A first-timer’s guide to Adelaide’s East End

The East End is the north-eastern corner of Adelaide's city grid, and Rundle Street is its spine. When locals say they are heading to the East End, they usually mean the half-kilometre of Rundle Street between Pulteney Street and East Terrace, plus the lanes and side streets that run off it.

Where it starts

Walk east along Rundle Mall and, once you cross Pulteney Street, the pedestrian mall gives way to a working street with traffic, wide verandahs and outdoor tables. The change is abrupt and it is the easiest way to find your bearings: the chain stores are behind you, and the street ahead is mostly independent shops, kitchens and bars in nineteenth-century buildings.

Reading the buildings

Much of the street's character comes from the old commercial frontages above shop level — look up rather than at the windows. The blocks towards East Terrace were once the city's wholesale fruit and vegetable market, and several of the market-era buildings survive with new uses inside. The lanes running north and south, such as Ebenezer Place and Vardon Avenue, are quieter and worth a detour.

Coffee and timing

Mornings are the East End at its most relaxed: footpath tables fill with people on their way to work or the university a block away, and it is easy to find a seat. Evenings are busier, and in late summer, during the Fringe and festival season, the whole precinct is crowded well past midnight. If you want the street to yourself, go early on a weekday.

Where to go next

Cross East Terrace and you are in the Park Lands, at Rundle Park. One block north, North Terrace has the Art Gallery, the South Australian Museum and the State Library within a few minutes' walk of each other, and the Botanic Garden is at its eastern end. All of it is flat, and none of it needs a car.