Durban - The old picture this week takes in a scene on Grey Street, today Dr Yusuf Dadoo Street, at the intersection of Victoria Street, today Bertha Mkhize. The picture comes from the Facebook page, Durban Down Memory Lane, and was shot in the early 1940s.
The building featured on the corner is the N Bodasing’s Buildings which was designed by architect Horace Henry Grant and erected in 1939. He also designed the Port Shepstone and Howick town offices and Willingdon Mansions in 1938.
Narain Singh Bodasing was a prominent Indian sugar cane farmer. He was born in New Guelderland near Stanger in 1900, the son of Babu Bodasing, and became one of the leading Indian cane planters in the country. He was president of the Natal Indian Cane Growers Association, and the North Coast Indian Football Association. He was also a donor to the Sastri College building fund, and listed tennis as a hobby.
In the background, you can see the famed Grey Street Mosque or Juma Masjid. There has been a mosque on the site since August 1881. The first of the two minarets was constructed in 1904, the second the following year. At one time, they were two of the highest structures in the city. The mosque was rebuilt in 1927 to a design by architects Payne & Payne, and was further enlarged in 1943 on a design by William Bruce Barboure. Until the late 1970s it enjoyed the status of being the largest mosque in the southern hemisphere.
Shelley Kjonstad’s new picture shows the block of flats and shops still standing, although the name, N Bodasing’s Buildings, has been removed.
The Independent on Saturday