Pie Carts
As you will be able to tell, there is a lot of conflicting information here but I have sourced it as the best I can and used the information on this site as to what I found in my research. Thank you for your understanding.
The early beginnings, which eventually evolving into our now historical pie carts ......
Adelaide Coffee Stalls / Pie Carts have been around since 1860s, but there is some conflicting information out there. Anyway, the pie cart is still tempting not-so-fussy eaters into the wee small hours of the morning. The cart is most famous for it's Pie Floater - a meat pie turned upside down in a bowl of green pea soup and topped with a lavish dollop of tomato sauce.
The pie carts were a much part of the Adelaide scene as "Light's Vision" or the Glenelg Tram.
In 1861 George Baker received permission to keep a coffee stall at the corner of King William and Hindley streets from 8-12 p.m. and 5-7 a.m. Councillor Kitely's remark that it 'would be of great benefit, especially to cabmen' suggests something new, as does the Corporation referring it to their Legislative Committee rather than the Public Works Committee that processed most later applications. However, it wasn't a Pie Cart.
The spread of gas lighting in the city is offered as a reason for an increase in applications in the 1870s. In October 1870 F.W. Lawrence was refused permission to keep an oyster stall at the corner of Rundle Street (now Rundle Mall) and King William Street. In February 1871 W. Miller was refused permission to keep a ginger-beer and fruit stall on the corner of King William and Hindley Streets. There was already a coffee-stall run by Mrs Harris at Muirhead's corner - the south-western corner of this intersection. Vendors in the 1870s included coffee, ginger-beer, fruit and pie stalls.
Complaints were not infrequent. In January 1871, the council withdrew permission for Mrs Harris to run her stall 'in order to keep the streets free from the assemblage of bad or doubtful characters'. Later in the year F.W. Lawrence's permit was renewed on a monthly basis subject to there being no complaints against him. J.W. Townsend was granted a renewal of his permit in August 1874, but was warned that if any further complaints were received his permit would be withdrawn.
On the other hand some descriptions imply a similarity between coffee and pie stalls. Marcus Clarke's description of bohemian eating in the Melbourne of 1869, described similar coffee stalls to Mayhew. As well as coffee they traded in 'sandwiches, greasy cakes, and a sort of plum-duff of very satisfying character'. Ten years later the scene seems to have changed: 'For sixpence one can eat at a coffee stall the weight of a cup-winner's jockey. Hot baked potatoes, hot muffins, hot saveloys, hot rolls and butter! Hot coffee-boiling hot coffee! hot pies - scalding hot pies!'
In February 1874, F.J. Malone applied 'to keep a Coffee and Pie Stand' outside the Imperial hotel on the corner of Grenfell and King William Streets.
When the City Council altered evening opening hours in 1890, protest letters to the editor referred to coffee stalls as a place to get a 'a pasty or something warm'. An 1896 article in the Express and Telegraph used the terms coffee stalls and pie stalls interchangeably. When the Adelaide City Council decided to phase out stalls in 1938 it referred to them as Coffee Stall Stands but proprietors like Beale, Gibbs and Cowley were clearly pie sellers.
With this degree of uncertainty it is not surprising that there are different views as to the date of the first Adelaide Pie Cart.
- 1861 - George Baker's coffee stall at the corner of Hindley and King William Streets - Not really a Pie Cart but a pioneer for the concept of pie carts in Adelaide.
- 1871 - A pie cart 'licensed in 1871 and drawn by a horse to Victoria Square' - An actual Pie Cart
- 1871 - William Miller's pie stall in King William Street, near Hindley Street
- 1876 - Ray Purvis, owner of Cowley's Pie Cart for 30 years, believed the first cart appeared outside Bowman's Building in King William St about 1876
Adelaide certainly had pie stalls by the early 1870s.
The very first pie cart in Adelaide was believed to be outside the GPO in Franklin Street, City around the 1860's, followed a couple weeks later by another cart opened by an English ex-sailor called Gibbs. Gibbs opened his pie stall in 1864 on the corner of King William Road and Rundle Street. Looking to cater to workers in search of wholesome, but inexpensive meal. This area got nicknamed "The Bee Hive" now known as "Beehive Corner". This nickname is still used today and is written on the "Haigh's Building" as we know it as. I believe it was nicknamed because it was the most visited corner and more people would meet at this one spot in Adelaide. Due to many reasons, the local shopping area, eating places and possibility that it was the part of the main street that had things around it for workers etc. Now Beehive Corner is part of the main shopping area in Adelaide: Rundle Mall. Even though his cart was near the Beehive Corner, it was more closer to the old Darrell Lee Chocolate site.
Obviously, the site is not as busy as it is now a day. Today it's probably the most trafficked street corner in Adelaide, but the last place you want to stand around eating a pie.
The Bee Hive circa 1873
Pie Carts are typically a form of caravan / trailer / cart, (originally horse-drawn or food vending trolleys) with an elongated "window" along one or both sides where customers stand to eat their purchases.
The pie-cart was typically moved into position at lunch time (unsure of this) and in the evening. As traffic became busier and on-street car-parking in demand, the carts evolved to have one window on "the footpath side", and were moved into position after afternoon peak-hour traffic had ebbed. They do business until late-evening or early-morning, after which they were returned to their daytime storage locations. South Australia has had pie carts in the Adelaide metropolitan area since the 1860s. In the evenings, the Norwood pie-cart was located on The Parade adjacent to the Norwood Town Hall (Shell Service Station and now a Cinema Complex). It was also the only place where members of the public could buy draft Hall's "Stonie" Ginger Beer directly from the keg.
Old Pie Carts In the Adelaide city centre in the 1880s, there were 13 pie-carts operating in King William Street and North Terrace. By 1915 there were only nine pie carts in Adelaide, but by 1958 only two remained. They were Cowley's Pie Cart outside the GPO on Franklin Street, once claimed as the oldest still existing in Australia, and the Balfour's Pie Cart, outside the historic Adelaide Railway Station. When, in 2007, the Glenelg Tramline was extended from Victoria Square along King William Street and North Terrace past the Adelaide Railway Station, the Balfour's pie-cart was forced to close (unsure about this as the Adelaide Casino owned the Pie Cart at this stage.) Adelaide Casino kindly donate the now famous Pie Cart to an historical group for preservation - Old Tailem Town Pioneer Village.
Until late 2010, there was only one remaining, the GPO on Franklin Street. In 2007 the Franklin Street pie cart was bought by Gumleaf Bakery and in April 2008, it was taken off the road to get a fresh new look inside and to keep up with the standards and modern requirements. Previously, just serving instant coffee, very limited selection of pies, pasties and cakes, oh and course our famous icon - Pie Floaters. It was fitted throughout with stainless steel with modern equipment such as a coffee machine, deep fryer, bain marie, multiple refrigerators, microwave, new pie warmer, and so on. However, the return would have been in December 2008, but some issues had to be sorted out with the Adelaide City Council and the owner that caused the delay. A special thank you to mainly Councillor Anne Moran - Adelaide City Council and previous Lord Mayor Michael Harbison - Adelaide City Council, who in the end got the ball rolling as they say.
The business component is managed and owned by Rina, who has been trying to get the pie cart back to Adelaide's streets for the previous 7 months. The premises (cart and truck) is still owned by Gumleaf Bakery, who continued to supply their pies, pasties, cakes etc to the business.
This pie cart in Franklin Street has been recorded by the National Trust as the longest-serving eating venue in the state. A study of food carts has also been undertaken in central Melbourne. None of the other food carts within the City of Sydney have such a recognisable identity, nor the continuity of occupancy. There is now also a well known version of the pie floater in Sydney is sold from Harry's Cafe de Wheels situated in Woolloomooloo, New South Wales, with a similarly recognisable neon sign. Harry's Cafe de Wheels is listed on the National Trust Register as an historic icon. Originally set near the graving docks (now Australian Naval Dockyards known as 'Garden Island Naval Base' Woolloomooloo), east of the Sydney Opera House, the current Cafe de Wheels has been permanently fixed on a masonry base for some years. Other Harry's Cafe de Wheels operate in the Sydney city and metropolitan area, and in the city of Newcastle, New South Wales.
Unlike the other pie carts around Australia, this is probably the only business from it's beginning in 1860's that has sold it's own made pies and pasties etc.
The pie cart, for me, sums up all that is democratic and egalitarian about Australia. It has become a meeting place where cabbies, policemen, and other workers rubbed shoulders with theatre patrons in formal evening wear, musicians, politicians, businessmen and of course the tourists to our beautiful city.
Adelaide Pie Carts (up to 2010)
In December 1938 the Adelaide City Council allowed H. Backman, E.G. Beale, W.W. Beale, W.J. Cowley, James Gibbs, Gordon Gibbs, and J.D. McDonough to renew their stall licences but decided transfer of licences would not be permitted, 'for as stands become vacant it is the Council's intention to abolish them'.
By 1958 there were only two pie carts left in Adelaide - those on North Terrace outside the railway station and in Franklin Street outside the post office.
Adelaide Railway Station
The North Terrace pie cart site outside the railway station was popular with Premier Tom Price in the early 1900s. It was a site occupied by one of the Beale family's carts in 1938 but became vacant when they ceased trading there in 1942. C.W. Oram's Oven Door Bakery pie cart on the Rundle Street / King William Street corner was transferred to the railway station in October 1970.
The City Council reduced Oram's operating hours in 1981 and he was only allowed to operate from the railway station between 6 p.m. and 11.30 p.m. The controversy was taken up by state parliament where it was mentioned in Hansard over a period of several years. 'It took legal representation to Council and a Parliamentary Committee report to extend opening hours until 1 am.' Then in May 1986 Oram won approval for all-night trading from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Charles Oram sold the pie cart to Balfour Wauchope Pty Ltd in January 1987. Balfour's were also on the scene early in South Australia, having started up in the 1850's and again, their products are still made today. Maintenance and staffing difficulties lead to a decision by Balfours to close it down in 2005; however SkyCity Casino bought it in May 2005. Proposals for a permanent pie cart outside the Casino were rejected by the City Council because of the volume of day time pedestrian traffic on the North Terrace footpath.
Victoria Square
Located alongside the General Post Office (GPO) on Franklin Street.
William "Bill" Cowley was born at Port Wakefield in June 1911. His pie cart was first located near the Town Hall in King William Street and then moved to Franklin Street, outside the GPO in 1937, he was the owner of Cowley's Bakery. Pat and Ray Purvis bought Cowley's Pie Cart in 1964 and ran it until 1994. In 1987, Cowley's Bakery and Cowley's Pie Cart became separate companies, with a 'loyalty agreement' for the bakery to supply the cart. After running Cowley's Pie cart for 30 years Pat and Ray Purvis sold it to Leon Chapman who ran it for eight years before putting it on the market in 2002.
Cowley's Bakery was bought by Prices Bakery, also known as Bakeries of Australia, which went into receivership in January 2003 and late that year Cowley's products were no longer on the menu. Morton's Bakery at Edwardstown took on the job of supplying pies, and then bought the cart from Leon Chapman in 2004. Then in 2007 Gumleaf Bakery bought the cart from Leon Chapman who had gotten it back. Then it closed down in late October 2010.
Other Pie Carts
Glenelg
There isn't any information on the pie cart(s) in Glenelg at this stage.
However, there seems to have been one in the area in either the 1920's or 1930's.
Then another one from the late 1980's to early 1990's. These are hearsays by various people who has either seen or visited the pie cart during their lifetime at some stage but the year or years are faded in their memory.
Norwood
When the Norwood pie cart closed in 2001 it had been trading in the same place on the corner of George St and the Parade for 80 years. In 1988 an 'old resident' recalled that in the early 1930s a floater cost threepence - 'a penny for a plate of peas and tuppence for a pie, if separate.'
In 1999 David Roberts, of Kingswood, remembered the swimmer Dawn Fraser's connection with the Norwood area during her time in Adelaide from the late 1950s. He thought the local council should name the intersection of George St and the Parade 'Dawn Corner' to recognise her fondness for the Norwood pie cart.
As with other pie carts there were occasional troubles with local traders. In 1962 a used car dealer complained that pie cart patrons sometimes 'plastered' his cars with unwanted pies and pasties.
The $12 million Hoyts Cinema complex on Norwood Parade opened in December 1998 just behind the pie cart's traditional site. The pie cart's annual lease also expired in December and there was pressure from the cinema developers to move it. Suggestions to move it to the front of the Norwood Oval were resisted by the owner, Peter Webb, and the lease was renewed for the George Street corner.
Pressure continued in the form of requirements to clean the footpath with either a steam cleaner or high-pressure hose. After a move to outside Norwood Oval the pie cart closed in 2001. I think there is more to this story than we know.
Vilis had the pie cart permit for awhile and only trade on Footy nights / days. I believe Balfours now have the permit and unsure if they are have a pie cart?
Port Adelaide
James Gibb, who had one of the original pie carts in Adelaide, emigrated from Scotland in the 1880's, working at a brewery during the day, and baking and selling his pies at night. One of Gibb's sons, also James, established a pie cart near the Black Diamond Corner, in Port Adelaide. His stall featured a charcoal stove and hanging tarpaulins to provide both warmth and keep out the cold winds blowing off the river. Gibb's bakery items are still made today.
Charles Franklin was the original owner of a pie cart that had been in various locations at Port Adelaide since before 1908. Some locals knew it as 'The Duke of York's Own', because it was at the wharf to cater for the crowd when the Duke and Duchess of York arrived in 1901.
In 1937 this pie cart survived a petition from shopkeepers asking the Port Adelaide Council to have it removed. They were protesting because patrons 'every night litter the path with pie crusts, foul shop windows with sauce, grease, meat and pastry, and scrawl obscenities on the windows with greasy pie crusts'. Council members suggested alternative sites, but when the Mayor pointed out the pie cart owner paid £60 a year for the stand they decided to hear his views.
Charles Franklin's sons, Arthur and Cecil, ran the pie cart for many years and 'Pearl' Johns also 'presided' there for 12 years'. The Franklin brothers still owned the pie cart - then located at the corner of Hart and St. Vincent streets and run by lessees 'Blue' Challinder and T. Allen - in 1958 when it converted to electricity: 'instead of stoking up the fire, Mr. Challinder began plugging in daily to a nearby electric power point'.
This pie cart was still operating in 1967 when Mrs Challinder was photographed stepping into it with a tray of pies. It would be interesting to know when it ceased trading?
Port Pirie
Ern 'Shorty' Bradley was born at Hindmarsh in 1874. Family tradition says he did an apprenticeship in Adelaide with Jim Gibb, of Gibbs Pies, and then set up a bakery to service the smelters in Port Pirie. An obituary in 1929 said Shorty 'and his popular pie-stall "Duke of York," have for years been a familiar and homely site near the Institute in Ellen street'.
Port Pirie Pie Cart 1919
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In late 2003 the owner of the GPO, Franklin Street Pie Cart - Mr Chapman stated that the GPO Pie Cart has had only six owners since 1875, and is the only independent cart left; the other one is owned by a bakery company. And his advice to people who find the pie floater difficult to stomach? "Just close your eyes and taste it".
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Most of the pie carts in our beautiful city (past and present) have had changed hands a few times. I do not have complete details of each pie cart or who owned them and when they owned them. I might have missed a few owners here and there but I do not have access to records as there seems to be very limited in the many places I have looked. I will continue to try and find out more information in the future.
If anyone has any information on the pie floater or even on the Adelaide Pie Carts, please contact me. Click Here
Also, if any of the information is incorrect, please email me with the correct details and where they were sourced.
Last updated on 2nd February 2020