Another one from Stewart Harris Flickr Strand Street On the right is Koopmans De Wet house. The rest of the buildings have gone. In fact they have gone twice over. Behind/beyond the tram is the Grand Hotel. That was demolished for that shiny cream brick block of the 1950s which was in turn demolished for Woolworths block. The high building is Parkers. Admittedly that was demolished only once, but beyond it was an equally high building called Electricity House, built in 1936-8. It had a high arcade to the street, and you looked down into a showroom displaying the latest range of stoves. The shopfront glass was curved, running horizontally. Im having difficulty describing this, does anyone remember? (The curved profile was reputedly to avoid reflections, so one felt closer to those enticing stoves.) Anyway, both Electricity House and Parkers were demolished c1980 for the Cape Sun Hotel. Then comes Burg Street. The buildings from there to Koopmans were demolished c1964 for the Santam Building - a tower on a podium. That too was translated to a new form c1990s when it was completely refaced for that building with a glassy pyramid on the corner of the podium. The buildings to the left of Koopmans were themselves make-overs of Georgian period and Dutch period houses and warehouses so in a way this block was also developed twice over.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 12:44:19 +0000
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