Durbans Francis Farewell Gardens seen from West Street, today Dr Pixley kaSeme Street, shot in 1953.
Image: Facts About Durban
This week the old picture features the other side of the Francis Farewell Gardens in front of Durban’s City Hall.
This was pictured from West Street, today Dr Pixley kaSeme, with the City Hall just out of picture on the left. It focusses on the modern buildings on what was then Gardiner Street, today Dorothy Nyembe and was shot in 1953. It comes to us courtesy of Etienne du Plessis who posted it on "Facts about Durban".
The same statues of Queen Victoria and the first two prime ministers of Natal, Sir John Robinson and Harry Escombe, can be seen in the foreground.
The Cenotaph which was built in 1926 to commemorate the city’s fallen in World War 1 can be seen behind them. The multi-storey building on the corner of Smith, today Anton Lembede, and Gardiner is clearly still under construction. The Art Deco fronts of the other highrises would clearly have been regarded as thoroughly modern in 1953.
Traffic on West Street was two way at the time.
Today the scene around Francis Farewell Gardens is little changed although the city has built up around them substantially.
The scene today.
Image: Frank Chemaly