Interactive: Explore the incredible Adelaide buildings we lost — and those we saved.

See how Adelaide has changed with a gallery documenting what has come and gone from our city and suburban streets. Use our slider tool to explore the story.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of heritage laws introduced to protect some of our treasured buildings.

The Heritage Places Act was borne after a fight to spare opulent Edmund Wright House on King William Street from the wrecking ball.

The state heritage-listed property remains but many other historic buildings - from grand hotels to corner shops - have been lost from Adelaide’s landscape.

The Advertiser has documented these changes in the before-and-after photos below, largely sourced from Michael Burden’s 1983 book ‘Lost Adelaide - a photographic record’, which documented the “destruction of the city’s architectural heritage”.

The paper thanks the National Trust of SA for providing digital copies of those images.

Readers will also see the changing streetscape of some of our favourite suburban hubs such as The Parade and Glenelg.