TODAY’S picture of old Durban shows a building at 180 Stamford Hill (today Mathews Meyiwa) Road which comes from the Facebook Page Durban Down Memory Lane.
The double-storey Edwardian building at number 180 was originally the Inanda Masonic Hall and was built in 1903. It was designed by architect Edgar Alfred Henry. The picture shows a political rally through the city and was probably taken in the 1920s.
Stamford Hill is one of the oldest suburbs of Durban and home to the city’s first airport and, today, many of its top sporting facilities.
The trolleybus with the election poster “people not profits” was a rally in the 1920s for Durban artisan and politician Thomas Boydell. Born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1882, Boydell left school early and completed an apprenticeship as a marine engineer before arriving in Durban in 1902 and becoming a fitter.
He joined the Labour Party and won election to the House of Assembly. In 1924, he was appointed as Minister of Posts and Telegraphs in the Hertzog government and served as Minister of Labour from 1925 until 1929. He later served as a senator, his politics becoming increasingly divorced from his Labour Party roots as he toured internationally, promoting apartheid in South Africa. He died in 1966.
The picture shot by our photographer Shelley Kjonstad this week shows the building still standing and being used as a nightclub called The Boss Lounge. Before that it was the Bellagio, with Stamford Hill Road today making up the centre of Durban’s clubland.
The Independent on Saturday