We’ve got a couple of pictures for you today. The first is of the Little Top and comes from Erica Koen which I have put up on the main Entertainment page because there is already quite a bit of stuff on that page about it.
The next picture is from Malcolm Wesson and is of a sign many many recognise:
Malcolm wrote:
Share this:Hello Allan
I have attached a photograph of the old animated neon sign that hung outside the Colombo Tea & Coffee shop in West Street.I loved it as a child as the elephant would stand on the monkey’s tail causing him to jump. It’s now in the old Colombo Tea & Coffee warehouse in Gale Street as part of a coffee shop known as The Factory Café. Great place.
Colombo Tea and Coffee were also famous for refusing to sell when land was being acquired for the complex known as Broadwalk. The new building had to be constructed around the coffee shop leaving it intact.
Gerald Buttigieg
One of the classic photos of Durban. The Colombo Tea and Coffee Shop standing alone on the site with everything else demolished around it. In retrospect the development around the Colombo shop never amounted to much. This photo came from a magazine.
Moira Badstubner (nee Williams)
I remember the lovely aroma and always enjoyed our visit to that shop.
The assistant would mix the chicory/coffee as you requested while you waited.
What a heavenly aroma.!
Moira Badstubner (nee Williams)
The shop on the corner was also very popular. I think it was a Milky Bar – and I also remember a shop with Catholic miniature statues and maybe jewellery?
Malcolm Wesson
A correction on what I said about Colombo Coffee in West Street.
It has become a popular urban myth that the owners refused to sell to make way for the new development that eventually enclosed the building. It has been lauded in a local architectural book with the comment ‘courage’
According to the man who bought the company the ‘refusal’ to sell was based on business considerations and not a brave stand against development. The owner was willing to sell provided the business be relocated to a suitable address in town. No agreement could be established so the business remained.
If this develops sufficient interest I will get detailed facts in support of what I have written.
Chris Charlesworth
In Wallingford, Oxfordshire, UK is the Wallingford Tea & Coffee Co. The owner, Stephen Kitching, worked at Colombo in Gale St, in 1961 & 1962. He learnt the trade there. We buy our coffee from him. He’s in his 80’s now & still remembers going down to the wharf to inspect shipments. I so remember the smell of roasting Coffee on my way to & from Glenwood High on the bus.