Sphamandla Hlela: Pietermaritzburg City Hall



Pietermaritzburg City Hall looks good in any light, Church Street View (Flickr, April 2012).



Cheif Albert Luthuli Street View (South Africa Travel, April 2012)

 

Church Street View (SuperStock, April 2012)



The Pietermaritzburg City Hall has to be my favourite place. It is an old Victorian style building and it is also a national monument. The building is said to be the biggest brick structure in the southern hemisphere and it has the biggest pipe organ in the southern hemisphere (SA Vanues, April 2012).



Citi Hall pipe organ (NHOA, April 2012)

 

Allan  B. Jacobs (1985) says looking at clues such as architectural style, when looking at and analysing a building, will help you estimate when it was built. This building was built in 1893, by South African standards that is quite old. This building has to be the first buildings I ever took appreciative notice of growing up in Pietermaritzburg. Everybody knows it in Pietermaritzburg, people get married in it, big church functions take place here, big musical functions take place here, etc.

It is a building that stands proudly on the corner of Chief Albert Luthuli Street and Church Street. I love the contrast between the red brick and grey accents, contrast is very eye-catching and humans react to it (G. Cullen, 1961). The 47m tall bell tower is a another prominent feature. Anyone who has stayed in Pietermaritzburg for any period of time will have heard the bells’ classic notes, the soundtrack of Pietermaritzburg. 

Location of Pietermaritzburg (Google, April 2012)

If you are a comrades marathon follower, you should be familiar with this building because it has served as the starting poing on quite a few occasions. The 2012 Comrades Marathon will be a ‘down-run’ starting at the City Hall in Pietermaritzburg and and finishing at the Sahara Kingsmead Cricket Stadium in Durban (Comrades Marathon Webite, April 2012). And thus this building will be beamed on everyones screens for the whole of South Africa to see and appreciate this beauty.

Location Of the City Hall, right in the center of the city(Google, April 2012)

References

• Cullen, G. (1961) “Introduction To The Concise Townscape From The Concise Townscape”. In Larice, M., and McDonald, E. (2007) The Urban Reader. Routledge, London 
• Jacobs, A. (1985) “Looking at cities”. (Chapter 3 Clues). Harvard University Press
• SA Venues, 12^th April 2012: http://www.sa-venues.com/attractionskzn/pietermaritzburg-city-hall.htm
• Comrades Marathon Website, 12^th April 2012: http://www.comrades.com/Route/Route-Map.aspx
• City Hall Pipe Organ, JPEG Photo, 12^th April 2012: http://www.nhoa.hyperphp.com/sav.html
• City Hall, JPEG Photo, 12^th April 2012,: http://www.superstock.com/stock-photos-images/1890-6992
• South Africa Travel, JPEG Photo, 12^th April 2012: http://www.southafrica-travel.net/kwazulu/e2pietmb.htm
• City Hall, JPEG Photo, 12^th April 2012, http://www.flickr.com/photos/kleinz/3180031360/in/photostream