Great News!

Just the other day I mentioned the old Tramways Building, the historical landmark in the heart of the Port Elizabeth city centre, and lamented how run down it has become.

Well it was announced on Wednesday that the Municipality has awarded Pambili Developments (Pty) Ltd the tender to redevelop the Tramways building. The development will contain a mix of tourism, leisure, entertainment and office space. The construction will begin in April 2008.

The Tramways redevelopment project will be managed by Mandela Bay Development Agency which was also responsible for the major Urban Renewal project in Market Square and Govan Mbeki Avenue, which we featured recently. So it looks like things are really looking up in the Historic Areas of our city, yay, well done guys!

(edit: I just did a much more detailed post about this on my other blog, with stunning vintage photos of floods going through the building in the 1800s!)

(If you want to read more about this we have a cool local website called MyPE where you can find out lots about the place. The link is to the news article but just click on home to get to the whole site)

St Croix Island

Looking across Nelson Mandela Bay, which was previously Algoa Bay, but most in PE are proud of our new name and the associations with our much loved former State President. When large tankers arrive and want to come into harbour, they wait across the bay until it is their turn to come in. In the background is the island of St Croix, 17km away as the crow flies. It lies in the direction of the new deep water port at Coega. You can also see part of the extensive unspoilt dune fields between Coega and the Sundays River.

Edit: Firefly pointed out in the comments that the bay is still called Algoa Bay, it is just the metropolitan area of Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage and Despatch that is collectively called Nelson Mandela Bay. Sorry for the misinformation, and thanks for setting the record straight, Firefly!

The Feathermarket Centre

In PEs early days, it was the major port for the export of hugely popular ostrich feathers. The ostrich industry was thriving, and a huge hall was built close to the harbour at which the feathers were auctioned. Over the years the industry declined, and the hall was used for concerts and other public gatherings. When we moved here in the late 70's we went to a Janis Ian concert there (remember Fly too High, and at 17?), at that stage it was quite run down, and the accoustics were terrible, not to mention the pigeons who roosted in the roof and pooped on the audience! Then shortly after that it was renovated, with acoutstic tiles on the roof, and is now a very successful conference centre.

Breaking News...................

We have started a new City Daily Photo Blog. It is called St Francis Daily Photo. St Francis is about 100km west of Port Elizabeth, and is a delightful little coastal village (well 2 actually.) As we adore the place and spend lots of time there, and have TONS of photos, and as there are so few places in Africa represented in the community, we thought we would go for it, so pop across and see what a stunning little place it is...... (don't forget your suntan cream and surfboard!)

Arriving....

A ship is brought into the harbour at sunrise, to the right you can see one of the two tugs which shepherd it into its berth.

The Baakens Valley

This view of the Baakens Valley shows a few interesting historic features. On the left you see a few graves on the road verge, beyond the shadow of the large building. These belong to Muslim members of the old South End Community, mentioned when we showed you the Pier Street Mosque. Inside the walled St Mary's Graveyard to the far left were the Christian members of the community (again the strange segregation of bodies...)

To the right is a building which belongs to the Municipality. (No wonder they don't have a leg to stand on in dealing with slum lords when they let their own proprties get into such a state!) It was at one time a bus depot, an ice rink and a shelter for the homeless, now it is just a dump!

See the tall building standing on its own at the top of the hill? To the left of that you will see a long low reddish stone wall. That is Fort Frederick with its commanding view across the bay.

The Baakens River Mouth is where the 1820 Settlers landed to establish the as yet un-named town.

An exhibit at Red Location Museum

This is an exhibit in the fascinating Red Location museum.

It shows anti apartheid posters which were circulated when the restrictions were at their worst, anyone found with one of these would have been in for a very bad time! The books on the little tables are transcripts of the proceedings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, with the intention of bringing into the open the atrocities committed during the apartheid era. They make very chilling reading, but many families who lost loved ones in horrible circumstances were able to achieve some form of closure through this process.

a detour

Hi there, would you like to travel with us? We are in Port St Francis for the weekend, and thought you might like to come along for the ride! It is home away from home for many Port Elizabethans who have properties here, as it is just an hour away on a good freeway, and has a delightful laid back holiday village atmosphere.

St Francis, as it is affectionately known, actually consists of Port Saint Francis, St Francis Bay and Cape Saint Francis. As we spend a lot of time here, and have gigabytes of photos, we are considering starting a Daily Photo blog of St Francis too, will keep you posted (hah, excuse pun!)

But for today, this is a view from our balcony, overlooking the yacht basin at the Port.

North End Seaboard

One of the prime beaches in Port Elizabeth in the early years was the North End Beach. If you look at this article on tall ships wrecked in a massive gale, the ships shown in the vintage photographs were stranded on North End Beach. Sadly the land was taken over by the Railways, and a large portion along the beautiful beach was reclaimed, and is now taken up by railway lines and overhead cables. (Our city fathers in the town planning department have a lot to answer for!)

The sea is held back by dolosse strewn along the high tide mark, although in severe gales and spring tides, it does occasionally wash over the main N2 freeway that runs parallel to the railway lines. (I will do a post later today on my blog to explain more about dolosse, just need to pop down to the Dock of the Bay restaurant for a nice lunch of fresh fish.... we are relaxing at Port St Francis at the moment!)

edit......mmmmm.......that was yummy, fresh Cape Salmon... but I digress, the dolosse post is here

The Westbourne Oval

This sports oval, now host to many school sports days and track and cycle events, started out as a muddy vlei (wetland) known in the late 1800s as "Russell Road Dam". It is right next to the lands which belonged to the London Missionary Society, where bubonic plague broke out in 1902.

The vlei was drained in 1899 and a cycle track constructed, but it must have fallen into disrepair, because in 1911, the PE Amateur Athletic and Cycling club was re-formed, and the Oval was gradually restored, and the cycle track repaired. More renovations have taken place over the years, and huge stadium lights added for night sports (you can see one on the opposite side of the track, and the base of another to the left of today's photo.)

This picture was taken early one morning last week, when a small group of cyclists were practicing.