Kwazulu-Natal

Toward the end of last year, team members at Africa Media Online were excited to take delivery of a brand new Phase One XF camerawith an 80-Megapixel CCD digital back. For some years now we have been looking for a more versatile high end medium format camera technology to boost our scanning capability. Camera technology generally has been receiving far more of the research and development dollars in the industry as a whole than scanning technology and so we were on the hunt for a system that could take our digital capture to a new level.

We looked at systems from the world’s best medium format camera manufacturers. Finally we settled on Phase One as the system that could both deliver very high quality 16-bit per colour channel digital images with the high throughput of a single shot system ensuring we can deliver the best images in a cost effective way.

Main entrance to the Kwazulu-Natal Museum in Pietermaritzburg (The Heritage Portal)

Our first project on the new system was the digitisation of maps and posters at the KwaZulu-Natal Museum. We had developed a custom rig to hold the camera in place and were able to set it in a position that produced an image of any item on the surface of the copy table at exactly 300 dpi. We were amazed at the...

A few years ago a wonderful collection of old documents was found in the basement of a Johannesburg inner city building while the tenant (Nedbank) was moving out. One of the boxes we looked at contained details of Nedbank's 50th anniversary celebrations (circa 1938). It was here we found a remarkable set of images of a few Town / City Halls around the country. It appears as though the photographs were taken in the late 1930s. Enjoy...

Old Raadsaal Bloemfontein (so not officially a Town Hall)

Durban Town Hall

East London Town Hall

Johannesburg Town Hall

[[{"fid":"1266","view_mode":"media_adaptive","fields":{"format":"media_adaptive","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Port Elizabeth Town Hall 1930s - Nedbank Jubilee Booklet"},"type":"media","link_text":null,"field_deltas":{"5":{"format":"media_adaptive","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Port Elizabeth Town Hall 1930s - Nedbank Jubilee Booklet"}},"attributes":{"title":"Port Elizabeth Town Hall 1930s - Nedbank Jubilee Booklet","height":591,"width":768,"style":"width: 500px; height: 385px...

The Old Court House Museum is one the oldest buildings in the Durban CBD. It was built in the mid 1860s and has seen its fair share of history as revealed in the following fascinating article by G.W. MacDonald. The article first appeared in Bulletin, the journal of the Simon van der Stel Foundation (today the Heritage Association of South Africa). 

Here is a link with early Durban which might well be saved and which - while in itself an object worthy of preservation from a cultural point of view - could be put to valuable use as a museum for, perhaps, the overflow of the wonderful collection of relics held by the Durban Old House Museum in a building which is far too small to display the 10,000 or so items entrusted to its care. It might, in conjunction with such use, also become the repository of collections by various professional bodies, scientific and art organisations, and other cultural associations; for is this not the time for the law societies, accountants societies, architectural associations and many other organisations to collect for preservation and display, relics of early endeavours in their respective spheres - all of which, together with contemporary records, will in time be historically invaluable? The Old Court House would indeed make a fine venue for such a museum.

[[{"fid":"507","view_mode":"media_adaptive","fields":{"format":"media_adaptive","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Old Court House Durban - Heritage Portal - October 2015"},"type":"media","link_text":null,"attributes":{"title":"Old Court House Durban - Heritage Portal - October 2015","height":672,"width":992,"style":"width: 500px; height: 339px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;","class":"adaptive...

[Originally published 17 June 2014] Over the past year a number of community members have brought the derelict state of the Royal Natal National Park Hotel to our attention. It appears as though there is a flicker of light at the end of the tunnel with AMAFA officials visiting the site in 2013 and requesting a heritage survey to be done by a qualified heritage practitioner. This will hopefully pave the way for a range of options to restore the landmark facility. Click here to view the discussion thread with fantastic old photos and recent updates.

The Park and the Hotel were awarded the title 'Royal' after the Royal Family visited in 1947. Alan Short, the lessee at the time, expanded the facilities to ensure maximum comfort for the famous visitors. The resort became incredibly popular after the royal visit and at its height facilities included a cinema, dance hall, lounge bar, restaurant, tennis courts, swimming pool, bowling green and so much more. In the early 1960s the cast and crew of the well known film Zulu stayed at the hotel adding another layer of significance to the site. 

Rising costs and greater competition hit the hotel hard in the 1980s and 1990s and it finally closed its doors in 2000.

Below are a selection of photos taken by The Heritage Portal team in June 2014.

[[{"fid":"378","view_mode":"media_adaptive","fields":{"format":"media_adaptive","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Royal Natal National Park Hotel - Heritage Portal - June 2014"},"type":"media","link_text":null,"field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"media_adaptive","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Royal Natal National Park Hotel - Heritage Portal - June 2014"}},"attributes":{"title":"Royal Natal National Park Hotel - Heritage...