Durban - The picture of old Durban this week takes in 125 Grey Street, and comes from the Facebook page Durban Down Memory Lane. The picture was taken in December 1946 and is credited to Nat Farbman and Pat English.
It features Burma House and Peter’s Lounge.
Burma House was a well-established Durban tobacconist and was listed under tobacconists in a 1965 Durban phone directory.
There was another tobacconist, Brilliant House, across the road at 122 Grey Street.
Peter’s Lounge was a famed Casbah watering hole. The late journalist Farouk Khan, in an article on the area, recalled it was opposite the West End Hotel, which had its own Goodwill Lounge, and there was a friendly rivalry between owner Peter Naidoo and Goodwill owner
Soobramoney Pillay, although they co-operated on community issues.
Many of the famed eating houses of Grey Street have closed, with the
Victory Lounge being the most recent. Readers may remember Simon’s Cafe,
Kapitan’s, Rajputs and Bhagats.
The site today, seen in Shelley Kjonstad’s pictures, houses fashion shop, Beson Fashion. The building has had an additional floor added to it and has lost much of the charm of the original.
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 [email protected]
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.