The best – and the worst
FOLLOWING a Weekend Post site visit to 50 historical Bay sites, here is our assessment of the best and the worst:
THE GOOD . . .
The Campanile Memorial in Central was found to be not only in working condition, clean and secured, but was upgraded with wall art.
New Market Square in Uitenhage, a R30-million upgrade funded by the municipality, has left space open and inclusive around the existing war memorials, with a ramp leading up to the town hall.
The Athenaeum building in Belmont Terrace is a functional restoration by the municipality, with a theatre and art gallery.
The famed Donkin Reserve in Central allows visitors to enjoy a mix of the historic along with the new and artistic, with artworks set out along the Route 67 Art and Heritage Walk.
Restored in 1992, the Queen Victoria statue in Govan Mbeki Avenue – erected in 1903 – is still in mint condition. With no barrier surrounding it, the statue is low enough for members of the public to actually touch it.
THE BAD . . .
The Mendi Memorial in New Brighton is not secured and has had its central lamppost stolen with light bulbs missing and rubbish strewn around it.
Another New Brighton landmark is the Emlotheni Memorial Park – dedicated to the memory of six anti-apartheid activists – which boasts a robust structure made of solid blocks commemorating fallen struggle heroes like Vuyisile Mini. Large sections of the fence are missing, there are missing light bulbs and cracks in the wall.
The cannon commemorating the wreck of the Sacramento in Schoenmakerskop is filled with rubbish.
The Horse Memorial, where Russell Road meets Cape Road, appears in good condition, but has fallen prey to thieves. It has been stripped of the horse’s stirrups and the soldier’s sword.
AND THE UGLY
The Red Location Museum has been closed to the public for 10 months as a result of residents protesting over faulty RDP housing and preventing a free flow of visitors. Severe damage has been caused by thieves and vandals.
Other ugly and forgotten sites in the metro are the St Mary's and Russell Road cemeteries. At St Mary's in the Baakens Valley, piles of litter are dumped among the gravestones. A woman who was relieving herself on a gravestone said she slept in the nearby St Peter’s Anglican church, itself a ruin, which overlooks the graveyard and harbour.
The Russell Road Cemetery also sported broken gravestones and dumped rubbish.
The Langa Memorial in Uitenhage has been picked apart by vandals. The site has broken benches, bricks removed from a path and a common building filled with rubbish and human faeces.
The old Post Office building in Govan Mbeki Avenue is an abandoned landmark which has become a home for vagrants, with broken windows.
The alms houses in Bethelsdorp are down the road from the pristine David Livingstone House at the Van der Kemp memorial church. These houses, which house three families, have big cracks in the walls and are not what visitors would expect of a heritage site.