Post by messenger on Nov 26, 2005 18:22:58 GMT -5
NEW KINGSTON
The uptown capital is bordered by Oxford Road, Old Hope Road, Trafalgar Road and Holborn Road and bisected by Knutsford Boulevard. A busy centre with tiers of concrete housing hotels, banks, embassies, offices, restaurants, it is almost deserted on weekends. The towering Pegasus hotel operated by the British Trust House Forte group teems with life: it offers banquet rooms, boutiques, a huge swimming pool, mini-theatre, three restaurants and a very low key businessman's facility known as The Knutsford Club. The Wyndham, owned by NCB (the island's largest bank) and leased to the Wyndham Hotel group of Texas vies for the title of most popular business hotel with similar facilities.
The Liguanea Club, a private members club and relic of the colonial days with tennis and squash courts, a restaurant of repute and accommodation, is open only to members and their guests but temporary memberships can be arranged. Liguanea, having sold its golf course now administers the 18 hole Caymanas Golf Club about 10 miles out of town.
Plans for a multi-million, multi-storey office cum cultural centre on New Kingston's last remaining green space beside Liguanea are currently the subject of much controversy.
The NEW KINGSTON SHOPPING CENTRE off Dominica Drive is a circular mall of manageable size. The blue and silver ISLAND LIFE MALL on St. Lucia Avenue has shops, boutiques and the CHELSEA ART GALLERY.
New Kingston restaurants include, at one end of the scale, Red Bones (pricey but worth it) and at the other The Hot Pot (Jamaican Cuisine at reasonable rates).
Entertainment: THE BARN, a small theatre off Oxford Road is the place to see indigenous plays like those of Trevor (Smile Orange) Rhone and Ginger (Higglers) Knight.
GODFATHERS and MIRAGE are trendy discos.
PLACES OF INTEREST UPTOWN
VALE ROYAL
This is the residence of the Prime Minister. Formerly the residence of the British Colonial Secretary it was built in the eighteenth century by one of the richest planters in the West Indies, Simon Taylor.
ALONG HOPE ROAD
DEVON HOUSE is the most elegant surviving nineteenth century mansion. Set in spacious tree-shaded grounds it is elegantly furnished in 1860s style with genuine antiques and some made-in-Jamaica reproductions. The house was built in 1881 by George Steibel, a Black shipwright's apprentice and builder's foreman who sought and found his fortune in a Venezuelan goldmine. Returning to Jamaica as a millionaire he built Devon House, then crashed society, becoming first a Justice of the Peace and then Custos of St. Andrew. A notable feature of the house is the way in which the Georgian style was adapted to tropical conditions with wide expanses of windows and cooling jalousies.
Eating/Drinking/Shopping/Relaxation options at Devon house include: The Grogge Shop and The Devonshire restaurant in the former stables and carriage house. Both open on to a courtyard shaded by a giant Mango Tree. This is the place to go on Friday nights.
The I-Scream kiosk in the front garden serves a delicious variety of local ice-cream flavours: soursop, coconut, guava, rum-and-raisin. The Coffee Terrace on the back veranda has Blue Mountain coffee, sandwiches and pastries. Shops flanking the courtyard below offer everything Jamaican from ice-cream and home-made bread through craft and antique reproductions. Cut flowers and plants are sold in a booth beside the parking lot.
North of Devon House is JAMAICA HOUSE, built in the 1960s as the residence of the Prime Mnister, but now used solely as his office. An unexpected adjunct is the Jamaica House Basic School founded by a former Prime Minister's wife, Mrs Beverley Anderson Manley (now a popular radio personality of The Breakfast Club).
KINGS HOUSE is the official residence of the Governor General, Sir Howard Cooke and Lady Cooke. It was built as the residence of the Lord Bishop of Jamaica, then bought from the Church in 1871 for 6,000 pounds sterling to be used as the residence of the Governor. VIP's entertained here have included Prince Albert and Prince George (later George V), the Duke and Duchess of York (later George VI and his Queen), HRH Princess Margaret and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh. Two valuable pieces at King's House are the full length portraits of King George III and Queen Charlotte by the famous artist Sir Joshua Reynolds. (George III was the least stable of Royals, of whom the Whig parliamentarian Charles Fox said: The King was observed in Windsor park engaged in conversation with a tree. But that's not the worst of it, the tree was getting the best of the argument.) Poor King George and his Queen have witnessed many a state banquet as they look down from the walls of the dining room, and many lighthearted occasions such as Meet the People Tea parties. Care to have tea at King's House? Ask about the Meet the People Program at the Jamaica Tourist Board. (Tel: (809) 929-9213/9)
THE BOB MARLEY MUSEUM at 56 Hope Road is a must for all reggae fans.
SOVEREIGN CENTRE at Liguanea is Jamaica's biggest and most Americanized shopping Mall with a Food Court, restaurants and two cinemas.
CAMPION COLLEGE at 108 Hope Road is an outstanding co-educational school, a Roman Catholic institution.
JAMAICA COLLEGE at 189 Hope Road is a renowned boys school. Past pupils include National Hero Rt. Excellent Norman Manley and his son former Prime Minister Michael Manley.
HOPE GARDENS stretches over 100 acres below the foothills of the Blue Mountains. The spacious layout features lawns, flowering trees, flower beds, ornamental ponds and green houses all of which have deteriorated inexorably over the past two decades.
A small, formerly sad zoo is in the process of transformation thanks to the Friends of the Zoo and funding from World Wildlife Fund, the National Wildlife Foundation and the Environmental Fund of Jamaica. There are plans for an eco-park on the hillside which is scheduled for reafforestatation. Zoo curator Rheema Kerr is a wildlife biologist and energetic den mother of the WECAN club for junior naturalists. COCONUT PARK, beside the zoo is a small amusement park.
THE COLLEGE OF ARTS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (CAST), founded in 1963 offers diploma courses in Science, Engineering, Building, Commerce, Management and Teacher Training. A number of benefactors including Great Britain, the Netherlands, Canada, USA, West Germany, the World Bank, Organization of American States and the United Nations Development Program have contributed to its steady growth.
On its twenty-fifth anniversary Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth unveiled a plaque in a new auditorium and HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh planted a mahogany tree in the grounds. CAST's green Principal, Dr. Alfred Sangster, introduced a Solar Energy Institute and promotes reafforestation.
THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES (UWI), wedged between Long Mountain and the Hope River, spreads over 635 acres of the former sugar states of Mona and Papine. The stone aqueduct that used to provide water power for both factories is a campus landmark. The University began in 1948 with 33 medical students. It was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1949 as the University College affiliated to the University of London. The first Chancellor was HRH Princess Alice of Athlone (since deceased) who proved a tireless fundraiser. It achieved full University status and the power to grant its own degrees in 1962.
UWI, a survivor of the abortive attempt to establish a political Federation of the British West Indian colonies, is a regional institution serving and supported by Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, Guyana, Antigua, St. Kitts-Nevis, St. Lucia, Dominica, St. Vincent, Grenada and British Honduras.
Mona is the largest campus and administrative headquarters. There is a campus at St Augustine in Trinidad and another at Cave Hill in Barbados. Degrees are offered in Arts and General Studies, Agriculture, Education, Engineering, Law, Medicine, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences. CARIMAC in the faculty of Arts offers diploma courses in Mass Communications. Research institutions, special projects and research units located at Mona include the Institute of Social and Economic Research, the Trade Union Education Unit, the Advanced Nursing Education Unit, and the Sickle Cell Research Program. A small nuclear facility installed in the Science Faculty by the Atomic Agency of Canada Ltd. is used for research in geology, medicine, agriculture and marine investigations.
The University Hospital on campus is a teaching hospital with 500 beds. The Tony Thwaites Wing, built by subscription, is a private wing with state-of-the-art facilities. The Mona Library contains over 300,000 books and periodicals with branch libraries for Medicine and Natural Science. In the Library of the Norman Manley Law School, the Norman Manley Room displays memorabilia of the National Hero and famous advocate his desk, chair, diaries, medals, athletic trophies and photographs.
Interesting buildings on campus include the Chapel (built with cut stone salvaged from an old sugar works at Gayle in Trelawny), the Creative Arts Centre and the Department of Psychiatry, both recipients of the Governor General's Award for Architecture.
A bio-technology pilot project supervised by the Botany Department purifies the UWI sewage and recycles the water to produce phenomenal rice yields. The Geology Dept has a mini-museum in which you can see Jamaican fossils over 60 million years old including a 7 foot shell. The Norman Manley Law School and Sustainable Development Department are also well worth a visit.
During the Second World War, the British government used Mona to house evacuees from the islands of Malta and Gibraltar and also as a prisoner-of-war camp. The temporary wooden buildings were put to use in the initial days of the University and some are still in use today.
HALF WAY TREE
Opinions differ as to why the crossroads at the bottom of Hope road is called Half Way Tree. One source claims that it was because of a large Cotton Tree under which travellers would rest on their journey from the city to the hills and pens further afield. Another that the spot marked the halfway point between the two military barracks at Port Henderson and Newcastle. One of the earliest official accounts of this landmark recounts how a group of Royalists beneath the tree accosted passers by and forced them to drink a toast to King James extremely destabilizing behavior since the colony was then ruled by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell.
The Half Way Tree Clock was erected in 1913 in memorial to King Edward VII and occasionally tells the right time. The junction around it is usually clogged with vehicles. In the midst of the traffic mayhem an attractively restored pink and white colonial building is an outlet for Tastee Patties. The old Half Way Tree Court House is being restored by the Jamaica Historical Buildings Trust as well as the adjacent St Andrew Parish Church one of the oldest and most affluent in the island.
Shopping plazas stretch along both sides of Constant Spring Road which is one-way down from West King's House Road to the Clock.
Immaculate Conception High School at 152 Constant Spring Road is a leading girls school run by Franciscan Sisters.
CONSTANT SPRING GOLF CLUB has an 18 hole championship golf course, tennis, squash and badminton courts, a swimming pool, bar and snack bar. Members and their friends only, but bonafide visitors to the island may apply for temporary membership.
MANOR CENTRE of Constant Spring Road, just before the traffic lights and the market, is another Miami-style shopping centre. MANOR PARK PLAZA is on the Right after the lights. Beyond here residential areas fan out over Red Hills and Stony Hill. There are excellent panoramic views over the city from these areas, especially at night. Long Lane leads you to the village of Stony Hill and the Junction route which follows the Wag Water River past Castleton Gardens to the north coast.
The uptown capital is bordered by Oxford Road, Old Hope Road, Trafalgar Road and Holborn Road and bisected by Knutsford Boulevard. A busy centre with tiers of concrete housing hotels, banks, embassies, offices, restaurants, it is almost deserted on weekends. The towering Pegasus hotel operated by the British Trust House Forte group teems with life: it offers banquet rooms, boutiques, a huge swimming pool, mini-theatre, three restaurants and a very low key businessman's facility known as The Knutsford Club. The Wyndham, owned by NCB (the island's largest bank) and leased to the Wyndham Hotel group of Texas vies for the title of most popular business hotel with similar facilities.
The Liguanea Club, a private members club and relic of the colonial days with tennis and squash courts, a restaurant of repute and accommodation, is open only to members and their guests but temporary memberships can be arranged. Liguanea, having sold its golf course now administers the 18 hole Caymanas Golf Club about 10 miles out of town.
Plans for a multi-million, multi-storey office cum cultural centre on New Kingston's last remaining green space beside Liguanea are currently the subject of much controversy.
The NEW KINGSTON SHOPPING CENTRE off Dominica Drive is a circular mall of manageable size. The blue and silver ISLAND LIFE MALL on St. Lucia Avenue has shops, boutiques and the CHELSEA ART GALLERY.
New Kingston restaurants include, at one end of the scale, Red Bones (pricey but worth it) and at the other The Hot Pot (Jamaican Cuisine at reasonable rates).
Entertainment: THE BARN, a small theatre off Oxford Road is the place to see indigenous plays like those of Trevor (Smile Orange) Rhone and Ginger (Higglers) Knight.
GODFATHERS and MIRAGE are trendy discos.
PLACES OF INTEREST UPTOWN
VALE ROYAL
This is the residence of the Prime Minister. Formerly the residence of the British Colonial Secretary it was built in the eighteenth century by one of the richest planters in the West Indies, Simon Taylor.
ALONG HOPE ROAD
DEVON HOUSE is the most elegant surviving nineteenth century mansion. Set in spacious tree-shaded grounds it is elegantly furnished in 1860s style with genuine antiques and some made-in-Jamaica reproductions. The house was built in 1881 by George Steibel, a Black shipwright's apprentice and builder's foreman who sought and found his fortune in a Venezuelan goldmine. Returning to Jamaica as a millionaire he built Devon House, then crashed society, becoming first a Justice of the Peace and then Custos of St. Andrew. A notable feature of the house is the way in which the Georgian style was adapted to tropical conditions with wide expanses of windows and cooling jalousies.
Eating/Drinking/Shopping/Relaxation options at Devon house include: The Grogge Shop and The Devonshire restaurant in the former stables and carriage house. Both open on to a courtyard shaded by a giant Mango Tree. This is the place to go on Friday nights.
The I-Scream kiosk in the front garden serves a delicious variety of local ice-cream flavours: soursop, coconut, guava, rum-and-raisin. The Coffee Terrace on the back veranda has Blue Mountain coffee, sandwiches and pastries. Shops flanking the courtyard below offer everything Jamaican from ice-cream and home-made bread through craft and antique reproductions. Cut flowers and plants are sold in a booth beside the parking lot.
North of Devon House is JAMAICA HOUSE, built in the 1960s as the residence of the Prime Mnister, but now used solely as his office. An unexpected adjunct is the Jamaica House Basic School founded by a former Prime Minister's wife, Mrs Beverley Anderson Manley (now a popular radio personality of The Breakfast Club).
KINGS HOUSE is the official residence of the Governor General, Sir Howard Cooke and Lady Cooke. It was built as the residence of the Lord Bishop of Jamaica, then bought from the Church in 1871 for 6,000 pounds sterling to be used as the residence of the Governor. VIP's entertained here have included Prince Albert and Prince George (later George V), the Duke and Duchess of York (later George VI and his Queen), HRH Princess Margaret and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh. Two valuable pieces at King's House are the full length portraits of King George III and Queen Charlotte by the famous artist Sir Joshua Reynolds. (George III was the least stable of Royals, of whom the Whig parliamentarian Charles Fox said: The King was observed in Windsor park engaged in conversation with a tree. But that's not the worst of it, the tree was getting the best of the argument.) Poor King George and his Queen have witnessed many a state banquet as they look down from the walls of the dining room, and many lighthearted occasions such as Meet the People Tea parties. Care to have tea at King's House? Ask about the Meet the People Program at the Jamaica Tourist Board. (Tel: (809) 929-9213/9)
THE BOB MARLEY MUSEUM at 56 Hope Road is a must for all reggae fans.
SOVEREIGN CENTRE at Liguanea is Jamaica's biggest and most Americanized shopping Mall with a Food Court, restaurants and two cinemas.
CAMPION COLLEGE at 108 Hope Road is an outstanding co-educational school, a Roman Catholic institution.
JAMAICA COLLEGE at 189 Hope Road is a renowned boys school. Past pupils include National Hero Rt. Excellent Norman Manley and his son former Prime Minister Michael Manley.
HOPE GARDENS stretches over 100 acres below the foothills of the Blue Mountains. The spacious layout features lawns, flowering trees, flower beds, ornamental ponds and green houses all of which have deteriorated inexorably over the past two decades.
A small, formerly sad zoo is in the process of transformation thanks to the Friends of the Zoo and funding from World Wildlife Fund, the National Wildlife Foundation and the Environmental Fund of Jamaica. There are plans for an eco-park on the hillside which is scheduled for reafforestatation. Zoo curator Rheema Kerr is a wildlife biologist and energetic den mother of the WECAN club for junior naturalists. COCONUT PARK, beside the zoo is a small amusement park.
THE COLLEGE OF ARTS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (CAST), founded in 1963 offers diploma courses in Science, Engineering, Building, Commerce, Management and Teacher Training. A number of benefactors including Great Britain, the Netherlands, Canada, USA, West Germany, the World Bank, Organization of American States and the United Nations Development Program have contributed to its steady growth.
On its twenty-fifth anniversary Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth unveiled a plaque in a new auditorium and HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh planted a mahogany tree in the grounds. CAST's green Principal, Dr. Alfred Sangster, introduced a Solar Energy Institute and promotes reafforestation.
THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES (UWI), wedged between Long Mountain and the Hope River, spreads over 635 acres of the former sugar states of Mona and Papine. The stone aqueduct that used to provide water power for both factories is a campus landmark. The University began in 1948 with 33 medical students. It was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1949 as the University College affiliated to the University of London. The first Chancellor was HRH Princess Alice of Athlone (since deceased) who proved a tireless fundraiser. It achieved full University status and the power to grant its own degrees in 1962.
UWI, a survivor of the abortive attempt to establish a political Federation of the British West Indian colonies, is a regional institution serving and supported by Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, Guyana, Antigua, St. Kitts-Nevis, St. Lucia, Dominica, St. Vincent, Grenada and British Honduras.
Mona is the largest campus and administrative headquarters. There is a campus at St Augustine in Trinidad and another at Cave Hill in Barbados. Degrees are offered in Arts and General Studies, Agriculture, Education, Engineering, Law, Medicine, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences. CARIMAC in the faculty of Arts offers diploma courses in Mass Communications. Research institutions, special projects and research units located at Mona include the Institute of Social and Economic Research, the Trade Union Education Unit, the Advanced Nursing Education Unit, and the Sickle Cell Research Program. A small nuclear facility installed in the Science Faculty by the Atomic Agency of Canada Ltd. is used for research in geology, medicine, agriculture and marine investigations.
The University Hospital on campus is a teaching hospital with 500 beds. The Tony Thwaites Wing, built by subscription, is a private wing with state-of-the-art facilities. The Mona Library contains over 300,000 books and periodicals with branch libraries for Medicine and Natural Science. In the Library of the Norman Manley Law School, the Norman Manley Room displays memorabilia of the National Hero and famous advocate his desk, chair, diaries, medals, athletic trophies and photographs.
Interesting buildings on campus include the Chapel (built with cut stone salvaged from an old sugar works at Gayle in Trelawny), the Creative Arts Centre and the Department of Psychiatry, both recipients of the Governor General's Award for Architecture.
A bio-technology pilot project supervised by the Botany Department purifies the UWI sewage and recycles the water to produce phenomenal rice yields. The Geology Dept has a mini-museum in which you can see Jamaican fossils over 60 million years old including a 7 foot shell. The Norman Manley Law School and Sustainable Development Department are also well worth a visit.
During the Second World War, the British government used Mona to house evacuees from the islands of Malta and Gibraltar and also as a prisoner-of-war camp. The temporary wooden buildings were put to use in the initial days of the University and some are still in use today.
HALF WAY TREE
Opinions differ as to why the crossroads at the bottom of Hope road is called Half Way Tree. One source claims that it was because of a large Cotton Tree under which travellers would rest on their journey from the city to the hills and pens further afield. Another that the spot marked the halfway point between the two military barracks at Port Henderson and Newcastle. One of the earliest official accounts of this landmark recounts how a group of Royalists beneath the tree accosted passers by and forced them to drink a toast to King James extremely destabilizing behavior since the colony was then ruled by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell.
The Half Way Tree Clock was erected in 1913 in memorial to King Edward VII and occasionally tells the right time. The junction around it is usually clogged with vehicles. In the midst of the traffic mayhem an attractively restored pink and white colonial building is an outlet for Tastee Patties. The old Half Way Tree Court House is being restored by the Jamaica Historical Buildings Trust as well as the adjacent St Andrew Parish Church one of the oldest and most affluent in the island.
Shopping plazas stretch along both sides of Constant Spring Road which is one-way down from West King's House Road to the Clock.
Immaculate Conception High School at 152 Constant Spring Road is a leading girls school run by Franciscan Sisters.
CONSTANT SPRING GOLF CLUB has an 18 hole championship golf course, tennis, squash and badminton courts, a swimming pool, bar and snack bar. Members and their friends only, but bonafide visitors to the island may apply for temporary membership.
MANOR CENTRE of Constant Spring Road, just before the traffic lights and the market, is another Miami-style shopping centre. MANOR PARK PLAZA is on the Right after the lights. Beyond here residential areas fan out over Red Hills and Stony Hill. There are excellent panoramic views over the city from these areas, especially at night. Long Lane leads you to the village of Stony Hill and the Junction route which follows the Wag Water River past Castleton Gardens to the north coast.