Mile End, South Australia

Mile End Adelaide, South Australia
Henley Beach Road, looking east into the city
Population	4,413 (2011 census)
• Density	2,438/km2 (6,315/sq mi)
Established	1860
Postcode(s)	5031
Area	1.81 km2 (0.7 sq mi)
Location	2 km (1 mi) W of Adelaide
LGA(s)	City of West Torrens
State electorate(s)	West Torrens
Federal Division(s)	Adelaide, Hindmarsh
Suburbs around Mile End: Torrensville Thebarton Park Lands Torrensville Mile End Park Lands Cowandilla Hilton, Mile End South Adelaide Parklands Terminal

Mile End is an inner western suburb of Adelaide, located in the City of West Torrens, around 2 kilometres from the Adelaide city centre. It has a census area population of 4,413 people (2011). Much of the suburb is residential, but there are small commercial areas along Henley Beach Road and South Road.

Mile End was originally established in 1860 as The Town of Mile End by the South Australian Company. It was so named because the township was approximately one mile from the centre of Adelaide. It was also named after Mile End in east London, England, whose name has a similar meaning. It was part of the then largely rural District of West Torrens until 1883, when the residents of the more urban suburbs of Thebarton, Mile End and Torrensville successfully petitioned to become the Corporation of the Town of Thebarton. In 1997 the Town of Thebarton re-amalgamated with the City of West Torrens.

Mile End railway station, built in 1898, is also one mile from the Adelaide railway station.

At a time when much working-class housing was sub-standard, on his death in 1897 the wealthy philanthropist Thomas Elder left a bequest of £25,000 expressly to provide housing, 'libraries, schools, infant nurseries, laundries, baths and washhouses and for any other purpose tending in the opinion of the trustees to the health and moral welfare of working men and working women'. The bequest resulted in the formation of Adelaide Workmen's Homes Inc, and the trustees engaged the architects Edward Davies and Charles Walter Rutt to design a model estate of low-cost rental housing. in Rose Street, Mile End, which was built in 1901-2. This consisted of two rows of semi-detached cottages facing each other across the street, of red brick with dressed stone façades, and featuring crenellated parapets above the entrance porches. They are collectively listed among the 120 nationally significant 20th-century buildings in South Australia.

The Mile End Goods Yard and engine sheds opened in 1912, and the Gaol Loop was built to allow freight trains to access them, bypassing Adelaide railway station. This, along with the relocation of livestock markets and abattoirs to Pooraka (still countryside at the time), allowed the Adelaide station yards to concentrate on passenger and parcels traffic.
(See also Adelaide railway station#Early 20th century.)