A sparkling Christmas tradition

ToBeConfirmed

ToBeConfirmed

Published Dec 23, 2022

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Christmas lights have always been a tradition in Durban, and every year the city’s main shopping street, West Street, today, Dr Pixley kaSeme, was decked out with a festive flourish. In fact, West Street has always been in for a party, right down to the very first electrification of the city in time for Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee in 1897.

So successful was the city’s Christmas lights that people used to take trips into Durban at night just to look at them, creating traffic congestion, as seen in the early picture when West Street was still two ways. The architecture of Dr Pixley kaSeme has changed so dramatically, and together with the fact that it’s dark makes it difficult to pinpoint where the picture was shot from.

It’s probably just after the intersection with Field looking towards the Berea at the right-hand side of the road ‒ the north side. The building in the foreground may be Milady’s today, the tall art deco block in the middle ground Pixley House, with the art deco Nedbank building just after it still intact.

Durban’s Christmas lights in the late seventies or early eighties in West Street.

Our photographer, Doctor Ncgobo, was shooting a whole series of this year’s lights which we matched with an undated picture probably from the late seventies or early eighties, with West Street changed to one-way. The OK Bazaars building in the old picture is just behind the old Stuttafords building, which can be seen at the intersection with Joe Slovo (then Field) and painted gold in today’s picture.

A much earlier picture of Durban’s Christmas lights taken when the street was still open to two-way traffic. The picture was probably taken from a similar position just after Field street looking up the right of West street.

The Independent on Saturday