Jubilee Exhibition Building

The Jubilee Exhibition Building in Adelaide, South Australia, was built to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession to the throne on 20 June 1837.

The jubilees of her Coronation on 28 June 1838, and of the Proclamation of South Australia on 28 December 1836, were also invoked on occasion.

One is now located in front of the Rundle Mall entrance to the Adelaide Arcade, the other in the Creswell Gardens.

[1] The idea of South Australia hosting an international exhibition as a patriotic gesture was promoted in the early 1880s, culminating in a Bill which was passed by Parliament in 1883.

Subsequent opposition to the scheme on the grounds of the expense involved saw the Bill being repealed in 1884, and Sir Edwin T. Smith pushed for a less grandiose celebration, which resulted in the Act of 1885, and the voting of £32,000 for a permanent Exhibition Building, which after the Jubilee would become the home of the South Australian Institute.

The Jubilee Exhibition Building at night in 1920.
North Terrace institutions in 1926. Exhibition Building is second from right.
North Terrace, Adelaide 1930