Durban — There’s nothing like a horse-drawn carriage parked alongside “new” cars and a motorcycle to illustrate a long-gone past. This week’s Durban Then and Now feature takes in the Britannia Hotel, established in 1879.
According to the website hotelbrits.co.za/historical-perspective, the Britannia Hotel was built in 1879 by E K Green, a liquor company. The “whites only” hotel comprised 14 bedrooms on the first floor of which only four had en-suites. The ground floor comprised a kitchen, a dining area, lounge and a bar.
Two areas adjacent to the main bar were labelled “c***** bar” and “k***** bar” but they were dingy lounges in which non-whites were served through hatches connected to the main bar. This ensured that blacks, whites and Indians were segregated, conforming to the requirements of racist laws of the apartheid regime.
The “whites only” bar was very well appointed with checkered black and white marble floor tiles and a bar counter made of teak. The shelves were beautifully made of turned teak with bevelled mirrors as splash-backs. There were wooden stools, ceiling fans and a dedicated internal toilet. Everything was spruced up for the comfort and enjoyment of the hotel’s white patrons. The ambience may have set the benchmark of modernity, comfort and beauty for its time.
The other so-called “bars” were sparsely furnished with cheap wooden tables and plastic chairs.
In the late 70s the hotel was sold to two Indian businessmen, who could not legally claim ownership because non-whites weren’t allowed to own properties in major parts of the CBD or even on the fringes of the city, which is where the Britannia stands.
A white owner had to “act” as a nominee on behalf of the buyers and a legal agreement had to be drafted to provide proof of real ownership on behalf of non-whites.
There was an underground tunnel diagonally opposite the hotel running under Umgeni Road. The tunnel led to a busy railway station used mainly by Indian and black commuters.
During the early seventies white patronage dropped as several large modern hotels sprung up, notably along the beachfront.
At the time, many of the facilities of the Britannia were outdated. The room furniture consisted of antique bedposts/headboards and a chest of drawers. The beds had spring bases and coir mattresses. Since only four of the 14 bedrooms had en-suites the other guests had to bath in drab and outdated communal bathrooms. There were no geysers and a small cast iron furnace burning wood or coal had to be lit very early each morning to provide hot water.
From the furnace an iron pipe was connected to a huge steel water tank fixed at roof level to facilitate the flow of hot water to the bathrooms. Hot air flowing through the pipe heated the water.
Attached to the hotel in one corner at the front was a small liquor store with storerooms at the rear for the weekly purchases of beer and liquor.
In the late seventies after a change in ownership and the reclassification of the racial status of the hotel, the bars and off-sales were well patronised by black and Indian commuters using the railway station.
Circa 1980 the railway station was relocated about 500m away from the hotel, the tunnel was closed and a major restructuring of the roads took place. Traffic travelling northbound was routed via a flyover that spanned the Umgeni River. These changes negatively impacted on the hotel and turnover dropped drastically.
The Moodley family stepped in to buy it and turned it into the extremely successful – and beloved by many – business it is today.
Independent on Saturday