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.
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…
Standing on top of the Donkin Lighthouse and looking east towards Algoa Bay the new winding walkway leading up from the city centre is visible. The walkway is part of the Route 67 development and lately the skateboarders have discovered it and the fact that its a perfect downhill run. There has even been a submission to council to hold a skateboard competition there.
The Sky Deck in the Port Elizabeth city centre gives one some stunning views of the downtown area. This is looking down onto Govan Mbeki Road (formerly Main Street) which was redeveloped by the Mandela Bay Development Agency just before the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The Sky Deck itself really didn't impress me much. The least you can do when you have an attraction like that is to keep it clean. Its a good example of something with a lot of potential…
The old Fisher's building in the Port Elizabeth city centre may have close links to Fischer's Jewellers in the city, but isn't used as a jewellery shop anymore. The old jewellery showroom has been revamped by the owners and is used as a gallery and shop for art, ceramics and glass ware.
Fischer's Jewellers in Port Elizabeth are one of those businesses that has been around for just about forever. In 1858 Edward Preiss from London advertised in the "Eastern Province Herald" that he has taken premises next door to the newspaper's office in Main Street and started business as a watchmaker and jeweller. In 1859 Alwin Fischer and his brother Theodore, both watchmakers, came to the Cape Colony from Saxony. Theodore opened a business in Cradock while Alwin came to Port Elizabeth and started to…
A couple of us at work have started to pop out once a week to visit some of the tourist and historic (which is also tourist) attractions around town to familiarise and keep ourselves up to date with the places tourists would go to. The places we selected for last week's visit presented us with a lot of stained glass both historic as well as much more recent. Here I caught one of my colleagues photographing a stained glass window in the…
The art project currently on display at the Athenaeum building in Central is a project called Conversations with Victoria. Once the project has been implemented it will consist of a number of life-size figures of both political figures as well as ordinary people placed around the statue of Queen Victoria in front of the Public Library in the city centre. It will seem as if they are in discussion with the Queen regarding the past, present and future. Perhaps a little…
The No 7 Castle Hill historic museum is really one of the special gems in Port Elizabeth's tourism crown. The house is the oldest residential house in Port Elizabeth and completed in about 1829. The museum is furnished to show what life was like for a English middle-class family in Port Elizabeth in the mid 19th century. The furniture are mostly early Victorian making the museum a treasure trove for any history buffs out there.