TEDxPortElizabeth will be hosting a TEDx Talk on Friday, 1 July from 08h00 to 18h00. The TEDx event will also be live streamed from the AFDA Port Elizabeth Campus on 28 Bird Street, Central. The theme is: ‘Through The Looking Glass‘.
And the good reason to attend? The AFDA Campus is a wonderful old building with a rich history.
A Port Elizabeth landmark, the triple-storey Old Museum Building at 28 Bird Street, Central was first erected in 1861 as the home of Henry Rutherford, a settler from the British Isles. After changing hands to Adam White Guthrie it became home to the Port Elizabeth Museum and Snake Park opened on 1 February 1919. In February 1947 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth accompanied by their two young Princesses, Elizabeth (then 20-years-old – now Queen of England after ascending to the throne aged 24), and Margaret visited the Old Museum and were treated to a tour and snake park demonstration. See the old Pathe newsreel of the event here: Royal Tour 1947. In the newsreel the Royals are seen standing outside the snake enclosure as a snake handler holds up a snake for them to ‘admire’.
Queen Elizabeth II went on to celebrate her 21st birthday in Cape Town declaring in her speech; “I declare that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service.”
On 1 March, 1965, the Old Museum Building, together with many of the surrounding buildings in Bird Street, became the University of Port Elizabeth – South Africa’s first dual-medium residential university. In 1979, the campus was officially moved to Summerstrand. The University retained some of its Bird Street buildings, but the Old Museum and its surrounding buildings were sold in 1985 to The Campus Trust. They have been rented to a number of private businesses ever since.
As from January 2016, the Old Museum became the official Port Elizabeth campus of AFDA School of Film and Live Performance.
Denise Roodt, the Dean of AFDA graciously sent us these images and is looking forward to sharing this wonderful old building with all attendees at TEDxPE on Friday 1 July 2016.
Related Links: Princess Elizabeth’s 21st Birthday (1947) | Royal Tour of South Africa, 1947 | The 1947 Royal Visit to St Georges Park.
Alan Straton
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