Durban - This week our correspondent Alan Gangasagar sent us the old postcard picture of a massive swan boat which used to delight children with rides on Blue Lagoon. The date the old picture was taken could not be pinpointed, but it is likely, judging from the new picture, to be before the construction of the Ellis Brown Viaduct in 1955.
In Facts About Durban, Wade Kidwell recalls: “As children we knew it as the 'Duck Boat' and it was a favourite, rivalled only by the delights contained in the building at the extreme top right of the picture, the famous Sunkist restaurant.”
Moira Kent-Brown writes: “When I came across a picture of the huge swan (which took us for rides) it reminded me of the fantastic waffles and milkshakes we used to have at the tea room there while growing up.”
Local historian Gerald Buttigieg writes that the Blue Lagoon Tea Room was quite an institution, its presence confirmed in both his 1968 and 1938 telephone directories, with the same number. “It would have been this tearoom that provided the ‘service’ of bringing orders to your car a la the Cuban Hat and the Nest. I do seem to recall that there was a type of hall adjacent but who owned this I have no idea. Maybe it was a scout group or the Durban Corporation but they did have ‘sessions’ there. The Flames and Gene Rockwell played there. I do not know when it closed down.”
Our photographer Shelley Kjonstad scouted for venues on the north bank of the Mngeni River to shoot a modern approximation. The Riverside Hotel didn’t work and eventually she was let into the block of flats Malgrove to take the picture. They show a very different looking Blue Lagoon today.
The Independent on Saturday