John Martin’s - The Story of South Australia’s Beloved Department Store

The doors to John Martin's are open once more thanks to the stories from former staff and customers, rarely seen photographs and Paul Flavel's impeccable research that fill the pages of this book. It tells, for the very first time, the history of a beloved and iconic department store. Opened in 1866, John Martin's flourished for over 130 years, until the unthinkable happened and the store in Rundle Mall, Adelaide, closed in 1998. The passing of the years has not dulled South Australians' love for 'Johnnies'. Thousands of people worked there and even more loyally shopped there. John Martin's was the company that brought The Beatles to Adelaide, and the store that delighted generations of children with its Christmas Cave and pageant. Run by the illustrious Hayward family for most of its existence, John Martin's gave everything it had to the people of South Australia. As you read Paul Flavel's comprehensive and endearing John Martin's, memories of riding in the lifts, dining in The Buttery, or getting ready on pageant day will take you back to a bygone era of retail in Adelaide.