From flats to offices - a property in demand
Durban - The old picture this week features Clifton Hall, a block of flats, 145 Musgrave Road on the corner with Clifton Place, on Durban’s Berea.
The picture appeared in the ‘Sunday Tribune’ on February 25, 1979. The caption reads: “Further indication of renewed investor interest in property was evident this week with the sale of R155 000 of Clifton Hall - a prestige block of flats in Durban’s Musgrave Road.
“The sale was negotiated by JH Isaac Geshen’s Keith Knowler.
“Mr Knowler, a director of the company, said: ‘Investors are certainly coming back into the market. For the last couple of years there has been a tendency to stay liquid but now there’s a marked increase in demand for investment properties - particularly flats’.
“Clifton Hall comprises two ground floor shops, three upper stories of 17 flats, 12 undercover parking bays, four open bays, and servants’ quarters. On current rentals and expenses, the purchase price shows the investor a net yield of 12%.”
There is little information about the construction of Clifton Hall, although judging by the architecture it was built after World War II, probably in the 1950s. The two shops were the Wenlyn Delicatessen and a hair salon. Next door was Barclays National Bank. The sold sign still has Durban using six-digit telephone numbers.
More than 40 years later, the original Clifton Hall has been torn down for offices of First National Bank as Shelley Kjonstad’s picture this week shows. The back is parking.
More on Ambassador Court
After last week’s Then & Now which featured Ambassador House in Monty Naicker Street, historian Arthur Gammage sent us more information.
He notes that the slightly angled north face of the building is due to its location opposite the starting point of the curve of the old railway away from its route along the north side of Pine Street towards West Street. The line crossed West and Smith streets on the way to the first Point Station.
The Independent on Saturday