This Gallery shows a selection of images pertaining to these smaller Municipalities to the west of Durban. It covers some of the main features of interest and some street scenes to give a contempory picture of these areas.
365 Photos
Cato Manor was granted to George C. Cato (Durban\'s first Mayor) in 1865 and later subdivided and utilised by Indian market gardeners in the early 1900\'s. After the 1949 riots much of the area was settled by black inhabitants and as many as 30000 people were living in the area.The Group Areas Act was implemented in the 1950\'s and there was a dispute over who had rights to brew beer, which resulted in further riots in June 1959.Eventually by 1964 the area had been cleared of people, and remained this way until the early 1990\'s when it started to be resettled again. This gallery shows the area as it stands with a mixture of shack dwellers and low cost housing. Some of the shells and remains of the old trading stores remain.The area has a Mosque and the 1st & 2nd Umbilo River Hindu Temples.Also in the area (not covered) are the sports fields, Albert Luthuli Hospital and interpretative centre illustrating the areas history.
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The Umkumbane Heritage Centre in Cato Manor commemorates the Black communities who were forcefully removed from this area in the 1960's under apartheid. The centre records the process and struggle by the community with written accounts and photographic images that appeared in the media at the time. The Centre is off Francois Road in the heart of the effected area which has been re-occupied, mostly with shack dwellers. This album also has landscape images over the area and towards the Ridge Road skyline to the east of Cato Manor. The Centre kindly permitted me to take these images for my heritage site, and is acknowledged with thanks. The centre is well worth a visit by persons interested in the politics of the day and to understand the trauma effecting those living in this area.)
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Chatsworth & Shallcross were founded in the early 1960\'s as part of the apartheid Governments policies of segregating the race groups and also to act as a buffer between the white areas and the black areas like Umlazi. Although these barriers have been scrapped these areas remain predominantly Indian. The township has many Temples, churches and Mosques built by the culturally mixed society and today has a large Commercial Centre. Many of the original inhabitants had been relocated from areas such as Cato Manor, Maville ,Block AK in Durban CBD,Riverside, Clairwood and the Bluff.
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This album has images of the small church in Chesterville, images of the CBD of Claremont and aerial photos of the new bridge over the Umgeni River connecting Claremont with Ntuzuma.. Aerial images also show malindela road in Kwa Mashu and Bridge City in Inanda.
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This album features some of the new development areas to the north of Durban. Many of the images show the vacant land, formerly sugar cane that was owned by the Tongaat Hulett Group and is now earmarked for development. This area will be developed and will be known as Cornubia which will have a mix of industrial, residential and commercial components, Blackburn Estates (residential) and to the east of the N2 highway the Izinga Ridge residential development. This area is currently undergoing massive transformation and most of the cane lands will disappear,
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Clairwood or South Coast Junction was settled in the 1880\'s by formerly indentured labourers who had completed their contracts. Clairwood contains many Temples,churches and old homes of the era, many National Monuments & listed. The area has been under threat for many years by industrialization and more recently by the plans for a dug out port.
146 Photos
The Coedmore story starts with Dering Lee Warner Stainbank (1841-1907) and his wife Ethel Lyne (1869-1942). Dering had come out to South Africa in 1857, on ‘The Lady of the Lake’ with his brother Ellerton and settled on 2000 acres on the south bank of the Umhlatuzana River on the site of Shaka’s old Kraal, ‘Ndaba Nkulu’. In 1856, half the house was built in Scottish Baronial Style comprising two large bedrooms, a bathroom, library, dressing room, hall and cloakroom. “The kitchen was on the lower level and was reached from the back verandah. There were huge cellars on the same level of the kitchen that reached partially underground. A spiral staircase led from one of the cellars up to the billiards room, later used as a nursery. Above the billiards room was the leaded roof and castellated octagonal tower. The whole building was meant to be duplicated on the bedroom side but never completed.” Two stonemasons were brought out from Aberdeen and they quarried the local sandstone to create the mansion that has become known as Coedmore Castle, completed in 1885. Dering had bought his brothers farm by that name and renamed the estate Coedmore. Ethel Lyne was from Pietermaritzburg and had met Dering on one of her family visits to Coedmore in early 1880, and they were married. Born to the couple were William, Arthur, Kenneth, Christopher, Mary, Edith, and Edward. Dering died in 1907 having left the land to his sons and providing an income to his daughters. William was first to join the farm being run by Ethel and was later joined by Arthur, after Dering’s death in due to pneumonia. William and Arthur were later, to become casualties of WWI, William in 1916 and Arthur at Passchendaele in 1917. A stone church, ‘All Saints’, had been built at Coedmore out of stone quarried at Coedmore but a fire destroyed the thatched church, and it was decided to build the new All Saints Church at Bellair, for use by the wider community. The baptismal font, east window frame and other window frames were used in the new church. The adjoining land at Coedmore was set aside as the family cemetery. One of the main farming operations was the large Coedmore dairy, with two cowsheds, granary above and a large citrus orchard. The fruit was exported, and the milk sold in Durban. As with most of the country the herd was decimated by Rinderpest and a disease killed the nartjie trees, the last box of nartjie’s were sent to troops in 1916. The citrus orchards were never re-established. Coedmore had a large Indian work force and a frequent visitor to Coedmore was Mahatma Ghandi, a friend of Dering. With the start of WWI, William and Arthur volunteered for service and died on active service. Kenneth was also to join up and serve in German East Africa. He survived the war and came back, first to farm at Eston and later, Coedmore, where Christopher was helping out. Kenneth Lyne Stainbank (1895-1982), inherited Coedmore after the death of Ethel, being next in line after his older brothers, William, and Arthur. After WWI the South African Railways decided to re-route the inland rail line along the Umhlatuzana River, cutting through a corner of the farm. In this process a large deposit of lime was discovered, and the land was leased for quarrying and the royalties derived were used to re-establish the farm the dairy. Kenneth married Gwen Norton and they had two daughters, Elizabeth, and Ruth. Ruth died aged eighteen in 1947 and Elizabeth married James Keith, who in turn had four daughters. Two daughters, Jenny and Alison, still live on the estate, part of the original farm, that have separate title. For many years the Durban Municipality had threatened building a road through the estate to link Chatsworth with Durban, a move that was fiercely resisted by Kenneth, arguing that the estate was now the owned by the Nation and only the Government could give consent. (See Below). A portion of the estate amounting to 300 acres was turned into the township of Yellowwood Park and Kenneth donated the 253-hectare reserve to the people of Natal and South Africa, in 1946, as a nature reserve, now known as the Kenneth Stainbank Nature Reserve, run by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife (Formerly, Natal Parks Board). This reserve was opened to the public in 1967. Today, the reserve of 253 hectares of coastal forest and grasslands has a braille trail, nature walks, mountain bike trails and public picnic spots. The Wilderness Leadership School, founded in 1957, by Dr Ian Player has its home in some of the original outbuildings adjoining the Castle. Kenneth’s sister Mary (1899-1996), was also to distinguish herself, having qualified at the Royal College of Arts and Durban Art School, as a sculptor and artist. She was joined at Coedmore, in 1926, by her English friend, Wilgeford Vann Hall (1894-1981), after completing their studies the two of them set up the Ezayo Studio where they spent the rest of their lives. Mary specialized in sculpting, mainly in stone and Wilgeford specializing in stained glass, dress design and art. Between the two of them they were commissioned to do work all around the country. Coedmore has the Mary Stainbank Memorial Gallery, where some of their work is on display. This is housed in, what was, the old granary located over the cowshed, the site of her original studio. The Mary Stainbank Memorial Gallery was opened in 2013. Another interesting feature of Coedmore is the enormous mural in the passage, completed by Wilgie in 1939. The mural depicting the history of the Stainbank family had been started in 1926 and took all these years as the passage was 50 feet long and 14 feet high. Wilgie, whilst doing this work also had to earn money through other paying commissions. The rooms also have intricate pressed steel ceilings, carved paneling and there is an ornate steel staircase leading to the tower. Until recently the home was furnished with the original house-hold contents and Mary Stainbank’s sculptures. The castle could be visited by appointment and booked as a function’s venue. The hallway leading into the passage. Mary and Wilgie were to join the WAAFS during WWII, in the military drawing office and after discharge Mary and Wilgie taught at the Durban School of Art until 1957, when she retired. It was only in 1961, that Mary married Alfred Frederick Cox a widower and long-standing friend of the family. After Alfred’s death in 1965 Mary and Wilgie moved into a little cottage built onto their Ezayo Studio. Wilgie died aged 86 in 1981, Kenneth in 1982 and Mary in 1996. During the riots that erupted in 1949 between the Indians and Africans in Durban, Kenneth was to provide refuge for nearly 2800 Indian families and prevent a massacre. In terms of Kenneth’s will, except for personal effects and household items, Coedmore Castle reverts to the state, upon the death of Elizabeth Keith, his daughter. Elizabeth died in 2019 and discussions are under way for a joint trust comprising the family and the Wilderness Leadership School to lease Coedmore from the State. Investors will then be sought to utilize the property more effectively and “preserve the heritage and natural environment”.
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Colinton House on Durban’s Berea was built by Sir David Hunter KCMG in 1898 on a piece of land described as Bock Z of Townlands which at the time was on the outskirts of the Borough. The land was built sold by the Borough to Woolston Dickens in 1856 and belonged to the family until 1896. The much smaller sub-divided erf of .4 hectares was then sold to David Hunter for 560 pounds sterling. The building was thought to have been designed by William Street-Wilson, however the original plans are missing apart from some alteration drawings done in 1907. Street-Wilson and his partners designed many residences like Monaltrie and Merrick Bennet House.
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DHS opened its doors in Smith Street in 1866. It had a few homes in the CBD but eventually moved onto the Berea in 1895. The all boys school has had an illustrious past and has produced people such as Barry Richards (sport), Edwin Swales V.C.(Military), Prof Philip Tobias (academic), Stephen Saad (business), and Roy Campbell (arts). This gallery has images of the grounds, buildings, memorials, honours boards and many other features of the school.
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Escombe , to the south west of Durban on the main west bound rail line was named after Sir Harry Escombe (1838 - 1899), a former Prime, Minister in 1911. The gallery features street and railway scenes, and the St Augustines Catholic Church, and the Del Mein Shellhole.
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Located on Glenwood Drive, Berea, House Biermann was the home of the architect Barrie Biermann, built with love, imagination and style. He forged a sense of the regional vernacular in the early 1960s, the house was started in 1961 and completed in 1962. There were two earlier structures on the site. Barrie Biermann adapted and redesigned the older property to create a unique and rather wonderful home. It is a property that misses the general protection of the National Heritage Resources Act by two years . An urgent KZN Provincial Heritage declaration is needed to protect this home. Barrie spent his career teaching architecture at the University of Natal and died in his home in 1991. Rodney Harber (2020/07/26) informs The Heritage Portal: Illegal demolition has started on House Biermann in Glenwood Drive. The new owners wish to redevelop the site as a medical centre. It is a piece of Durban heritage that needs to be saved and celebrated afresh. There is an early mention of the Biermann house in an article in Lantern (September 1972) - Houses of the Sixties - Architect Designed homes in South Africa, 1960-1970 by Danie Theron. In the opinion of Theron it was a house that had a strong influence on local domestic architecture, especially on the work of architects such as Hans Hallen, Paul Mikula and Brian Lee. Biermann found and incorporated old building materials in his home. Economic necessity and a small budget made Biermann an early recycler. It all added up to “a romantic and personal statement with bagged walls, concrete roofs, discarded ironwork and shutters, undulating brick paving and exotic plants into a total unity of architectural experience”. Indoor and outdoor living spaces combined. Theron added, “It is an exuberant rediscovery of the decorative value of throw-away materials such as broken slabs of stone, bottles, asbestos, cast iron and timber fretwork.” Information is an extract from the Heritage Portal article by Kathy Munro.
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Bartle House was opened by the Mayor, Reverend A. Lamont in September 1929 to commemorate the Centenary of Durban in 1924. The home for men is built of red brick and has many interesting features which include stain glass windows and porticos.
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Durban High School for boys was founded in 1910 and known as the Day Continuation School, then Durban Technical High School(1916) and then Glenwood High School in 1934 when it was located in Glenwood. The school has a rich heritage in sporting, military, arts and commercial spheres. The school lost 25 former pupils in WWI and 120 during WWII and as such these losses have had a significant influence on the ethos of the school. The school with about 1300 pupils has a boarding establishment (Gibson House) today is still today considered a leading school in KZN and continues to turn out well rounded sporting,and academic scholars. This album features images of the grounds, facilities, museum memorabilia, historical items and the honours boards relating to former pupils and staff.
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This gallery has images of homes and buildings in the upper Glenwood area like Howard College Road , Nazareth House, Manning Road Methodist Church, St Augustines and St Henry\'s Marist College.
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Meyrick Bennett house at 191 Chelmsford Road, is now an assessment centre, but was originally the house built by Meyrick Bennett in 1891. Bennett had arrived in Durban in 1875 and built this verandah house, which was designed by W Street Wilson, Architect. Bennett worked for Randles Brothers and Hudson, merchants. The house had veranda's on three sides, high up in Glenwood with views over the city. A billiard room was added in 1892 and the entrance gates onto Chelmsford Road in 1895. (Information from "The Street Wilson Drawing Collection" - Jacobs and Kearney 2016) The park and house has for many years been made over for public use, and is a popular meeting place for young families. The building is now used as an assessment and therapy centre for children. This album has images of the extensive gardens, exterior elevations, stain glass windows and interior, including the billard room.
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This Gallery features many of the homes situated in Glenwood and also of the schools and churches. Homes in the following roads are featured : Frere, Bartle, Evans, Nicholson, Davenport, Syringa, Clarke, Moore Road & Crart Avenue.
189 Photos
The Phansi Museum houses some of the largest collections of traditional arts, crafts and artefacts in South Africa. Life size dolls showing ceremonial wear from different regions and cultures of South Africa are on display as are examples of beadwork dating back to the 19th century. The museum was started in 2000 as a small private museum, and has since expanded to host one of the biggest and most spectacular collections of African arts and crafts in the world. The collection is held in Roberts House, a fully restored Victorian national monument, in Esther Roberts Road, Glenwood, Durban, South Africa.
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This site includes images of St Mary's Church, Greyville Methodist Churches,Queens Tavern, Bowling Club, and a taste of some of the old buildings,many now used for commercial purposes. Also included are images of the Greyville Turf Club and some of the buidings in its surrounds like the Kendra Hall. The Turf Club is the home of the annual (Rothmans ) July and Gold Cup normally held in July.
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Greyville & Forida Road have many old homes dating back to the late 1800 and early part of 20 th century. Many of the homes are well preserved but most in this area have been converted to commercial use. Florida Road is now a popular eating and night life destination.
237 Photos