The upgrade of the Athenaeum Building in Central by the Mandela Bay Development Agency has just about been completed with the revamp of the old Little Theatre. I got to get a peek inside the Little Theatre the other day and have to say that it looks very good right from the foyer right through to the theatre itself. The one thing that really stands out is the theatre's seating, now covered in bright colours.
Its Friday afternoon and the end of a tough work week. Feel like a quick drink with some friends to celebrate the coming of the weekend before heading home? One of the best place in town to do that is the very popular Bridge Street Brewery next to the Baakens River on Upper Valley Road. The plan was to start out as a pub, move on to food and the open their own micro brewery. Fortunately for us they were kinda "forced", due…
The original house where the Grand Hotel in Central stands today was built in 1867. By 1885 the house was extended to Whites Road and the owner, Kames Brister, advertised the house as to let with 24 rooms. Shortly after on 15 October 1885 Arnold Lipman opened the Grand Hotel. The hotel has been taken over by new owners and is currently being renovated and is in the process to be turned into the first "green hotel" in Port Elizabeth.
One of the big projects which formed part of the Route 67 development was the opening up of Strand Street just below Market Square (and next to the bus terminus). I took the Kidz to climb the Campanile last week and walked up to visit the Public Library while we were there. One of the new features installed next to Strand Street just before you climb the steps up to Market Square is a fountain.
The ArtEC gallery in Central is one of those institutions that really go out of their way to support local artists and they have a new exhibition just about every two weeks. The mural of locals that has been done on the side of the building has become a bit of a landmark in the area and many visitors and passersby stop to have a look at the colourful art piece.
Completed in 1825, No 7 Castle Hill is one of the oldest surviving Settler cottages in Port Elizabeth. It was opened as a historical museum in 1965 and is furnished to show a picture of domestic life as enjoyed by an English middle class family in mid-19th Century Port Elizabeth. Its the kind of museum that both young and old enjoy with young ones exploring and discovering things they may have never known and the older crowd seeing thing that…
In the 1870's the city fathers of Port Elizabeth could not postpone the erection of a market building, especially for the sale of ostrich feathers and produce, anymore. A building was commissioned in 1878 when a competition was run for the best design for the building. While the roof was being built in England the council realised that the cost of the building was going to be a lot more than initially thought and the plans were scrapped. However there was the matter…
Enjoying the view from the top of the Donkin Lighthouse with the Top Billing crew the other day, the sound guy pointed out one of the houses visible from the lighthouse. The back of the house with its big open balconies make it look like a real life doll house.
The recently renovated Athenaeum building in Central isn't an easy one to photograph. In the morning the whole front of the building is in shadow while the trees in front of it throws shadows on it in the afternoon. I did get a picture of the side of the building (right next to the Little Theatre) the other morning on my way to No7 Castle Hill which is just down the road.
When the first Settlers arrived in Algoa Bay they found an array of hills, streams, rivers and kloofs, making habitation of the area a problem. Donkin Street as it stands today was originally a "kloof" (steep valley) with a stream. The water it carried was channelled into the then Main Street. This kloof was eventually filled using convict labour and Donkin Street was established in 1851. The row of 18 terraced houses was built in the 1850's. Over the last few years the houses have…