Lion Arts Centre

The Lion Arts Centre, also known as Fowler's Lion Factory and Fowlers Building, with the main music venue within known as the Lion Arts Factory (formerly Fowler's Live), is a multi-purpose arts centre, including studios, galleries, music and performance centres, and offices in Adelaide, South Australia. It is situated on the corner of North Terrace and Morphett Street in Adelaide's West End, in a refurbished and repurposed factory once owned by wholesale grocers D. & J. Fowler Ltd. With its distinctive red brick federation-style architecture, the 1906 building designed by Frank Counsell is state heritage-listed.

After its use as a factory ceased, the building started being used as a performance space. It was known as the Living Arts Centre from about 1986 until 1992, during which time the building was renovated, converted and renamed to Lion Arts Centre.

The Fowler's "Lion" Factory, with its distinctive parapet topped by a statue of a lion, was designed by architect Frank Counsell in federation style for D. & J. Fowler Ltd in 1906. The brickwork was built by W. Sander & Sons, while the lion statue took three months to be carved by a Melbourne stonemason, John Patrick Jackson. The building is noted for its high-quality brick detailing and the well-designed composition of the facade. The building was used for packaging Fowler's Lion brand of flour, and the (original and now restored) signage on the parapet still says 'Fowler's "Lion" Factory'. Fowler's wide range of Lion brand products, trademarked in 1886, were very popular.

The original symmetrical shape of the facade was destroyed in 1966, when the eastern wing was demolished for the widening of Morphett Street and the construction of two new bridges across North Terrace and the River Torrens.

D & J Fowler was only taken over by Southern Farmers Ltd in 1982-83, but the factory lay vacant from around the middle of the 20th century, until the space was revived in the 1970s as offices and performance space for the Adelaide Fringe Festival, which included live music and was known as the Fringe Club.

In 1984, there was a Steering Committee appointed to investigate the feasibility of the Living Arts Centre, the precursor to the Lion Arts Centre, with the full conversion of the building planned in 1991. AusStage lists ten sources which list performances at the Living Arts Centre between February 1986 and February 1990 (and one in 1994, but this may be an anomaly). In 1992 the factory and surrounds was converted into an arts centre, henceforth known as the Lion Arts Centre, which became home to a variety of arts organisations.

In 1988, a copy of the lion was installed on the parapet, the original having moved with D & J Fowler. The yellow material seen slurping over the wall from the roof would represent custard, signifying the shift from industrial-commercial use of the building to arts use. The Lion brand of custard powder is still on sale as at 2022 <https://079.drakes.com.au/lines/lion-custard-powder-vanilla-375g>.

After the creation of the centre in 1992, its tenants moved in, including the Media Resource Centre, Dance Hub SA, and Craftsouth (formerly Craft Association of South Australia), a not-for-profit supporting visual artists and designers.