There is one thing which doesn’t have a high profile in the Budget. In fact, it doesn’t have a profile at all. While government and critics home in on the ugly new Marriott Hotel whose only notable feature is its proposed casino (and who wants that apart from the government and a limited number of citizens, shady and otherwise?), nobody notices that the face of Georgetown is undergoing a radical transformation. It is that traditional face which would have intrigued all the potential tourists about whom various ministers burble so meaninglessly, not some glitzy gambling den set in a sterile urban environment of concrete and glass.
The process of the destruction of the capital’s unique colonial architecture has been going on for decades, with the authorities showing no interest, let alone concern, about its disappearance. Older citizens would remember that there was a time when one could amble down any number of streets and see not just a single building, but row upon row of traditional houses with their fretwork and Demerara shutters (among other attractive and utilitarian features), giving them their character. And it was not only large, elegant structures which could be seen in abundance, but little gems on a far more modest scale as well, representing the homes of workers, whose eye for detail was as aesthetic as that of their better heeled counterparts.
As everyone is well aware, we have lost any number of wonderful public buildings to plain old-fashioned neglect by the authorities of one political complexion or another, who simply sat back and watched the vandals, the weather and/or the termites obliterate our material heritage. The outstanding examples, of course, are the Palms under the government of the PNC, and the New Amsterdam Hospital under the PPP/C – but there are several others. It might be noted that the Red House was saved because Dr Cheddi Jagan had once lived there as Premier, and the PPP wanted to maintain it in his memory, while Castellani House was taken over as an art gallery owing to the efforts of Mrs Janet Jagan.
The government has shown no such apparent concern about the survival of City Hall, although one hopes that with the commitment of a recently formed group of citizens comprising engineers and others, in conjunction with the municipal authorities, the central administration would do what is necessary to save Fr Scoles’ iconic building. One might observe that St George’s Cathedral also appears to be in a poor state, and while that is not public property in the sense that City Hall is, it is nevertheless a symbolic structure as far as the Georgetown skyline is concerned, quite independent of its religious associations.
In the very earliest days of the National Trust, this was recognised by the then director, Dr Denis Williams, and together with one of the earliest shivalas in this country, built in 1902 at Woodley Park, it was given money towards its preservation. The National Trust, however, does not enjoy funding at a level that would allow it to commit to the kind of conservation and rescue interventions which are needed on wooden structures, and clearly greater imagination is required in this area if preservation on any scale is to be undertaken.
But the problem is not confined to public buildings. The graceful houses mentioned above that once lined Georgetown’s streets, were in private hands. Most of the owners of the large ones migrated, and in the case of the smaller ones, many of them perhaps found a wooden home too expensive to maintain, and they were rebuilt in concrete for the sake of durability. Those who could afford to buy the bigger structures simply pulled them down, to impose in their stead some towering, inelegant protuberance on the landscape which did nothing for the skyline and was out of scale with the surrounding buildings.
Camp Street is the most recent victim of this creeping philistinism. Already two colonial buildings – the front one of which was particularly attractive – were unceremoniously annihilated on the western side of the street, and now another on the eastern side is in the process of demolition. Then there is the house once owned by the de Freitas family in Middle Street, close to Main Street. The rumour mill has it that it has been sold, and if true, one would have to be an unreconstructed optimist to believe that its salient traditional features will be preserved.
While it is true that we seem to have lost our moorings in relation to the local architectural traditions, and while it is also true that many of those with money show little evidence of taste, it has to be acknowledged that not only are wooden structures (as mentioned above) expensive to maintain, but it is very hard to get properly cured wood at all. So much wood is being shipped out of the country, that there is a problem for those who live here accessing the quality which is required.
The government likes to talk glibly about getting Georgetown onto Unesco’s World Heritage List (as things stand it has no hope), but it really has not done any of the things which would be necessary to make that a reality – including confronting the garbage and drainage issues.
But if it has any interest in the material heritage at all, then the Ministries of Culture and Tourism need to meet with all interested parties, including municipal representatives, the private sector and citizens’ groups, to see what the options are to salvage what remains of our fast diminishing material heritage.
Paramaribo has preserved its city centre and is on the World Heritage List; Barbados has worked with the private sector to conserve and restore its heritage; and even Trinidad is restoring historic buildings of an aesthetic character. What is wrong with us? One day we will wake up and discover that we no longer recognize our own capital city.
