Christmas lights have always been a tradition in Durban, and every year the city’s main shopping street, West Street, today, Dr Pixley kaSeme, was decked out with a festive flourish. In fact, West Street has always been in for a party, right down to the very first electrification of the city in time for Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee in 1897.
So successful was the city’s Christmas lights that people used to take trips into Durban at night just to look at them, creating traffic congestion, as seen in the early picture when West Street was still two ways. The architecture of Dr Pixley kaSeme has changed so dramatically, and together with the fact that it’s dark makes it difficult to pinpoint where the picture was shot from.
It’s probably just after the intersection with Field looking towards the Berea at the right-hand side of the road ‒ the north side. The building in the foreground may be Milady’s today, the tall art deco block in the middle ground Pixley House, with the art deco Nedbank building just after it still intact.
Our photographer, Doctor Ncgobo, was shooting a whole series of this year’s lights which we matched with an undated picture probably from the late seventies or early eighties, with West Street changed to one-way. The OK Bazaars building in the old picture is just behind the old Stuttafords building, which can be seen at the intersection with Joe Slovo (then Field) and painted gold in today’s picture.
The Independent on Saturday