WHEN TWO WAS THE HIGHEST

This week’s pictures of old and new Durban come from the book Durban Past and Present, edited by Allister Macmillan.

The book was published in 1935 and printed in Durban by William Brown and Davis Ltd of 475-481 Smith Street.

The book was brought to The Independent on Saturday by reader Graham Richardson, who hoped it would inspire a number of interesting then and now features.

The first set of pictures takes in the corner of Anton Lembede (Smith) and Dorothy Nyembe (Gardiner) streets looking towards the Berea. The first picture is from a watercolour sketch by PW Reid in 1852. The building in the centre was the first two-storey structure erected in Durban, in 1850, and belonged to the firm Messrs Middleton and Wirsing. The room to the right of the doorway in Gardiner Street was the post office, and the upstairs housed the magistrate’s court, where town council meetings were held from 1854 to 1861.

The second picture taken by Macmillan himself shows the Baltic Buildings where the Middleton and Wirsing building once stood.

The picture taken this week by our lensman Motshwari Mofokeng shows a modern high-rise city. 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 who send 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.