The South Australian government has just announced that its preferred option for a site for a new Women and Children's Hospital is in the north-western corner of Adelaide, opposite the nRAH and including the Newmarket Hotel. The Newmarket is surely one of Adelaide's iconic pubs. Given its commanding position, its long and interesting history and its architecture, it is arguably the Adelaide pub most worth preserving. Its has been listed on the Australian Heritage Database since 1978 and the South Australian Heritage Register since 1982. It's also on the National Trust of South Australia. The government, I'm sure, will argue that The Newmarket will, indeed, be preserved...as a building. The SA Liberal Party policy on the built heritage is to implement "a comprehensive heritage policy to rejuvenate our built heritage, ensuring it is protected and preserved for future generations" in part by facilitating the "adaptive re-use of heritage buildings in Adelaide's CBD". This emphasis on the building, as fundamental as that might be, is, I suggest, a very narrow, even superficial view of "heritage" and one that doesn't conform to the government's own conservation guidelines in part to "respect the historical context", "identify the likely impact of change on the cultural significance of the place", "avoid[s] uses that dilute or obscure cultural significance" and so on. Heritage and particularly the heritage of pubs and similar institutions are surely more than just the sandstone and mortar and are more about what happened in and around the building. And although The Newmarket has not operated as a traditional pub for the last few years, until recently the site has accommodated a licensed public house continuously since 1847 and in the current building since 1883. The government will show disrespect for this human heritage if it plans simply to incorporate a de-licensed Newmarket into the nW&CH and especially if it does not seriously investigate more 'historically compatible' uses for The Newmarket. The Newmarket is a pub, not a hospital. At this stage no concrete proposal has been officially announced. I will post updates as and when more news comes in. In the meantime, remain vigilant and Defend The Newmarket! (I should declare some personal interest in The Newmarket: my greatx4-grandmother, Francis Badman, was the owner and licensee of The Newmarket from 1883 to 1899 and was responsible for its rebuilding in 1883; see A (personal) pub-crawl... for some details.) Posted: 17 August 2018. Original content © Craig Hill 2018.