Diary – Page 13 – Facts About Durban

9 Oct 2016

Fynnland Beach

by Gerald Buttigieg | posted in: Mini Memories | 6

Here’s another message that rather fell through the cracks. It arrived quite a long time ago from reader Bles Grobbelaar. He wrote:

Hi Allan, Durbanites and friends

Yesterday I was an 11-year-old bare-footed youth swimming at Fynnland Beach and today 60 years later I am retired after having lectured for 39 years at universities in Australia, NZ and good old SA.

Talking of Fynnland Beach: The folks who are aware of the fact that there once was a beach at Fynnlands are getting fewer and fewer. We moved to Durban in 1948 when housing was scarce and had to live in a tent on Fynnland Beach until we could find a house. The luckier ones lived in houseboats on the beach and contributed to the unhealthy conditions that probably led to the closure of the beach in around 1954.

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12 Sep 2016

Musical memories

by Gerald Buttigieg | posted in: Mini Memories | 21

Reader Keith Parker wrote in recently with some memories:

Hi Allan

Came across your website and it brought back so many memories. I am a drummer and as a very young boy had the honour of playing with Dennis Van Rooyen at functions in and around Durban. We played at weddings and many MOTH dances. I would like to know please when Dennis passed away as I am sure he is no longer with us. He was such a personality and an artist.The sound of that Hammond organ has stayed with me for a long time, being 70 years old now.

Band members: Donald Scott, Ivan Spiers, Des Kuhl,Lawrence “Podge” Holesgrove, Glen Turrell?? and Keith Parker.

Another item on your site was regarding Lee Men Limited. the group used to play at the Arena Club which doubled as a boxing academy run by Doug Dolan if I remember correctly. During that period I was playing with a group called Limits 4 and actually we took over playing at Arena when Lee Men Limited finished up there. Later on the group became The Village Green and we had a fixed venue at the Ocean View Hotel in Musgrave Road.

Such wonderful times.
Keith

In a later email Keith told me that Limits 4 started out playing at the Surfers Hut which was at the bottom of Moore Road near the corner with Umbilo Road.

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15 Aug 2016

Aviation queries

by Gerald Buttigieg | posted in: InfoRequests | 4

Durban Wings Club Piper Tripacer c 1955. Picture courtesy Michael Traynor.

Reader Michael Traynor has been in touch with a couple of queries. The first is to do with the picture, above, of a Piper Tripacer which apparently once belonged to the Durban Wings Club. It was taken in around 1955 and unfortunately the last registration letter on the tail was cut off leaving us with ZS-CC. Does anyone know what the missing letter would have been?

He also wrote:

“LADY MARY HEATH. I wish to express my thanks to Allan and his web site Facts about Durban for the contacts he assisted me establish when researching Mabel & Sheila Glass. I am now researching Lady Mary Heath the Irish aviatrix of the 1920’s. On 11 January 1928 she arrived in Durban during her flight from Cape Town to London. I would be very interested to hear from any of your readers that might have any photographs of Lady Heath during her flight through Africa and in particular her visit to Durban in January 1928. Thank you to your readers for their assistance in the past. Kind regards, Michael Traynor, Dublin, Ireland.”

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22 Jun 2016

Queries

by Gerald Buttigieg | posted in: InfoRequests | 1

Reader Ian Forbes sent a picture which he found among his grandparents’ effects and he believes it was taken in Durban circa 1916. That does look like the Bluff in the background but apart from that I have no ideas. Anyone know anything about it?

Reader Karl Fischer has a query about Maydon Wharf. He wrote:

I am currently doing my masters in architecture, and my selected site for my dissertation design is between Canal Rd & Fish Wharf St, behind Wilson’s Wharf.

Where I need your input is to try and locate a photographic article that did the rounds on social media about six months to a year ago that highlighted the vacant buildings and forgotten industry along Maydon Wharf. Does this ring any bells for you? Or would you be able to direct me to something similar?

(My research is looking at the hard skills shortages in South Africa and the trend toward university education over technical/vocational education.)

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14 Apr 2016

Musgrave Centre

by Gerald Buttigieg | posted in: Pictures | 4

Arthur Gammage sent in some interesting pictures of Musgrave Centre. He wrote:

Good day Allan. One of your respondents mentioned the Musgrave Centre and asked about any images. I have an artist’s impression and a photo of the original centre as attached, from journals in the UKZN Architecture Library.

Gerald Mullins has the distinction of designing this first shopping mall in the inner suburbs in 1958. It featured modernist decorative elements including a suspended curved concrete hood over the entrance. The centre has been enlarged several times, with the addition of a tower block, losing its 1950s character. One such extension involved the successful transplanting of a Baobab tree on the site to a position on the Musgrave Road frontage.
A notable feature of the centre is that it had a close street frontage from the outset, rather than the typical suburban model where the building is set back with open car parking intervening.

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24 Mar 2016

Airmail

by Gerald Buttigieg | posted in: New Articles, Pictures | 8

I have just received a scan of a very interesting airmail postcard which was sent in by Derk van Groningen who acquired it during a trip to Zimbabwe. It is dated 5 March 1925 and there was an experimental airmail service between Durban and Cape Town at that time which is referred to here on the site. I’m hoping readers can fill in some more of the details

From the message on the reverse of the card it would seem that it was carried in the first mail flight which would have been (as far as I know) the first airmail flight in South Africa. The message reads:

“Our first air mail leaves today 5.3.25 so I am sending you a post card. I hope you are well. Love to all. G.”

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7 Mar 2016

FAD Facebook Group

by Gerald Buttigieg | posted in: Housekeeping | 9

Thanks to Derek Austin we now have a page on Facebook and I encourage everyone to join and use it to chat, post pictures and memories and ask questions.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/FactsAboutDurban/

The page is for all ages so please be nice and why don’t we try and go against web tradition by crediting the sources the pictures and other materials we post there. Think of all the good karma we can accumulate.

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7 Mar 2016

HMS Durban

by Gerald Buttigieg | posted in: New Articles | 8

As part of the research for the book Facts About Durban I collected details on a number of ships which were named after Durban and I posted them on the site here. A little while later I not only discovered that HMS Durban had visited Durban in 1926 but managed to buy a copy of the souvenir booklet produced by the Durban Publicity Association in honour of the occasion.

It was packed with interesting information about the Durban of those days and I posted a page with some of the details. A little while ago a reader asked if I could provide the entire contents of the booklet for some research they were doing so I scanned the whole thing and uploaded it to this site. The download link is on the visit page if anyone is interested.

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22 Feb 2016

Remembering Horace

by Gerald Buttigieg | posted in: New Articles | 1

Horace Dainty. Picture courtesy Brian Austin.

Horace Dainty was one of FAD’s original informants who passed away back in 2006. Horace was born in Durban and had a radio business in Broad Street at the start of WWII. He was also the Mayor of Pinetown for a spell.

The other day and totally out of the blue I received an article from Brian Austin in which he told of Horace’s remarkable life as as pioneer of radio innovation and manufacture in Africa. I decided to move my material on Horace to its own section here and added a page for Brian’s contribution.

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9 Feb 2016

320 Murals

by Gerald Buttigieg | posted in: InfoRequests | 1

Arthur Gammage is curious to know if anyone has pictures of the murals in the main arcade at 320 West Street. He says they were high up on the walls and later hidden by a ceiling installed in the 1980s. Drop me a line if you can help.

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