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A QUIET revolution has occurred in Hindley Street in the heart of Adelaide.
The transformation of Adelaide's West End has been ambitious, steadfast and well-planned.
A strong sense of community comes from a common sense of purpose, and a desire by retailers to work together to draw people back to Hindley Street for all the right reasons.
Wandering along, old favourites fuse seamlessly with new developments. Art galleries sit alongside bars, bookshops next to business enterprises with strip clubs just a few doors down from the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.
This eclectic mix is giving the street its energy - along with an all encompassing Shop Art scheme and a great deal of great coffee.
In Hindley Street, Short Black is fuelling the enthusiasm of local business owners.
This tiny, cosy and very funky new cafe is a hive of activity and has been an unmitigated success since opening its door six months ago.
Owner Sandra Mason is the inspiration behind Short Black Expresso Bar, where the street's newest tenants and identities jostle for space and a cup of some of the best coffee in Adelaide.
The cafe fit-out is Sandra's own work and features a big screen on the back wall, resin bar top (created from one of the largest resin pours in the world) and a collection of quirky chairs (each representing pivotal designs of the 20th Century).
Sandra says she is very optimistic that this is just the beginning of a return to the heady days of the 1950s to 1980s, when Hindley Street was the centre of all activity in Adelaide.
Back at street level, a myriad of enticing, exciting and intriguing artworks flank the windows of shops, cafes, restaurants and local businesses.
Shop Art is the brainchild of Hindley Street visionary Jill Newman. Her aim is to encourage local business owners to do something interesting with their shopfronts and use vacant shops to exhibit artworks.
An artist herself, Jill saw the value of using the shops as high profile exhibition spaces and promoting local artists in the process.
Hindley Street is home to a growing number of artists' studios - many tucked away upstairs above other businesses. The artists welcome visitors and are always happy to chat about their work.
"There is so much movable art in this street. You see artists walking up and down the street with their paintings all the time," Jill says.
Jill is an expert on all things Hindley Street - the old, the new and the still to come. If Jill doesn't know about it, it probably isn't happening.
"I want everyone to become a great ambassador for everyone else's business, cross trade and mould their businesses to complement each other. It's already starting to happen," she said.