A Vision of Georgetown, (and Bourda) revealed

Sep 28, 2014 Countryman, Features / Columnists

---

Countryman – Stories about life, in and out of Guyana, from a Guyanese perspective

By Dennis A. Nichols

For most of my life I have lived in Georgetown, and for a major part of the last five

decades in the ward of Bourda, a section of the city stamped with the relics of a fading era. With unfeigned bias I am eagerly looking forward to seeing the long-anticipated ‘clean-up’ improvement in this ward as local government workers continue to plough through, and dispose of, tons of unwanted vegetation, canal silt, garbage, and derelict encumbrances in an effort to bring our capital city back to some semblance of its former charm and symmetry. It seems an appropriate time to reflect on a few historic aspects of our capital city, including Bourda and its landmarks.
The city of Georgetown, formerly and briefly known as Longchamps, and Stabroek, was born in 1812 and given its present name by the British in honour of King George III. The wards of our capital reflect the legacy of Dutch, French and British occupation in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when it was just a fraction in size of what it is today – Stabroek (Dutch) La Penitence (French) and Kingston (English).
The city originally encompassed a number of estates from Eve Leary in the north to Le Repentir in the south, and included Vlissengen, La Bougarde (Cummingsburg) and Werk-en-rust. Its affairs were managed by a Board of Policy before being taken over by a Mayor and Town Council in 1839. Today, this management by the M&CC appears to have been degraded to little more than a fiasco.
There are several historic landmarks and features in our capital which have helped to bestow on it the title of ‘Garden City’, some of which are sadly in need of restoration or at least a bit of sprucing up, starting with City Hall and St. George’s Cathedral (Including its immediate surroundings). I think Georgetowners would also welcome less pavement impediments and more walking space, especially along Regent Street and Water Street, and around the two major municipal markets. And with the clean-up drive gaining momentum, Georgetowners will hopefully see the canals and gutters flowing freely again, garbage piles reduced to zero, and the ambience of the entire Le Repentir Cemetery restored to blissful peace. And what about the Bourda Burial Ground…. and Bourda itself?

Bounded to the north and south by the roads and canals whose names bear those cardinal points, to the east by Vlissengen Road and to the west by Bourda Street, this area embraces a number of historic and socially-significant landmarks. These include the world-famous Bourda/GCC Cricket Ground and adjacent Football Field, the Ministry of Agriculture buildings, and the Office of the President of Guyana, all toward the eastern end of the ward.
Surprisingly, I am advised, lands that accommodate the Botanical Gardens/Zoological Park and the National Art Gallery, Castellani House across Vlissengen Road, are claimed as part of Bourda, adding a striking, if not panoramic, element to its more congested complement to the west.
Bourda boasted several other significant structures, including a real Green, (where once, according to some old-timers, football could be played) a church/cathedral (St. Barnabas) a Labour Exchange, and at least seven schools including private institutions such as Chatham High, Cambridge Academy, Montmartre High, and the Guyanese College. Some of these educational institutions have been replaced by huge, ungainly buildings, and only St. Barnabas, now a Special School, and the South Road Nursery School, remain.
Of course, there are other landmarks which have largely defied time and change. Among these are the Botanical Gardens with its quaintly-ornate Kissing Bridge, Bandstand, and Clock House, Castellani House, Dargan House (UNESCO building), the Post Office building, the Dorothy Bailey Health Centre, and Susamachar Methodist Church, nestled unassumingly at the corner of South Road and Light Street.
At its western extremity, flanking the Regent Street thoroughfare, are the Bourda Market and Bourda Cemetery, at present comprising the most unsightly and insanitary section of the district, smelly and garbage-strewn with stagnant gutters, next to which a score of ‘pavement dwellers’ apparently live and sleep, oblivious to the vagaries of weather and constant traffic. The cemetery, with structures dating back some 200 years, is an eyesore of garbage and uncontrolled vegetation that obscures all but one tomb, seen from its Regent Street ‘gate’.
Even as far back as 1967, the year my family relocated from Princes Street to South Road, Bourda, the ward, and the city, had already begun to show signs of minor neglect, but still with enough pre-independence allure to draw the comparison to an attractive and well-laid-out garden. And if this comparison was valid, then Bourda would have been an exquisitely-planted orchard interspersed with verdant swaths, and human constructions of architectural elegance. Some of this remains, but take a walk around the Bourda Market area; (If it’s a rainy day, forget it) the individual whose senses of sight, smell and hearing are not assaulted, is strong indeed!
A few days ago I did. In solemn wonder I stood by the post office opposite the market and looked at the forgotten cemetery which, ironically, has been designated a National Trust monument. I counted 12 dishevelled men and women sprawled or lying on the litter-strewn pavement, in various stages of consciousness, one of whom stared at me vacuously. I walked across the road to the eastern end of the market and counted another 11 souls in similar postures, some with eyes as vacant as the lot opposite, where the St. Barnabas Church once stood. I walked northward along Bourda Street and saw the apparently abandoned and unstable wooden building that was once Bedford School, still housing, I suspect, Ministry of Education’s teacher records. A fire hazard? Hopefully not for long.
A gust of fresh, rain-swept air is peeling away layers of Georgetown grime, and a revelation is at hand. Nine months ago when I returned to Guyana from The Bahamas, Regent Road, from Orange Walk to Oronoque Street, was unrecognizable to me. I actually felt disorientated, particularly as I tried to figure out exactly where I was, relative to the junctions at Cummings, Light and Albert Streets. Familiar buildings and faces seemed to have vanished, and in their place was crowded a monstrous confusion of towering edifices and alien faces. I expected change, and progress, but this was something more, and something unsettling that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
Now I know. As Georgetown (and the rest of the country) is being cleaned up, glimpses of its former beauty are being revealed; yes, there is beauty in flowing canals, pruned vegetation, clean spaces and unencumbered walkways. And these will be complemented by those buildings and structures which remain that still reflect enduring architectural and aesthetic integrity. That was what I couldn’t put my finger on as I strolled on Regent Road, Bourda, being obscured as they were by the modern trappings of ‘progress’.
Now, with Christmas less than three months away, my Bourda blues will happily be overshadowed by the revelation of at least a semblance of our city’s former landscaped glory.

---

---