Building Durban's Golden Mile

The old picture this week comes from a postcard posted in the Facebook group Durban History and Stories. It features the city's Lower Marine Parade and beachfront, probably in the 1950s. It was probably taken from what is today the Belaire Suites Hotel or a block of flats called Las Palmas.

In the foreground on the left you can see the old Fitsimmons Snake Park building which was demolished in a beachfront renovation for the World Cup in 2010. You can also see the Amphitheatre, built in the 1930s in the centre.

In the modern picture you will notice substantial growth in Durban's famed Golden Mile. The old Seaside Hotel has given way to Windermere Apartments, developed in the 1960s. And today you can see the distinctive pointed roof of the Palace Hotel behind it. The massive Marine Parade garden Court, build in the 1980s is also clearly visible in the new picture. However the Parade Hotel, set one back Along the old Old Fort Road (today KE Masinga Road) is still very much in evidence and trading as a hotel.

Further down the line the old picture doesn't show the rebuilt Addington Hospital, the multi-storey reb brick building being opened in 1967.

The strip containing the Cumberland, the Elangeni, Maluti and Maharani today is not visible due to the curvature of the road around the amphitheatre. They would be to the right of the picture. In the old picture the Cumberland would have existed but without it's central tower block, but you would have had the Torquay Hotel and Myhill Mansions where the Elangeni and Maharani are today.