The Grey Institute across the road from the Donkin Reserve was built in 1859 with the clock tower being added in 1875. The land on which it stands was made available by the then governor of the Cape Colony, Sir George Grey, for a school to be built on. Grey School got too big for the old building and moved to its present site in Mill Park in the early 1900's after which the old building was used by a…
Looking down Upper Hill Street in Central one can see a couple of old historic settler houses dating from the mid 1800's on the left and some of the high rise (high rise in PE terms) buildings in the city centre.
Havelock Square is one of a couple of public parks around the historic part of Central. Havelock square is a bit different though as it is an unfenced park with a one way paved road going around it. Havelock Square was part of The Grey Institute Grant originally surveyed in 1856, with the oldest houses being built in 1862. The Holy Trinity Church on the eastern side of the square was built in 1866 and re- built in 1897 after…
Across the road from the oldest Test cricket stadium in South Africa, St Georges Park, stand the St Georges Preparatory School. Knockfierna (Hill of Fairies or Truth) was originally built as a beautiful grand Victorian Mansion by John Daverin, from Ireland, who was a successful Wool Merchant, in 1899. John and his wife, Clothilda, brought up their 7 children in the grand style befitting this era.John Daverin died in 1922, and Knockfierna was sold to James Harroway who later sold…
Tomorrow (or today, depending on when you read this), 24 September, is Heritage Day here in South Africa. Heritage Day is a Public Holiday on which South Africans across the spectrum are encouraged to celebrate their cultural heritage and the diversity of their beliefs and traditions, in the wider context of a nation that belongs to all its people. Here in Port Elizabeth there will be several Heritage Day celebrations with onr of the main ones being a "Save our…
The Port Elizabeth Opera House was opened in 1892. This makes it both the oldest functional Opera House in the country as well as the only Victorian theatre in South Africa. The building boasts two theatres, The Barn which stages smaller plays while the main theatre plays host to big shows like operas, ballet and musical shows.
The view towards the Port Elizabeth City Hall from the entrance of the Main Public Library with the statue of Queen Victoria in the foreground.
Well this is it... time to say goodbye, (see yesterday's post if this takes you by surprise!) and thank you all for you loyal visits and the friendships we have made. Firefly, thanks again for adopting our baby! May it give you lots of joy, and not too many nappies to change!We also want to thank the helpful community at City Daily Photo Blog who do a huge amount of work, and a great job administering the group.We thought we'd…
Apple Express Trains being refurbished at the diesel depot in Humewood, reflecting in the engineers pit.OK, we have a sort of "good news ,bad news" scenario for you. The bad news is that after almost 500 posts on this blog, we are ready to take a break. We have made some wonderful friends around the world, and it has been fun. We will miss you, and I know many of you enjoy your visits to see what is going on…
We are approaching our 500th post on this blog, so I thought it might be fun for you to meet us, and see some of the antics we have got up to in the interests of documenting our city for this blog....Sue uses the tripod to help climb out of a graveyard after a sunrise stroll....while Max does a quick battery change on board the visiting Portuguese ship Sagres, with a fascinated grandson looking on.