By Jess Rowe, Adelaide premium-stays desk.

If a brand swap throws you off, that’s fair — The Playford Adelaide at 120 North Terrace has gone through two of them in its life. It opened as a freshly built Sebel property in the early 2000s, traded as The Sebel Playford for years, then rebranded into Accor’s MGallery Collection a few years back. The current name on the front door is The Playford Adelaide — MGallery Collection. The building, the staff and the design language haven’t changed; the branding has.

The interior leans hard into Art Nouveau — stained-glass insets, curved millwork, peacock motifs in the carpet, a Tiffany-style ceiling above the lobby lounge. It’s the most decorated room in any of the North Terrace hotels and divides opinion accordingly. Our team genuinely likes it; the alternative on this strip is generic 4-star modern, and the Playford at least gives you something to look at.

The rooms

182 rooms across King Studio, Executive King and a small set of Suites. The Studios are larger than most Adelaide 4-stars (the original Sebel build over-specified rooms by modern standards). Executive Kings get an upgraded amenity set, a Nespresso, and the better views over North Terrace. Suites have a separate lounge.

Every room has been refurbished within the MGallery program; the bathrooms are properly fitted out, the in-room tech is current, and the beds are the same Sealy-style firm Accor uses across MGallery globally.

Bouchee — the in-house restaurant

Bouchee, on the ground floor, is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and runs an a la carte menu that leans modern French. We’d recommend it for breakfast (the buffet is one of the better in the city) and for a casual dinner if you’ve had a long day; for a destination dinner there are stronger options in the laneways. The Playford’s lobby bar pours one of the better Negronis in the CBD.

What’s walking distance

  • Adelaide Festival Centre — 4 minutes north through Elder Park
  • Riverbank Casino & Convention Centre — 5 minutes
  • Adelaide Botanic Garden — 8 minutes east
  • Rundle Mall — 5 minutes south
  • Art Gallery / SA Museum / State Library — 3–5 minutes east along North Terrace

Why book the Playford

  • Festival season anchor — for Adelaide Festival, Adelaide Fringe and WOMADelaide visitors, this is the closest 5-star to the Festival Centre and Elder Park
  • Accor Live Limitless — full MGallery points and benefits
  • Distinct interior — if you want a stay that feels like Adelaide rather than airport-Marriott generic, this is the move
  • Quiet for a CBD 5-star — the north side of the building gets the Torrens parkland; rooms there are noticeably quieter than the North Terrace front

Practical details

  • Address: 120 North Terrace, Adelaide SA 5000
  • Brand: MGallery Collection (Accor)
  • Rooms: 182
  • Restaurant: Bouchee (modern French)
  • Note: Formerly The Sebel Playford — same property, same address, brand-swapped

The official Accor MGallery listing has the live rate sheet and points earning detail, and South Australia Tourism indexes it under premium Adelaide accommodation.

For city context see our Adelaide destination guide, our Barossa Valley day-trip pages, or the full SA destination index.