History & Politics

• Champion and the ICU • Architecture • Badsha Pir Shrine • The gangs • Group Areas Act

Architecture

Professor Brian Kearney describes the Grey Street area as combining "a mix of residential, religious and commercial with a cultural variation of the East." He argues that he streetscape is given a specifically Indian quality by the "collonades over pavements, narrow lanes leading to courtyards behind and the fondness shown for the flamboyant and curvilinear architecture of the 1920s and 1930s. Many of the buildings in the Grey Street area house business premises on the ground floor and residential apartments above. The preponderance of family businesses, the mix of commercial and residential use of properties, the displaying of names and dates on pediments and gables all give the Grey Street area its "Indian" character. During the Union period the architecture of Grey Street underwent significant change, with the introduction of building forms and styles that were more characteristically Indian. These included residential apartments above shops. The veranda over the shop area was continued upwards to serve the residential apartments as a balcony. Verandas and balconies were treated as colonnades with "classical" columns or as arcades incorporating a variety of different types of arches and balustrades.