Decaying Durban?

No one we know goes into Durban’s rundown CBD by choice anymore. Except, that is, for my 85-year-old mother who still takes a combi taxi into town from her home in Musgrave Road once a month to have her hair done. (Cue horrified gasps.) She’s made of sterner stuff than I.

The featured image above is of the Playhouse theatre in Smith Street.

Back in the seventies and eighties, a favourite Friday night outing for the family would be “window-shopping” down West and Smith Streets – especially in the weeks before Christmas, but not only then. The shops closed at 5pm, but you could buy an ice-cream cone and stroll past the brightly lit window displays of department stores like Greenacres and Stuttafords (later Garlicks), Durban Wholesale Jewellers and other flourishing retailers.

Heading up Smith Street to Broad Walk  – in the distance you can just see the tower of the University of KZN’s Howard College, my alma mater, if you know where to look

The numerous arcades that run between Smith and West used to be lined with interesting little shops, boutiques and restaurants. Nothing like them exists anymore.

I do like this mural of ANC activist the late Anton Lembede (1914-1947) on the side of a Smith Street building

It took something exceptional to lure Roy into the CBD – luggage! A luggage store at Gateway had recommended an Indian man called Dennis at Leather Works in Broad Walk to mend the frayed handle of Roy’s Samsonite travel briefcase. He’d dropped it off two weeks earlier, and we were returning on the appointed day to pick it up.

We’re waiting for a parking outside Broad Walk in Smith Street

Informal parking attendants preside over each block. They ask you to wait for a space to become free, then help you to operate the parking ticket machine; some clever manipulation of tickets plus your tips is how they earn their living.

Broad Walk Arcade, one of many that run between Smith and West Streets – there’s Leather Works, up the stairs on the left

I can’t remember what Broad Walk used to look like, but it wasn’t like this. Our destination on the first floor was an incredible and insanitary jumble of all sorts of hides and plastics piled high to the ceiling.

As unbelievably jumbled and disorganised on the inside as it is scruffy on the outside – Leather Works in Broad Walk

Had the handle been fixed? Of course not. And Dennis wasn’t there. He wasn’t answering his phone either (said the Indian woman – his mother?). So we left with the un-repaired bag, amazed that the staff had even managed to find it in such a shit-hole.

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Scenes within Broad Walk – the young man, who had to be high on something with eyes like that – insisted on being photographed

Another of many shit-holes on the way down West Street to the beachfront

Street vendors

One of many municipality-sanctioned street vendors in central Durban city

Street vending, along with the hundreds of seedy little casinos that popped up in 1994 simultaneously with the promise of democracy, became a political hot potato. In those days I was still working in the Mayor’s Parlour, first in City Hall and then at the Embassy Building.

Durban City Hall (circa 1910), where I worked as the mayoral speechwriter during the 1990s; its circa 1910 air-conditioning is currently being replaced, according to a sign around the corner in the Councillors’ car park
The Embassy Building, across the way from City Hall, on the corner of Aliwal and Smith Streets, was where I set up the South Central Mayor’s Parlour in the mid-90s; Roy helped me choose the carpeting and wallpaper!

The new ANC government finally made up its mind about the casinos and closed them down; but Durban Metro Council never summoned sufficient political will to clean up and restore safety to the streets. Whatever they did do was too little and too late; the CBD’s formal sector had been slowly and sadly strangled to death.

There’s still plenty of high-end shopping available to the people of Durban, but you’ll find it elsewhere – in suburban shopping centres like La Lucia Mall and the massive Gateway in Umhlanga Ridge.

What about the other services generally associated with a CBD? Though the law courts are still in Masonic Grove, previously city-based professionals, accountants and lawyers like our friend Jeff moved out years ago, mainly northwards to the glossy new commercial developments that now cover the salubrious coastal hills of Umhlanga and Ballito.

 

Roy stops the Renault Captur in Aliwal Street for me to take a few pics of my old places of work

Durban Beachfront

The city did a pretty good job of cleaning up the beachfront – fondly known as the Golden Mile – for the 2010 Football World Cup in Durban, and we’re still reaping the benefits of that.

Almost every beachfront building holds memories, and every hotel had its distinctive bars, nightclubs and restaurants – here are just a handful of them:

The Beach Hotel, on the corner of West Street and Marine Parade*, is up for sale; Roy remembers when you used to have to wear a jacket and tie to get into its Cockney Pride bar in the 70s

*Oops! Like many Durban streets, Marine Parade has been renamed, largely due to the unevenly appreciated efforts of white ANC local government politician Michael Sutcliffe. It is now Oliver Tambo Parade.

The Ladies’ Bar at the glorious Edward Hotel – five stars then, only four stars now – was a great place to kick off a more special night on the town
The Parade Hotel

Garfunkel’s restaurant with its entrance on the side of the Parade Hotel was a great place for a drink after or between my waitressing shifts at Stax Steakhouse; it was also home to Why Not Magoo’s Bar, infamous for being bombed on Saturday, 14 June 1986.  Three people died and 69 were injured in the attack. (I was usually there at the bar on a Saturday night, but on that particular night we had opted to go to a “house party” on the Berea.)

 

The Art Deco-style Palace Hotel makes you think of Miami’s South Beach hotels – but it was built not much more than 20 years ago, long after my single “jolling” days
Back in the 80s, Golden Sands was home to cheap holiday flats, the upmarket La Goulue French restaurant, and Stax – the best steakhouse in town, where I worked throughout my university years

I loved Durban when I was young and every part of the city was beautiful, clean and safe. I still do.

 

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Verne Maree

Born and raised in Durban, South African Verne is a writer and editor. She and Roy met in Durban in 1992, got married four years later, and moved briefly to London in 2000 and then to Singapore a year later. After their 15 or 16 years on that amazing island, Roy retired in May 2016 from a long career in shipping. Now, instead of settling down and waiting to get old in just one place, we've devised a plan that includes exploring the waterways of France on our new boat, Karanja. And as Verne doesn't do winter, we'll spend the rest of the time between Singapore, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand - and whatever other interesting places beckon. Those round-the-world air-tickets look to be incredible value...

  1. paul barfield

    So sad. I visited Durban a few times on a case in the early nineties but even then it was dangerous to be on the streets. A law professor had been murdered by a gang hijacking his combi van and my legal friends were in shock. They had a great view of the harbour from their office but across the street was a local brothel. They moved out to Umhalanga Rocks soon afterwards.

  2. Dawn Marks

    Your blog brought tears to my eyes. We used to have such a wonderful time in the city – West and Smith streets, all the hotels and bars. One could wine dine and dance – smoochie stuff, not discos. Time moves on, but does the city have to really fall into such decay? Africa is our choice and one must go with the flow. It certainly is not going to get any better in my lifetime.

  3. Conrad Nagiah

    Hi Verne
    I don’t know if you will remember me, but I was on the mayor’s protection detail and worked with Rob and Steve. I was shot on duty. Great to see that you’re doing well.

    Hi Conrad,
    Thanks for getting in touch! I’ll drop you an email.

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