It is one of the narrow streets of the Adelaide grid, at 1 chain (66 ft; 20 m) wide.

Carrington Street was named by the Street Naming Committee on 23 May 1837 after John Abel Smith (Lord Carrington), a member of the National Colonisation Society of 1830.

[10][11][12] The Church of England's[13] Orphan Home for Girls was established on Carrington Street in 1860[14] in a former German hospital, opening in October 1861.

It closed in 1928, when it was remodelled into the King's Ballroom,[24][25][26] with its entrance in Carrington Street.

[27] After closure in 1975 due to a serious fire, the building remained vacant for several years.