedy the problem of the flat floor, and the work was completed in time for Edward Maclean's Juvenile Troubadors to play Struck Oil for L. M. Bayless on 29 May 1880.

John Williams, who worked nightshift at the Primrose's Union Brewery on Grenfell Street, behind the Academy, awakened George Moore, the caretaker, who was sleeping in one of the rooms above the stage.

They left by the fire escape on the west side and survived without serious injury, but Moore lost all his clothes and possessions, including £58 savings, perhaps $10,000 in today's values.

Thomas Hudson's company transferred to Garner's Rooms for the rest of their engagement, including a vice-regal performance on the Wednesday, in such good spirits none could guess at their loss.

The shops and billiard saloon on the ground floor took little time to restore, and the architects Henderson & Marryat[a] retained the outer walls as a frame for the new design.

[9] Pollock's first attraction was Pollard's Lilliputian Opera Company, with a four-week season, opening on 9 August 1884 to a capacity audience — a little over a thousand — for Planquette's Les cloches de Corneville .

The fire was not as intense as that of the previous year, but when the reels arrived at 5 o'clock the whole of the interior of the Academy ablaze and destruction was no less complete, and they could do nothing except protect adjacent premises.

On this occasion the fire did not originate in the theatre, but in Castle's drapery shop, on the west side of the brewery lane, and may have started with the ignition of displayed garments, which were often hung close to the gas mantle illumination.

Deputy-superintendent Ronald Shearing entered Cunningham's, followed by firemen John Gardner and Albert Clark,[b] then just as the Town Hall clock struck eight, the roof fell in, causing the walls to collapse inwards.

[16] Solomon and Castle relinquished their lease on the property, and A. Waterhouse, who was now the responsible landlord, converted the building to one of two storeys, the upper floor of which was taken by Mary Eliza Aish,[c] who moved her Café de Paris[d] business there from King William Street.