The Adelaide music community is celebrating this week with news that the city’s beloved live music pub, the Crown & Anchor (AKA “the Cranker”), has been saved from plans to have it demolished by a developer – who had planned to turn the east Adelaide locale into a 19-storey high-rise facilitiy of student accommodation.
The Save The Cranker collective had been protesting the development by Singaporean development company Wee Hur Holdings, which would have seen the venue shut down, since April. “We intend to preserve the Cranker for future generations as a continuously operating historic hotel,” the group wrote in their mission statement at the time, “serving our community as a music and arts venue, a socio-cultural hub, function venue, meeting place, and as a pub.”
Under a new agreement with the state government, Wee Hur will now develop their facility on a site adjacent to the pub – with ten extra storeys added as incentive. This does mean, however, that the pub will close for a time while the facility is constructed – which could potentially be until 2026.
Amyl & The Sniffers – ‘Balaclava Lover Boogie’ (Live at the Crown & Anchor)
Peter Malinauskas, the Premier of South Australia, spoke to the crowd of protesters in the Adelaide CBD to confirm the deal had gone through with the state government. Furthermore, he said that new legislation would be brought in to protect all of Adelaide’s live music venues to prevent things of this nature happening in the future.
“What our legislation will do is protect the building forever,” he said. “Not just the building, but we will protect that building being a pub forever. Live music and development can coexist in our city, and what we want to do as a government is facilitate that… so that everybody wins.”
The Crown & Anchor was opened in 1879 on Greenfell Street, and has long stood as one of the city’s most notable live music venues. Among the acts that have performed there over the years include Powderfinger, Amyl & The Sniffers, Something For Kate, Frenzal Rhomb, Camp Cope, boygenius‘ Julien Baker and the late Justin Townes Earle. This is in addition, of course, to countless Adelaide bands, both up-and-coming and established, such as The Superjesus, West Thebarton, The Mark of Cain, Bad//Dreems, The Hard Aches, The Empty Threats, Placement and Teenage Joans.
Further Reading
The Tote’s New Owners Thank Music Community for “Astronomical Support” in Securing Venue’s Future
Brisbane Venue The Zoo Announces Imminent Closure
Teenage Joans Show Solidarity With Palestine On New Single ‘Intifada’
The post Adelaide’s Crown & Anchor Hotel Will Not Be Demolished appeared first on Music Feeds.
