A PE scene which greets one on arrival into town from the main Settlers Freeway always arouses mixed feelings in me. On the left is a lovely sweeping view of the city and harbour across a sweep of the bay, and to the right is the North End Prison, overlooking a graveyard! This view has always struck me as particularly gloomy. I have been wanting to capture the mood of this for a while now, and Sunday presented the perfect opportunity, the roads were quiet, and it was a gloomy cloudy day. In the end, we actually went in and drove around inside the graveyard, and found some fascinating graves and odd discrepencies, so I'm sure there will be more on this 'grave' subject to follow, hope we don't freak you out! We even thought of doing a series on 'interesting headstones', because there is such a world of human history to be found in these places.Here you see the North End Prison building, built in 1949, looming over the new section of the Jewish Graveyard. (Actually, to be fair, when we were there taking these pictures, there was a church service going on in the prison, and a lot of cheerful singing could be heard, so it wasn't quite as bleak as I have portrayed it!)
Good use of B&W. We have a sailor's cemetery looking out across one of the bays and it's always argued (by developers) that they don't need the view....
ReplyDeleteI love the use of the B&W
ReplyDeleteActually went round the South End cemetary myself yesterday looking for interesting pics.
ReplyDeleteAlways see the cemetary next to the prison, but have never visited it.
Love the effects of the black and white photo.
ReplyDeleteClarice, LOL, how true, waste of good view property!
ReplyDeleteFirefly, South End and Russell Road are a tiny bit older, so very cool, but we were surprised at how interesting this North End one is, and how MIXED. Very old next to new, and all races, except notable exceptions, Chinese in seperate section, and Jewish in walled off section.
Find the segregation quite funny, after all the worms think they taste the same!
I grew up in Port Elizabeth. This is actually the "overflow" of the the Jewish cemetery. The main cemetery is on the other side of the wall on the left. myfather, grandparents and many other relatives are buried there.
ReplyDeleteFor those who did not know, there is a memorial on the opposite end of the North End Cemetery where the Boers who were held at the Kemsley Park Concentration Camp are buried. Maybe also worth a day on PEDP..?
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