city centre

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Old Harbour Board Building

The old Harbour Board Building in Flemming Street in the city centre was used as the Port Elizabeth Harbour's administration building for 70 years.  The foundation stone was laid by J Searle who was the Managing Commissioner of the Harbour Board in 1904 and the building is regarded as one of the best examples of Art Nouveau architecture in South Africa.  The exterior of the building has impressive stonework while the interior has richly ornamented woodwork and stained glass windows. …

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28/01/2013
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Fishbone

Route 67 has some very interesting art pieces with each one representing something specific.  The Fishbone sculpture on Market Square reconnects the city's Central Business District with the Port Elizabeth Harbour's fishing industry which has been a very important aspect of the city in the past and still presently. The group in the background of the picture was a tour of Route 67 that I was part of.  One of the participants was Kathy of Dempsey's Guesthouse in Walmer who did…

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14/01/2013
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Captain Evatt’s tomb stone

Captain Francis Evatt who was commander of Fort Frederick from 1817 - 1847 and amongst others oversaw the landing of the 1820 British Settlers was buried in St Mary's Cathedral after his death.  His remains were moved to a grave just outside the north wall of Fort Frederick in 1956.  With the moving of his remains to the new grave it was decided to put a replica tomb stone on the grave while the original tomb stone was installed in the cathedral's foyer.

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16/12/2012
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Urban Run 2012

On Sunday I tackled the 2nd annual Urban Run along with about 1000 other athletes runners competitors adventurous people. What an amazing experience!!!  Urban Run is a 10,5km urban obstacle course through the Port Elizabeth city centre, the historical part of town, St Georges Park, Settlers Park and surrounding area.  The 17 obstacles along the way included crawling through cement pipes, scaling Fort Frederick, crossing the Baakens River on poles and running trough a train.  Did I mention the steps?  No?  There were lots of steps. And…

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17/09/2012
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Taxi’s in the wall

 One of the latest art pieces to be installed in the city centre as part of the Route 67 initiative is a row of taxi's inbedded in the wall on Whites Road across the road from the Opera House.  The piece was done by Mark Wilby in collaboration with Bongani Njalo, Bamanye Ngxale, Jason Olivier, Gabriel Chaponda and Siya Mboniswa.  The discription in the Route 67 brochure states the following: "History is often shaped by momentous events, while cities with their alleys,…

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06/09/2012
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Sunrays

Last week the skies above Port Elizabeth gave a stunning display of Crepuscular rays.  Yes, that's the proper name for it.  Usually you only get to see it for a couple of seconds or maybe even minutes, but on this day if just continued to be visible for large parts of the day.  I found that there are many different names for it so doesn't matter if you call it Sunbeams, Sunburst, Sun rays, Ropes of Maui, Jacob's Ladder, Stairways to Heaven,…

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20/08/2012
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St Dominic Priory tour

In my line of work I have taken tourists, tour operators, photographers and media from all over the world around this beautiful city I call home.  This past week I got to do a different kind of group.  A group of grade 6 schoolkids from St Dominic Priory in the city.  At first I didn't really know what to expect and was slightly hesitant but as I was asked by a very good friend I decided to give it a…

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18/08/2012
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Sleeping feline

My sincerest apologies to those who follow both this blog as well as The Firefly Photo Files for the double post of this picture this week.  I've had a corrupt Windows files which meant that my hard drive crashed and its going to take a little bit of time to load all the programs again and then check to see which photos I haven't posted on the blogs.  Luckily all my original pictures are on my external hard drive. Phew.Anyhow, this big cuddle toy…

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11/08/2012
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Market Square aerial

I was very disappointed the day I saw that the municipality started to allow officials to use Market Square as a parking lot.  Tourists wanting to have a look around have to dodge cars and when you want to take a nice picture there is always a vehicle in the way.  Plus I don't think the paving put down on Market Square was done with a view that it would be come a parking lot so I'm sure at some stage…

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26/07/2012
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City Centre Pissoir

One of the first projects done by the Mandela Bay Development Agency (MBDA) was the upgrade of Govan Mbeki Road (Main Street) and surrounds between Russel Road and the City Hall.  Down one of the side roads you will this little enclosed structure (one of about two or three in the area) with a sticker of a man having a relieving himself.  Yes, it is, as they referred to it, a pissoir.  The reason for these toilets to be put up were…

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23/07/2012