Meanderings through old Victoria in memory of historian Tony Mathiot

A stroll through places in Victoria may be an interesting cultural as well as a pleasant physical exercise.

From English River uphill to Mont Buxton                                                                            

There is a lane that leads from Castor Road at English River to Greenwich (Grenis), Mont Buxton. It climbs quite steeply uphill, past several houses, and at one point along a clearstream, before reaching an old bridge after which it bifurcates to left and right.

Leftwards you walk through a small lane by houses to eventually reach the main road of Mont Buxton as it climbs up.

Rightwards, you climb more steeply, past a few more isolated houses until the top at Greenwich.  Turning around on the way up, it is the open sky and Trois Frères in its majesty that greet the eyes. At the top you overlook Victoria including the harbour area and the coast up to the airport at Pointe Larue.

Many inhabitants or people using the lane (leading off Castor Road at its beginning) do not know, or appear to have forgotten, its name. But there is really no mystery to it; it takes its name from the river and the area itself – English River Lane. (A newspaper article of the 1930s complained of chickens roosting on the branches of a corossol tree over a spot in English River Lane and inconveniencing early church-goers with their droppings!)

Further north along Castor Road, nearer the former Radio Seychelles station (now replaced by the new headquarters of both the TV and radio services of the SBC), there is another lane that goes uphill, leading to a quite impressive set of wide stone steps that take you to the lower reaches of Greenwich. This lane has been widened and is now motorable to just before the steps. People still refer to it as Thompson Lane. 

But most would have no idea who was the Thompson that was sufficiently renowned to have a road, or at least a lane, named after him? Could it be George Thompson Wade, the Civil Commissioner of Seychelles from 1853 to 1862?  Thompson Lane does sound better than Wade Lane, especially if you imagine howyou would have had to navigate it on very rainy days long ago!

At the beginning of Thompson Lane there used to be a shop on whose side there was a plaque with the street name. The shop and original plaque have long since disappeared. (Recently a new, blue, plaque bearing the name of the lane has been installed in the area.)

Button, Buxton, M.C, and La Rosière

Similarly, a street name plaque that used to be on the side of the shop opposite the La Rosière School entrance disappeared along with the shop which has been replaced by a bigger, imposingly concrete shop. The plaque was for Button Lane, the beginning of the motorable road known as Mont Buxton Road that leads up to Greenwich and Dan Lenn. 

After being seemingly forgotten for many years, Button Lane was recently revived through its own blue plaque. And it may be noted that an old-style shop, with the characteristic solid wooden doors of former times, is still doing business there.

• Old style shops still operating in Hangard Street

The Button whose name the “lane” bears was Charles Button, the Conservator of Crown Lands in the 1880s. He resided in the lane.He had a strong interest in the preservation of the coco de mer forests of Praslin, advocating that the colonial Government buy the main properties where the palm grows.

The original Semen Mont Buxton was the lane that starts near the Domus (priests’ residence) by the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, at one end of the area known as La Rosière.

The lane goes by the old wall of the Cathedral property and gently up through a quiet neighbourhood- where until recently you might have crossed paths with chickens - to join the Mont Buxton Road before its steeper climb uphill.

On the way, you will come across a small concrete structure whose purpose today’s children would hardly be able to guess. It is the base of a former public water fountain, with a hollow in which the pail would be placedfor filling. In many households it was the job of the children to fetch water from the laponp delo.

And after whom was Mont Buxton named? Most probably after Thomas Fowell Buxton, English philanthropist and politician who founded, together with William Wilberforce and others, the Anti-Slavery Society. Their campaign contributed to the British Parliament passing the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833 that led to the abolition of slavery in British colonies.  

It is interesting to note that in a relatively small area of Victoria, there is both a place that bears the name of an abolitionist as well as the site where a slave – a Mozambique named Pompée - was burned to death, having been condemned by a special tribunal for striking an overseerby the name of Pierre Inardwith a billhook with intent to kill him.

That was in 1810 and the site was at the mouth of the Moussa River where the shore line used to be; within a stone’s throw of the Camp des Noirs (slave habitation) of L’Etablissement (named Victoria in 1841).

• Upper part of English River Lane

By the start of the lane to Mont Buxton there was until a few years ago a small shop that people referred to as Kot MC. It was generally assumed that the shop owner was called MC- Emsee, Emsy or Emsi? His name was actually Mr George Gerry.

And Kot MC originally referred not to him but to a boundary beacon near the shop bearing the initials MC - for Mission catholique.  The Roman Catholic Mission, being an important institution and landowner, builder of churches and schools, made its own property beacons.

One such beacon may still be seen at the foot of the La Rosière School wall in Hangard Street.

Yes, the entrance of La Rosière School is in Hangard Street; but not far from La Rosière. This is the area from the Domus eastward to the large crucifix known as Kot Krisand then just beyond the Castor Road entrance to L’Evêché, the Roman Catholic Bishop’s residence. Gran peron La Rosièreis the flight of steps just after that entrance.

It leads, through Dan Bwa Per,to Mont Buxton. (A little further north there are other steps known as Gran peron that lead to a place people called Kampala, where until the 1980s or so there was a large house, with interior partitions creating several rooms rented out individually.

Such a house was referred to as a “ward”. 

And come to think of it, perhaps Kampala – which apart from being the capital of Uganda was also the name of a British India steamship that transited through Seychelles on its Mombasa-Bombay voyages - referred to the house itself!?) 

There used to be a street name plaque – La RosièreRoad- affixed to the wall along the Domus and Cathedral property, bordering the main road. It seems that it disappeared some time before that stretch of road was renamed Olivier Maradan Street. A bus stop near where the plaque was went out of service as vehicular traffic increased.

If you are interested in the rivers of Victoria, you may wish to look at the small area between the lower end of Hangard Street (where the former shop known as Kot Kanda, and later as KotJumaye, is) and the building - Kot MC- just before the old Semen Mont Buxton and the Domus wall. You will notice that there are two rivers or streams.

The one on the left is Rivière Moussa and, according to some old documents, the smaller one to the right is Rivière Fruit de Cythère or Rivière La Rosière). The two merge under the bridge leading to the St Joseph’s Convent and flow to the sea as Moussa River, passing on the way the Happy Youth Club, Maison Ste Claire, L’Imprimerie St Fidèle on its left side  Salle d’Oeuvres on its right, Unity House on its left bank / the former PWD (Public Works Department) workshopson the right and the former School Meals Centre.

Little Corners of Victoria

The little corners of Victoria tell us a little bit about our town and its past. You may discover interesting places, structures and trees by taking a stroll through its streets and neighbourhoods.

Do you know Rue Eau Claire? Or Rock Lane and Ross Lane? Semen Lapoudrière, Biznak, Anba Lakol,  Semen Kato,Semen Serret or Dan Rasin? Did you know that in a small street of Victoria there is part of a wall that was built in 1899, and the wall says so?! And do you know where in our capital you can see an aqueduct? Or the old sea wall with its coral block capping?

Or where in the very centre of town you can come across a pye lakol (Cordia myxa)? If you are a lover of trees or natural landmarks, you would hope that Victoria’s pye lakol oes not suffer the fate of the giant mango tree in Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke Market for which many had much affection and that had the distinction of bearing two types of that fruit. It was felled nine years ago. (You may wish to look for Pat Matyot’s lamentation on its demise in the Today in Seychelles of 20th November 2014.)

Change and Identity; 2028?

• The Victoria Clock Tower

The face of Victoria is fast changing. We cannot expect it to remain the same. But there are many features that merit preserving for what they are and what they represent. A few houses with the charm of yesteryear that will never be replicated in new constructions. Old coral and dry-stone walls whose construction require skills that are fast disappearing.

Walls and steps that reflect the island’s geography and geology – made necessary by the topography of the land and possible through the availability of granite. And that speak of patience, both on the part of the masons who builtthem so many years ago as well as -in the case of the flights of steps - now, on the part of the people who climb them daily.

Old stone or coral bridges. One or two old style shops, the likes of which have made or are making way, all over Mahé, for nondescript blocks of concrete with metal shutters…..

It may be worth providing support to some neighbourhoods to maintain and embellish certain of their characteristics and their character so that they are pleasant places for their inhabitants to live and take pride in; and for all to appreciate.

Surely it isproper to give value to some reminders of the way things were - the way we were - and through which we are able to appreciate both aspects of our past and the progress we have made.

Inless than five years it will be the 250th anniversary of our capital. Will the Victoria of 2028 still reflect somethingof our identity and culture or…?

(Thanks are due to T. Mathiot, P. Matyot, Y. Antat, J.Durup and the Gerry family for information used in this piece. And to friends of ICOMOS - Seychelles.)

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April 2024

Upper part o  English River Lane

Old-style shop still operating in Hangard Street