NOT MUCH HAS CHANGED IF YOU TAKE A ‘DECO’

This week’s old picture was brought to us by Peter Butterworth from an album of the family business, Butterworth Electric Water Heaters.

He provided us with a number of photos of schools, nursing homes and blocks of flats whose residents used their products in the 1930s. Many of the buildings were built in the art deco style.

This week we look at Mount Royal in Dunkirk Place in Umbilo, Durban. It was built in the 1930s and displays typical art deco detailing on its exterior, including the winged feature above the main entrance, which is wood panelled.

When African News Agency photographer Leon Lestrade went there this week, he found little had changed on the block nestled between Sydney and Umbilo roads, although the neighbourhood itself had become far more industrialised.

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.