Hindley Street is the historically grungy street in Adelaide's CBD with little in the way of modernist Adelaide architecture. Historically, it has been the nightlife entertainment centre of a suburban and industrial Adelaide. Today the street consists of yiros outlets, shisha venues, convenience stores, massage parlours and pubs.
It is in need of a bit more diversity to overcome the tacky look of urban impoverishment. This is an example of the historical grunge:
Despite the recent emergence of a laneways and street culture in Adelaide, Hindley Street still has an image problem from the perspective of the city council. It is a counter image to the offical brand of the city.
This area of the west end of the CBD is in decline, and it has been since early in the 21st century. There are limited numbers of people walking along the street during the day, many of the shops are empty, the entertainment aspect has declined, whilst the street on the week nights can be quite desolate.
It is on the nights of the weekend (Friday and Saturday) that the night time economy flourishes, and it is one that is still often marked by alcohol fuelled violence.
The CBD is seeing an influx of new residents in high rise apartments as well as large infrastructure development (eg., the Adelaide Oval, biomedical precinct, Convention Centre, Royal Adelaide Hospital, etc), as part of a strategy to renew Adelaide. However, Hindley Street has been unable to link in any substantive way to the knowledge economy, or to substantively develop the fragmentary and loose connections with the creative class in the emerging post industrial city based on the service sector rather than heavy industry or manufacturing.
Hindley Street languishes.