The UAE’s sepia-tinted Facebook community
▶ Thousands of followers have joined the Facebook group in only a few weeks to share sepia and rose-tinted recollections of the transformation of the capital city, writes John Dennehy
The clock-tower roundabout and old souq are some of the famous landmarks that have disappeared from Abu Dhabi. But who can remember the Beach Hotel, El Dorado Cinema and the time when boxing legend Muhammad Ali visited Saadiyat Island?
While buildings may have disappeared into the sands of time, their memory has found a new lease of life online.
A Facebook group – Abu Dhabi Good Old Days – went live on September 1, and has already attracted more than 6,000 members. Residents past and present have been sharing memories of the capital city as it used to be – a time before Mawaqif, baqala and 5 per cent VAT. Unlike today’s restricted beaches and chunks of privatised land, back then Fridays meant taking a 4x4 and camping almost anywhere.
The group was established by Ron McCulloch, a doctor who ran a private practice in Abu Dhabi from 1974 to 2012. He came across a similar page for Dubai and wondered why the capital did not have its own.
“By the next day we had 55 members and after a week we had 3,000,” he said.
Faded newspaper cuttings, sepia-tinted images of hotel staff, laminated membership cards of forgotten beach clubs and the ghosts of house parties past – all paint a vivid picture of the oilmen, pilots, domestic workers, labourers, engineers, pioneering nurses, doctors and so many more who had a front-row seat to the capital’s transformation.
Briton Harry Bonning worked in Abu Dhabi from 1988 to 1994. Some considered the UAE a hardship post, but Mr Bonning disagrees.
“I actually found moving to Abu Dhabi less of a culture shock than when I moved to Germany – everyone spoke English. We had maids, some even had drivers,” he said. “I believe one US company still paid their staff a hardship bonus and everyone found that hilarious.”
When exactly were the good old days? For many it was more of a spirit, a memory or a feeling than an exact date range.
But for David Pryce, it stretches from 1977 to the mid-1990s. Mr Pryce was only 20 when he arrived to manage an afforestation project in Ghayathi, about 250 kilometres west of Abu Dhabi. The country had recently been established and the territory was harsh, but, to Mr Pryce, everyone had a pioneering spirit. There was also practically no tourism.
“The work experience was completely different from the West – exasperating at times, but there were no unions to get in the way, no strikes, and if a job needed doing you simply got stuck in, all of you,” said Mr Pryce, who is also from the UK.
“Looking back, it seems our feet hardly touched the ground.”
Many of the group’s posts track changing landscapes, unusual events and bittersweet transitions. A striking aerial shot taken in 1974 by Mr McCulloch, who was also a pilot, shows the first buildings on Hamdan Street.
Another photo shows a large clock counting down the days to the opening of the Sheraton Corniche in 1979.
There are snapshots of the late Muhammad Ali visiting Saadiyat Island and fighting in Dubai. Many members have shared memories of Sheikh Zayed, the Founding President. Mr Bonning, 69, recalled one unforgettable trip with an Emirati friend to a camel race in Al Ain. This was an era when boys were used as jockeys, a practice since banned in the UAE.
“There were cars everywhere, some driven by youngsters who had to stand up to see over the bonnet,” he said.
“Think of 20 or 30 4x4s racing alongside one another through the sand. I was hanging on for dear life. A totally exhilarating experience.”
But war clouds were on the horizon. Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990 cast an air of uncertainty over the Arabian Gulf and this has been chronicled in the group.
Troops with heavy machine guns were stationed on street corners in Abu Dhabi. Convoys of refugees also wound their way through Saudi Arabia to the emirate.
“One abiding memory was of the dark haze that hung over the city from the oil well fires in Kuwait. If it rained, your car would be covered in dark spots of oil,” Mr Bonning said.
One series of photographs shows the demolition of the much-loved Volcano Fountain landmark on the Corniche in 2004. Another photo shows the eagle’s head being placed on the clubhouse of Abu Dhabi Golf Club during its construction.
Now in his 70s and back in the UK, Mr McCulloch said the response to the group had been overwhelming.
“So many people were complimentary. It is the equivalent of Buckingham Palace calling and being offered a lordship,” he said. Over the past 20 years Abu Dhabi has grown beyond the main island to encompass Reem Island, Saadiyat and Khalifa City.
It could never stay the same. But on social media, the city is now frozen in a rose-tinted age.