The old bolted up Grahamstown Station looks like just the kind of setting for the shooting of an old time western movie
The old bolted up Grahamstown Station looks like just the kind of setting for the shooting of an old time western movie
However, with Hollywood’s current obsession with producing fi lms that portray Arabs as the new villains, it is hardly possible that a fi lm producer will want to play around with the ghosts of English settler cowboys on the city’s decaying railway tracks.
However, that doesn’t mean that the old railway station doesn’t need a second chance to come alive and to contribute to the regeneration of Grahamstown’s inner city landscape.
Currently, visitors who travel to the city make use of Bathurst Street as a bus terminal but unlike other towns and cities which offer travellers areas for comfortable seating, toilet facilities and breastfeeding
rooms for mothers, Grahamstown offers its travellers nothing but an unsheltered and undeveloped island in the middle of the street.
It is therefore not surprising to fi nd weary travellers disembarking from the bus and, after failing to fi nd a public toilet in the vicinity, end up using the back wall of the Cathedral as a public urinal.
I have often wondered if bus drivers made the following announcement as they approached Bathurst Street: “Ladies and gentlemen, we will be approaching Grahamstown in a short while. Passengers who will be disembarking are requested to hold onto their empty bottles and lunchboxes. Please note that there
are no public toilets at our next stop. In the event that you need to relieve yourself, please use your disposable empty bottles and empty lunchboxes.”
For any traveller – local or international – a city’s bus terminal is an indication of the city’s attitude towards tourism. In Bathurst Street there isn’t even a sign to indicate that this is the city’s bus terminal.
The Grahamstown Station offers the ideal opportunity for developing a public private partnership and which should be advanced by the city’s authorities to draw on the government’s Umsombovu Youth Development
funds to redevelop the old station as a project for youth entrepreneurship in Grahamstown.
The station could be developed as a trendy visitors‘ centre that can be run by a group of well-trained new
entrants to the economy. Young entrepreneurs could be given the opportunity to open up a range of businesses, not to mention the number of arts and cultural organisations in the city that are looking for studio space. A small company could be engaged to service the building and the parking area in front of the
station. The huge parking area outside of the station would be able to absorb the congestion than is currently the case when buses park in Bathurst Street.
Branding and advertising revenue could also offer a signifi cant income for the building’s maintenance.
The bus companies which arrive and depart from the station could be encouraged to take up advertising inside the building. Likewise, the many tour operators offering excursions around Grahamstown and its surrounding game parks could be offered branding and advertising space in the building.
The arts organisations taking up rental space in the building could plan a year round schedule of performances and exhibitions and which could be presented in a multi-purpose arena inside the building.
This too, could add further revenue for the building’s maintenance. The Grahamstown Station is a heritage building. This city cannot afford to let it fall into disrepair, decay and vandalism.
The re-use of this heritage building and its redevelopment will make the Railway Station another node from which Grahamstown’s inner city can be revitalised.
It is an international trend for cities to reclaim heritage buildings and to fi nd newer ways to develop them so that the city’s economy can be stimulated.
Cape Town has its V&A Waterfront. Johannesburg has its Newtown precinct that is developed around the old Indian Fruit Market and Electric Turbine Hall.
Durban has its Bat Centre developed from old disused harbour sheds. Even Uitenhage has converted its 1875 heritage Railway Station into a museum.
There is no reason why Grahamstown, shouldn’t be able to fi nd a way of saving the Grahamstown Railway
Station building. It is begging to be turned it into a vibrant space in the city. Among some of the arts organisations that could be accommodated are Richard Antrobus’s Phezulu Stiltwalking Project, Merran
Marr’s Art Factory, Janet Buckland’s Amapiko Dance Company, the Makana Arts Council, the Art Beat Movement, the Grahamstown Pantsula Group and a few other fast-developing arts companies.
Such a visitors’ centre will quickly earn a reputation as a vibrant cultural mall which combines traveller safety and comfort with the city’s rich arts and cultural offerings. It can only uplift the city and provide
a much-needed injection for the city’s economy.
A safe, clean and well-serviced visitors centre and bus terminal will be a clear demonstration of good faith
that this city does care for its many tourists but it will also be a showcase of good faith that this city cares
equally for its growing arts sector which continues to keep this city’s economy on track.
Ismail Mahomed is the Director of the National Arts Festival. He writes in his personal capacity.
