# The Campanile, Port Elizabeth, SA



## Huaqero (Apr 26, 2021)

Guys, you just cannot escape...
I 'streetview' a lot, by now I have around 80000 screenshots from selected places around the world, found on Google and Yandex streetview, to collect as many world visuals as I can. Not many customers today, while zooming down to the virtual globe I randomly chose Port Elizabeth for a morning 'walk'.

And what greets you right there in the PE port? A 'Campanile', a bell tower, named like and styled almost like the much more famous Venetian one.

​Ok, nice, but that greco-romano up there?
Will I do some cozy streetviewing while drinking my coffee, or do I have to do some searching, again?
... Damn, investigative searching calls...!

The basics, first:
_"The Campanile was erected to commemorate the landing of the 1820 Settlers and is situated at the entrance to the railway station and docks in Strand Street, the spot where it is said the settlers landed in Port Elizabeth. The architects were Jones & McWilliams with construction starting in April 1921 and it was completed in October 1923."_

Here are two resourceful links:

A Pictorial History of the Campanile in Port Elizabeth​
A short history of PE's famous Campanile​
What you will not find in these links are photos of the Campanile under construction. But, you guessed it, you will see scaffoldings 'during the construction' of a completed Campanile. You will also see photos of the bells 'in position' looking not exactly brand new, but some chipped in their edges. Are these enough to claim that the Campanile is a building out of the official timing and narrative, presented as a modern construction? Maybe yes, maybe not, however some more searching about PE itself rings even more bells, pun intended:

A monument to the mythical _Prester John_.
I only know that this a significant figure in some stolen history hypotheses, but what is the point for such a monument in PE?



A pyramid overlooking the city, an obvious 'marking'.



Several more greco-romano styled buildings down the port:

​
_And then this little gem! :_
Lost Artefacts of Port Elizabeth: Customs House , where we read the strange, but familiar to us, story of a great-architecture Customs House nearby, with:

several transformations in its appearance  ​
a tower that had to be removed after a ... flood (_"exactly how the flood affected the tower is unknown but a priceless artefact was lost" _  )​
silly captions in photos : _"Customs House after 1906 but before 1923"_, like, _"Don't question our datings, dude!" _ 
and the uber-usual ending : _"Badly damaged by fire in 1978, attempts to save the building failed and it was demolished in 1982"  _



_The Customs House today; the doctors tried but the building died_



_(Don't you enjoy the fun as I do, every time you come across these stories?)_​
For even more fun, here is your entrance to the PE rabbit hole:
Great architecture, Big bathing houses, Octagon pavillions, Floods, Demolished greco-romanos, Other demolitions, Obelisks, Fires & pyromaniacs, Questionable photos, you name it ...





> Note: This OP was recovered from the Sh.org archive.





> Note: Archived Sh.org replies to this OP are included in this thread.


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## Archive (Apr 26, 2021)

> Note: This post was recovered from the Sh.org archive.Username: RTP nowDate: 2020-02-19 18:13:24Reaction Score: 1




Huaqero said:


> What you will not find in these links are photos of the Campanile under construction. But, you guessed it, you will see scaffoldings 'during the construction' of a completed Campanile. You will also see photos of the bells 'in position' looking not exactly brand new, but some chipped in their edges. Are these enough to claim that the Campanile is a building out of the official timing and narrative, presented as a modern construction? Maybe yes, maybe not, however some more searching about PE itself rings even more bells, pun intended:


Well, we have to look no further than the silly commemoration plaque below to see clear evidence of forgery... why is it that the building looks as good as new except for this commemorative plaque that is crumbling? Are we to believe that the original builders were able to construct such a magnificent building that looks new but could not design a commemorative stone that would hold up?


Huaqero said:


> You will also see photos of the bells 'in position' looking not exactly brand new, but some chipped in their edges


How strange that they are supposedly preparing to hoist the bells after the supposed completion of construction yet the ground area surrounding the does not resemble a newly constructed workspace.


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## Archive (Apr 26, 2021)

> Note: This post was recovered from the Sh.org archive.Username: jd755Date: 2020-02-19 18:44:55Reaction Score: 0




RTP now said:


> why is it that the building looks as good as new except for this commemorative plaque that is crumbling?


That plaque looks to have been restored or rather replaced. The cill is where it is usual to see weather erosion occur as it's shaped to drain water but as a porus stone not all of it drains away hence the blowing which has been repaired. The sandstone blocks look to me to be unrestored.

As for the bells the clobber of the bloke in the white pants is contemporary with the early twenties completion date.


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## Archive (Apr 26, 2021)

> Note: This post was recovered from the Sh.org archive.Username: RTP nowDate: 2020-02-19 18:55:41Reaction Score: 1




jd755 said:


> That plaque looks to have been restored or rather replaced. The cill is where it is usual to see weather erosion occur as it's shaped to drain water but as a porus stone not all of it drains away hence the blowing which has been repaired. The sandstone blocks look to me to be unrestored.
> View attachment 40766
> As for the bells the clobber of the bloke in the white pants is contemporary with the early twenties completion date.
> View attachment 40765


I am sure the photos are contemporary to the 1920s, but the Campanile is not. The scene looks to be more of a restoration project, or reclamation.


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## Huaqero (Apr 26, 2021)

> Note: This post was recovered from the Sh.org archive.Username: HuaqeroDate: 2020-02-19 19:17:53Reaction Score: 0


"The bells were hoisted into position in the belfry during July 1936", according to the second link.
...
A bit awkward that the Campanile does not have its own wiki page. In the PE wiki page it is just mentioned,
while for a monument dedicated to military ... horses during the Anglo-Boer war, we are informed that
it was unveiled _"on Saturday afternoon  , February 11, 1905, with His Worship the Mayor, Mr A Fettes, performing the ceremony" 

(Btw, just came to me, could this horse monument be a covered megalithic ruin? Once in doubt, always in doubt for their 'monuments'...)_

__


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## Archive (Apr 26, 2021)

> Note: This post was recovered from the Sh.org archive.Username: jd755Date: 2020-02-19 19:19:24Reaction Score: 1


This photograph suggests otherwise.
From here Lost Artefacts of Port Elizabeth: Union Castle Corner - The Casual Observer

Looking down Jetty Street towards the harbour pre Campanile


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## Huaqero (Apr 26, 2021)

> Note: This post was recovered from the Sh.org archive.Username: HuaqeroDate: 2020-02-19 19:43:05Reaction Score: 1




jd755 said:


> This photograph suggests otherwise.
> From here Lost Artefacts of Port Elizabeth: Union Castle Corner - The Casual Observer
> View attachment 40768
> Looking down Jetty Street towards the harbour pre Campanile


I am not sure where we are looking at, since these buildings are now demolished, but,
if this building was "demolished to make way for a bus station" and the bus station (Intercape) has not been moved since,
then this crossroads does not look towards the Campanile, (have a look at the street map box).
_It seems that the caption is a trick for the unsuspected, showing us the wrong crossroads...!_

And we have two photos of the building, L size and XL size,
(_"Note that the building has been extended. When this occured cannot be ascertained"), _lol_. _

Moreover, the bus station building is old and old styled, and obviously not built to be a bus station.
And where is/was Jetty str., anyway?...


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## Archive (Apr 26, 2021)

> Note: This post was recovered from the Sh.org archive.Username: RTP nowDate: 2020-02-19 19:58:11Reaction Score: 1




jd755 said:


> This photograph suggests otherwise.
> From here Lost Artefacts of Port Elizabeth: Union Castle Corner - The Casual Observer
> View attachment 40768
> Looking down Jetty Street towards the harbour pre Campanile


Lots of Greco-Roman looking architecture in those photos from your link as well as interesting looking electrical or telegraph poles.

As far the Campanile not showing in the photo, it could be attributed to photo manipulation... I’m always suspicious of such high quality photos from back in the day when the sky in the background is so whitewashed. Not being a photo expert, I don’t know but find it hard to believe that there’s almost zero visibility beyond what’s in the foreground.Also, what’s with the tram appearing to be running into the ground? Is the street just so filled with mud that the rails aren’t visible?
Lastly, the whole damn place looks like they just recently moved in... the buildings all look extremely dirty.


Huaqero said:


> I am not sure where we are looking at, since these buildings are now demolished, but,
> if this building was "demolished to make way for a bus station" and the bus station (Intercape) has not been moved since,
> then this crossroads does not look towards the Campanile, (have a look at the street map box).
> _It seems that the caption is a trick for the unsuspected, showing us the wrong crossroads...!_
> ...


Good catch, I thought it looked odd but am on my mobile and cannot due proper search. These critters are masters of deception and have moved and demolished everything to make it difficult to spot the shenanigans.


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## Archive (Apr 26, 2021)

> Note: This post was recovered from the Sh.org archive.Username: jd755Date: 2020-02-20 09:11:46Reaction Score: 0




RTP now said:


> .Also, what’s with the tram appearing to be running into the ground? Is the street just so filled with mud that the rails aren’t visible?


The place floods with a regularity that is astonishing. I'm old enough to have seen trains running on rails in the ground in the same fashion. From not that far away they looked like they were running on the ground butt the reality shoowed they were in ground. The trams round here were long gone by my time but their rails, also sey into the ground sutvived in places.

As for the single photo for the seaech engines and I cannot find any others the building on the corner is shown in other photographs on that site in the same condition and to me there is no evidence of photo manipulation. In fact jetty streety makes far more sense as a thoroughfare without the tall brick bell tower/
The bricks in the 20's photographs look fresh as does the mortar and worled stone.
So for me on the balance of the available evidence the tower went up in the 20's and the buildings around it pre-date it. When they went up I have no idea but given the flooging issue it seems to me to be a stupid place to lay a town out no matter who did it or when.

That said human nature being what it is today means this sort of madness carries on today with building on flodplains so my guess is the towns construction occured after the reformation which nrought in religion and authority which deemed it that man had dominion over the earth so had free reign to do anything and defy their inherent nature.


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