It is pretty safe to say (and really obvious) that we have always considered the Mortlock Chamber of the State Library of South Australia as one of the masterpieces of SA architecture. We say obvious because if you follow our Instagram account (@GlamAdelaide) you will see our love expressed for this epic Harry Potter-esque building through a lot of our posts… But seriously can you blame us?
Photo by Ray Warren.
Photo by Ray Warren.
Well, now this breathtaking building has been acknowledged amongst the most beautiful libraries in the world, making the Huffington Post’s list of The World’s Most Beautiful Libraries. A list that it undoubtedly belongs on!
To tip our hats to the Library that we think really, is the best of them all, we have thrown together a few fun facts that you can whip out when you are talking about this SA gem:
- The Mortlock Wing is named after Mr John Andrew Tennant Mortlock whose wealthy parents owned Martindale Hall, a residence at Mintaro near Clare. Why is this interesting? Well that residence was made famous through the movie Picnic at Hanging Rock.
- Amongst Jack’s many interests was film-making. The Library actually has some of his films in its collection.
- The Mortlock Wing was officially opened in 1884 but was actually originally named the Jervois Wing.
- Construction of the building took over 18 years!
- Going gold! That’s right there is a little bit of gold in the Library – the balconies feature wrought iron balustrading ornamented with gold.
- The name switched to the Mortlock Wing after John donated $1.8 million to the State Library after his passing in 1979.
And just one more photo as a reminder of how lucky we are to have this stunner right here in Adelaide… All photos taken by the amazing Ray Warren.
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