Mark Levin
Durban - This street scene, photographed on December 8, 1937, from the steps on the West Street side of the City Hall, captures two double-decker trams, a bus, cars and fashion of that period.
The only surviving building in the recent photo is the old Receiver of Revenue Building (on the corner of West and Aliwal streets), which was built in about 1925 on the site of the original Drill Hall.
Adopting the classical style, which even includes a Cape Dutch revival doorway, what distinguishes the building are the sculptures by Mary Stainbank. She created an elephant’s head holding chains, a monkey among tropical vegetation, gargoyles, a vulture and seahorses. On the Aliwal Street/Samora Machel façade are two men working with a pick and shovel. Beneath them is the cryptic inscription “EPYOV”. Stainbank intended this to be the Greek word for “work”.
After the Receiver moved to its new building on the site of the old Waverley Hotel, the Public Works Department took over the building. Little maintenance has been done in recent years: Numerous trees, some a metre high, are growing on the upper storey of the nearly 100-year-old building.
The elegant building behind the bus and tram in the foreground was the main police station, which was demolished in 1957. Since then, the site has been part of the Medwood Gardens, named after Dr Medley Wood who was curator of the Botanic Gardens from 1882 to 1913.
The Independent on Saturday