The bustle on West Street

The old picture this week is a scene of a busy West street, today Dr Pixley kaSeme Street, taken in 1897 and interestingly was featured in a publication in New Zealand. It comes from the Facebook page Durban Down Memory Lane. With 1897 being Britain's Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee it may have been part of a publication to celebrate the British empire.

The picture was probably taken more or less from in front of Greenacres department store and shows in the foreground Fergusson Jewellers which were on the corner of West and Field (today Joe Slovo). The tower of the original Durban City Hall can be seen in the background, which is today the post office after the current City Hall was build in 1910.

Today such is the growth of buildings in the city today you can no longer see the Post Office building. It is more or less where the palm trees stand on the pavement between the the high-rise that replaced the Natal Bank building on the corner of West and Gardiner (today Dorothy Nyembe) and the SARS building that can be seen at corner of Alibwal Street (today Samora Machel).

Busses and taxis have replaced the rickshaw pullers of yesteryear.