Victoria Square, Adelaide

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Victoria Square from its western edge

The square in around 1869.

Victoria Square ( 34°55′50″S, 138°36′15″E) is a public square located in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. The square forms the centre of the city's grid of one square mile. The square was named by the Street Naming Committee on May 23, 1837 after Princess Victoria, heir presumptive of the British throne.^[1] Less than a month later the King died and Victoria became Queen. The Kaurna know the area as Tarndanyangga and in line with the Adelaide City Council's recognition of Kaurna country, it is officially referred to as Victoria Square/Tarndanyangga.

A statue of Queen Victoria stands in the centre of the square. The fountain in the north of the square was designed by artist John Dowie to represent the three rivers from which Adelaide receives most of its water—the Torrens, the Onkaparinga and the Murray. During the Christmas period a Christmas tree is erected in the square. It is 24.5m in height.

Victoria Square is bordered by important public institutions, such as the Supreme Court of South Australia, the Adelaide Magistrate's Court, the Federal Court of Australia, the Treasury and the Adelaide General Post Office. On the eastern side is the Roman Catholic Cathedral Church of St Francis Xavier and the near complete SA Water Headquarters. The Torrens Building, home to a number of community organisations, is now also used by the Heinz School Australia, an international campus of Carnegie-Mellon University. The Adelaide Central Market is located to the west of the Square.

King William Street passes around the square making a diamond shape with the southbound carriageway passing to the east, and the northbound carriageway around the west of the square. It is bisected by a short road (technically part of the square) that connects Wakefield Street entering from the east with Grote Street to the west. A tram stop (formerly the terminus) for the Glenelg Tram is in the southern part of the square; it was shifted from the centre to the western edge of the square on 6 August 2007, as part of the extension that was made to the tram line around that time.^[2]