‘Hideous Facadism’: Uproar over Wee Hur’s SA Pub Plan

Singaporean developer Wee Hur has kicked over a hornets’ nest with its latest plans for a heritage Adelaide pub. 

Wee Hur, known for large-scale student accommodation projects across the country, has filed plans for the partial demolition and adaptive reuse of the heritage-listed Crown and Anchor Hotel. 

The developer wants to build an 18-storey, 708-bed student accommodation tower on an amalgamated site at 188-196 Grenfell Street, which includes the historic hotel.

Wee Hur participated in a pre-lodgement process, but despite extensive commentary from the Design Review Panel in December regarding the configuration, character and uses of the site—including concern with the two-tower approach given the site constraints—Wee Hur has stuck to its plans. 

An issue the panel also raised was that the development exceeds height allowances, which is usually only considered if a project provides for retention, conservation and reuse of State or Local Heritage Place “and provides a notable positive contribution to character of area”. 

But Wee Hur’s development application was insistent that its retention of the Crown and Anchor heritage facade would constitute acceptable reuse and preservation. 

The development has thus far met with considerable opposition from residents, with the Adelaide Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith criticising the plan’s “hideous facadism” in local media, and grassroots organisations such as “Save the Cranker” popping up, which already has nearly 8000 Facebook members.

The Crown and Anchor Hotel, affectionately known as The Cranker, was first licensed in 1853 and had its own well to use as a water source for the neighbourhood, which was still in existence in the basement in the 2000s.

Along with other Adelaide inns, the Crown and Anchor had “insufficient or poor accommodation, and are also little or much out of repair: in need of repair” according to a report from March, 1879.

▲ The hotel in 1953, after extensions were made to the building in the 1920s.

In August of that year, colonial architect Thomas English called for tenders to rebuild the hotel, and a new two-storey building was built later that year to English’s designs, costing around £1534. Extensions were made to the building in the 1920s.

In more recent times, the Crown and Anchor has been a stalwart of the Adelaide live alternative music scene for at least the past two decades.

Acts to perform at the pub include Tex Perkins, Kim Salmon, Fiona Horne (ex-Def FX), Rob Snarski, The Spazzys, Dan Luscombe, and Lou Barlow (Dinosaur Jr).

▲ Only the facade of The Crown and Anchor would be retained under the proposal. Images: Phil Bartsch

Wee Hur’s development application will be assessed by the SA State Commission Assessment panel. 

Wee Hur has experienced much smoother sailing with other projects, including an 18-storey project in Sydney’s Redfern approved last year and submitting $400 million mixed-use plans for Buranda in Brisbane’s inner south.

The developer was contacted by The Urban Developer to comment on this article.