Durban - The old picture this week takes in what was once Point Road, today Mahatma Gandhi Road, and shows an area that is fast being spruced up. It’s also looking much better now that the massive roadworks that blighted this stretch of Mahatma Gandhi Road have been completed.
The row of warehouses comes from a 1988 photograph that appeared in the Sunday Tribune, with the not-terribly-helpful caption of “Point Road”. It shows the Point precinct between Browns and Camperdown Roads.
While little has changed physically to the buildings in the intervening almost 35 years, the warehouses are today opposite the new passenger terminal that opened late last year and cost about R200 million. Supposed to open for the 2020 cruise season, the terminal was delayed by the Covid-19 outbreak.
Photographer Shelley Kjonstad notes that there is a whole new energy in the area as a result. With Robson’s Brewery a well established business in the second warehouse of the picture, and the new Bike and Bean next door, the area feels a lot more lived in.
The Chairman nightclub and Wanjiru Kinyua’s Breakfast Room in the old Point Police Station are just around the bend in Mahatma Gandhi Road, and the Docklands Hotel, another prestige project created out of two old Point buildings, and its Wodka Restaurant, is on the other side of Browns Road.
The Independent on Saturday