A TOAST TO THE QUEEN’S TAVERN

Queen’s Tavern (at 16 Stamford Hill Road) is one of those Victorian buildings that narrowly escaped demolition in 1976, writes one of our regular readers, who also supplied the pictures. The Department of Community Development had served an expropriation order on the owner, Peter Noel-Barham, because the area was earmarked for redevelopment.

The Durban City Council, which had a poor reputation for the preservation of historic buildings during the 1970s, failed to back the owner.

However, the public came out in support and, backed by the Daily News, launched a campaign to save the building. Their success led to it being provisionally declared a national monument in 1977, this being confirmed in December 1983. The owner, who ran the tavern as The British Middle East Indian Sporting and Dining Club, then embarked on its restoration. For many years it was renowned for its Indian cuisine.

In a delicious irony, a more enlightened Durban City Council went on to bestow a conservation award on the owner in 1986.

The building was erected some time between 1885 and 1894. It is believed that its name, Queen’s Tavern, was as a result of its patronage by soldiers encamped at the Old Fort (until 1897), at Lord’s Ground and on the Greyville Race Course area during the Anglo-Boer War. The soldiers no doubt drank heartily to Queen Victoria’s health.

With the exodus of restaurants from the centre of Durban, the restaurant closed down. Today, a Cash Converters operates from the building, which they have continued to maintain. Many period details survive, including the stained glass windows on the street frontage.

The first photo shows the building in 1976 at the time of the fight to save it, while the next was taken in about 1986 and shows the restored façade. The last photo was taken this month. The interior photo shows restaurant staff in 1988, while the other shows the manager and Cash Converters staff on the same interior steps this month.

The Independent on Saturday appeals to readers who have old pictures of Durban and other parts of the province to send them to us for consideration. If any readers are featured in the old picture, we will do our best to recreate the scene with them in it again. Readers sending pictures digitally – images should be about 1MB – can address them, with the relevant information, to satmail@inl.co.za.

If the pictures are in hard copy format, they can be posted to The Editor, Old Pictures,

The Independent on Saturday, PO Box 47549, Greyville, 4023.