Post by messenger on Nov 26, 2005 18:19:02 GMT -5
Very much the Island's capital, the city of Kingston dominates Jamaica politically, commercially and culturally. Its estimated 700,000 inhabitants represent almost a third of the entire population. Relentless expansion has long since outstripped the government capacity to supply employment, housing or adequate public utilities and still it grows: a noisy, sprawling, polluted and vigorous metropolis. From steamy plain to balmy hills, from gospel tent to cathedral, hovel to high-rise it is, like all cities, a place of stark contrasts: goats browse along the concrete pavements, pushcarts jostle crissers (late model cars) along the traffic choked streets and sidewalk vendors sprout beside ostentatious shopping plazas.
Repeatedly devastated by fire, flood, earthquake and hurricane, not to mention real estate developers and urban planners, Kingston is a city with very little visible history but its long and colourful past has been well documented. It began in 1692 as a refuge for the survivors of the earthquake that devastated Port Royal, killing 2,000 persons and plunging two thirds of the city beneath the sea. The initial refugee camp was on the seafront at a place shown on the map as colonel Barry's hog craw. Barry's. Within 7 weeks of the earthquake the government had purchased 200 acres from an absentee proprietor, Sir William Beeston, and was casting lots for the sale of building sites. Among the first regulations of the settlement was a ruling that each man could purchase only one lot on the seafront and no more land than he had owned in Port Royal. In addition there was an order prohibiting exorbitant ferry charges between the sunken city and the mainland.
Sir William Beeston returned to the island soon afterwards as governor and fortuitously discovered that the sale of this land to the government had not been legal, so the lots had to be purchased individually from him. He also acquired by dubious means the shoal water fronting Harbour Street thus greatly increasing the value of his holding there. When the governor's wheeling and dealing came to light there was a public outcry, and Kingston was born amidst a government scandal, the first many through the years.
In the beginning the refugees, crowded into tents on Colonel Barry's hog Crawle, were tormented by mosquitoes and fevers and more than 2,000 died. The survivors hankered to return to Port Royal so for a long time no substantial buildings were erected, only huts built with boughs, but by the end of the eighteenth century there were more than 3,000 fine brick houses in the city.
Kingston's excellent natural harbour fostered trade and the naval wars of the eighteenth century brought traffic and prosperity. The carousing for which Port Royal had been notorious continued here amongst a population noted for their excessive eating and drinking. Most of the duty collected was paid on Madeira wine, while the slaves and poorer classes made do with a rum concoction called kill-devil .
As a centre of commerce and fashion, Kingston rapidly out-distanced the somnolent official capital in Spanish Town and in 1755 the governor passed an act transferring the government offices to Kingston. The decision caused controversy, with those against it arguing , that life in Kingston would be destructive of the morals of Assemblymen. The next governor rescinded the Act.
Kingston continued to grow despite calamities: a devastating hurricane in 1784, a huge fire in 1843, a cholera epidemic in 1850 and another fire in 1862. In 1872 the capital was once again transferred to Kingston and this time it remained.
In 1907 an earthquake destroyed most of the city and killed 800 people. A visiting circus was encamped on the Racecourse and many of the survivors found temporary shelter under the big top . This earthquake accounts for the lack of historic buildings and for Jamaica's strict building code. After the quake an ordinance prohibited the erection of buildings higher than 60 feet. The first to exceed this height were the three storey public buildings on King Street. Constructed of reinforced concrete, they were considered at the time the last word in progressive architecture.
Originally the city had been laid out in a compact square enclosed by North Street, West Street, East Street and the sea. Over the years it absorbed the peripheral villages and pens spreading across the Liguanea plain and into the foothills of the Blue Mountains, in the process consuming some of the best agricultural land in the island.
In 1923 the local government bodies of the parishes of Kingston and adjacent St Andrew were amalgamated to form the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation. Kingston has always had a history of energetic municipal elections. Here began the tradition of burying unsuccessful political candidates in a mock funeral procession complete with coffin and joyful mourners. The custom continues but the tempo and temperature of national elections have escalated considerably. Unfortunately political rallies can no longer be neutralized by the simple ploy of singing the national anthem just as the main speaker is due to appear.
Kingston's schizophrenia began quite recently. In the old days true Kingstonians boasted of being born beneath the clock of Kingston Parish Church. Today the well-to-do live uptown while the poorer classes live below the bridge (Torrington Bridge) in politically polarized ghettoes nicknamed Southside, Rema, Jungle and Lizard Town where it is never safe to stray too far away from home. But it is here that the creativity of the Jamaican peaks:
Kingston ghettoes produced Reggae, Bob Marley and the current musical phenomenon of Dancehall.
During the 1960s the city expanded north and the once famous Knutsford Racetrack became New Kingston. With the development of New Kingston and a string of uptown shopping plazas the former commercial and shopping centres of King Street and Harbour Street became neglected and shabby. As an antidote to decay the government created the Kingston Waterfront Redevelopment Company to reclaim, redesign and upgrade 95 acres along the waterfront. The project produced a nucleus of wide landscaped boulevards and multi-storey buildings which include the Bank of Jamaica, Scotia Bank Centre, the Jamaica Conference Centre, and Kingston Mall. Casualties of the redevelopment process were the once famous Myrtle Bank Hotel, the picturesque finger piers jutting out from Port Royal Street, and historic Victoria Market, scene of traditional Sunday and Christmas markets for over a hundred years.
In the 1980s another redevelopment program was undertaken by governments Urban Development Company. The massive project, assisted by a loan from the Inter American Development Bank comprised traffic rationalization and elopment of the market area south and west of the Parade, refurbishing the four main markets (Jubilee, Queens, Redemption Ground and Coronation) and building 6 additional markets. You will have already discovered that Jamaica is a nation of shopkeepers, vendors and higglers . It is estimated that at peak periods close to 15,000 vendors use this area and as much as J$25 million may change hands over a weekend. Because so many vendors and shoppers come in from the rural and suburban areas, the transport centre is a key component of the redevelopment plan.
The Kingston Restoration Company, created in the mid-1980s with U.S.. $6.8 million seed money from USAID, is an attempt to cure downtowns inner city . To spark conservation of the decaying downtown areas, KRC distributes grants towards the restoration of strategic buildings; to create employment it acquires and renovates derelict buildings and then leases them out for light industry. To defuse the time-bomb of poverty it sponsors social programs.
Kingston commands the seventh largest natural harbour in the world and sits athwart major shipping lanes: import, export and transhipment are big business here. The Port Authority of Jamaica administers extensive and modern shipping facilities at Port Bustamante which include 11 lateral berths built by two private companies Western Terminals Ltd. and Kingston Wharves Ltd. The port area is a hive of activity and all too frequently the source of hair-raising reports alleging intrigue, corruption and smuggling. Kingston harbour is now so severely polluted by sewage, industrial effluent and oil spills that it has been called the cess-pit of the Caribbean. To date no serious attempt has been made to rehabilitate the marine environment although the problem was designated critical some twenty years ago by UWI scientists.
Adjacent to the port, the Kingston Free-Zone offers tax havens and excise exemption for export businesses and employs a large workforce mostly in garment factories. There are three other Free-Zone areas in the island, one of them close by on Marcus Garvey Drive.
Behind the port, the industrial section is home of some long established and prestigious firms like J. Wray & Nephew, distillers of Appleton rum, Desnoes and Geddes, brewers of Red Stripe beer, and Estate Industries, makers of Tia Maria Coffee Liqueur.
PLACES OF INTEREST DOWNTOWN
PARADE at the top of King Street was subjected to a major facelift in the late 1980s with the addition of paved walkways, a fountain, baptismal pool and elaborate lights. Aesthetes bemoaned the preponderance of steel and concrete and conservationists decried the destruction of most of the original trees including some rare species. In the days when it was a parade ground for the British Military it was also used for public floggings and hangings. Among those who met their fate here were the freed slave Pio who was paid to assassinate Simon Bolivar but mistakenly killed his friend instead, and two leaders of a St Mary slave revolt who were hung up in iron frames and left to starve to death. The park in the centre, formerly called Victoria Park was renamed St. William Grant Park after an early labour leader, a forerunner and then colleague of Alexander Bustamante. Always a public forum, Parade has witnessed innumerable crowds, meetings, and political speeches. Here in quaint juxtaposition are statues of a diverse trio: Norman Manley, Bustamante, and Queen Victoria.
North of Parade, the WARD THEATRE was built after the 1907 earthquake on the site of the municipal Theatre Royal. It was a gift to the city from Col. Charles Ward, Custos and rum magnate. Recently refurbished it has excellent acoustics. It is the venue for the annual LTM pantomime. The pre-Christmas Ward Season of Excellence presents internationally acclaimed companies and artistes.
BRAMWELL BOOTH head-quarters of the Salvation Army was built in 1933 an austere structure true to the claim that The Army never spends money on building unless it is absolutely necessary . The Salvation Army has many branches throughout the island and an impressive record of work amongst the underprivileged.
KINGSTON PARISH CHURCH south of Parade was destroyed by the 1907 earthquake and rebuilt. Among its treasures is a memorial by the famous sculptor John Bacon to the gallant Admiral Benbow who died in Port Royal of wounds received in a naval battle. (Deserted by two of his captains and with his leg mutilated by chain shot he continued to fight and chase the French fleet). The clock tower was erected as a memorial to those killed in the First World War. The bell dates from 1715.
COKE CHAPEL east of Parade was the cradle of Methodism in Jamaica. It replaced a smaller church known as Parade Chapel which was founded in 1789 by Rev Thomas Coke, a pioneer missionary. Like other adversaries of slavery, the early Methodists were persecuted by the establishment but in 1841 the House of Assembly contributed towards the erection of Coke Chapel.
THE PEARNELL CHARLES ARCADE. Scratch a Jamaican and you will find a higgler. This local name for a sidewalk or market vendor derives from the archaic verb to higgle to dispute terms or haggle a necessary first step when making a purchase here. Higglers, selling anything from fruits and cigarettes to imported Italian shoes are ubiquitous. Their preferred location is the sidewalk and once crowded the pavements of King Street so thickly that they impeded entrance to the stores. This was solved in the mid 1980s by building a market with tiny cage-like stalls and ordering the street vendors to re-locate. They went reluctantly. Located between Queen and South streets, the building was christened Pearnell Charles Arcade after the then Minister of Local Government who is also an honorary Chieftain of Nigeria.
SOLAS MARKET (officially called Jubilee) spills into the streets just west of the Parade. Bustling and vibrant it inspired the Jamaican folk song Come we go down a Solas Market, Come we go buy banana .
The CRAFTS MARKET on the waterfront west of Victoria Pier offers a wide selection of straw goods and souvenirs.
The state-of-the-art facilities at TUFF GONG RECORDING STUDIO at 220 Marcus Garvey Drive, part of the Bob Marley Empire, are used by established and aspiring stars.
The seafront along OCEAN BOULEVARD with a bracing sea breeze and grassy esplanade is an interesting place to watch the world go by and sample a roots snack, but beware of pickpockets and other assorted hustlers. At the foot of King Street an imposing statue dedicated to the working people of Jamaica and called Negro Aroused is the work of the late Mrs. Edna Manley, wife of National Hero the Rt. Excellent Norman Manley and mother of former Prime Minister Michael Manley. The Port Royal Ferry leaves from here.
At the NATIONAL GALLERY in the Kingston Mall the permanent collection includes works of Edna Manley, John DunkleyAlbert Huie, Kapo, Anna Henriques and other noted Jamaican artists. The annual National Exhibition mounted every December continues through the spring. In the foyer is a statue of Bob Marley by Jamaican sculptor Christopher Gonzalez. Intended for public display in a proposed Celebrity park, the symbolic concept of Bob so enraged his rootsy fans that it had to be hurriedly removed to its present sanctuary. The replacement by Alvin Marriott a lifelike facsimile of Bob plus guitar looms on
Arthur Wint park opposite the National Stadium. This was not the first time that Gonzalez proved too unsettling for the average person: a Christ figure commissioned for a Catholic church was rejected because his manhood was too clearly visible under the loincloth. The Christ found a home with collector A.D. Scott at the Olympia Gallery on Hope Road.
The mini COIN MUSEUM at the Bank of Jamaica building on Ocean Boulevard has an interesting display of money through the ages and the only gold Arawak artifact so far discovered in Jamaica a Zemi discovered and donated by Archaeologist Dr. James Lee.
In front of the Bank of Jamaica towers a monolithic likeness of a former Minister of Finance, the late N.N. Crab Nethersole who got the nickname from his curious sidling gait. This statue also caused a furor when it was erected because the original likeness, distorted by the scale, produced a caricature of a well-liked man.
THE JAMAICA CONFERENCE CENTRE on Ocean Boulevard was opened by HRH Queen Elizabeth in 1983. The fact that Jamaica had been named as the headquarters of the Seabed Authority of the International Law of the Sea may have had something to do with the lavish scale on which it was developed: five fully equipped conference rooms with adjacent caucus rooms, spacious lounges, a restaurant and office wing. It is impressive but underutilized.
Repeatedly devastated by fire, flood, earthquake and hurricane, not to mention real estate developers and urban planners, Kingston is a city with very little visible history but its long and colourful past has been well documented. It began in 1692 as a refuge for the survivors of the earthquake that devastated Port Royal, killing 2,000 persons and plunging two thirds of the city beneath the sea. The initial refugee camp was on the seafront at a place shown on the map as colonel Barry's hog craw. Barry's. Within 7 weeks of the earthquake the government had purchased 200 acres from an absentee proprietor, Sir William Beeston, and was casting lots for the sale of building sites. Among the first regulations of the settlement was a ruling that each man could purchase only one lot on the seafront and no more land than he had owned in Port Royal. In addition there was an order prohibiting exorbitant ferry charges between the sunken city and the mainland.
Sir William Beeston returned to the island soon afterwards as governor and fortuitously discovered that the sale of this land to the government had not been legal, so the lots had to be purchased individually from him. He also acquired by dubious means the shoal water fronting Harbour Street thus greatly increasing the value of his holding there. When the governor's wheeling and dealing came to light there was a public outcry, and Kingston was born amidst a government scandal, the first many through the years.
In the beginning the refugees, crowded into tents on Colonel Barry's hog Crawle, were tormented by mosquitoes and fevers and more than 2,000 died. The survivors hankered to return to Port Royal so for a long time no substantial buildings were erected, only huts built with boughs, but by the end of the eighteenth century there were more than 3,000 fine brick houses in the city.
Kingston's excellent natural harbour fostered trade and the naval wars of the eighteenth century brought traffic and prosperity. The carousing for which Port Royal had been notorious continued here amongst a population noted for their excessive eating and drinking. Most of the duty collected was paid on Madeira wine, while the slaves and poorer classes made do with a rum concoction called kill-devil .
As a centre of commerce and fashion, Kingston rapidly out-distanced the somnolent official capital in Spanish Town and in 1755 the governor passed an act transferring the government offices to Kingston. The decision caused controversy, with those against it arguing , that life in Kingston would be destructive of the morals of Assemblymen. The next governor rescinded the Act.
Kingston continued to grow despite calamities: a devastating hurricane in 1784, a huge fire in 1843, a cholera epidemic in 1850 and another fire in 1862. In 1872 the capital was once again transferred to Kingston and this time it remained.
In 1907 an earthquake destroyed most of the city and killed 800 people. A visiting circus was encamped on the Racecourse and many of the survivors found temporary shelter under the big top . This earthquake accounts for the lack of historic buildings and for Jamaica's strict building code. After the quake an ordinance prohibited the erection of buildings higher than 60 feet. The first to exceed this height were the three storey public buildings on King Street. Constructed of reinforced concrete, they were considered at the time the last word in progressive architecture.
Originally the city had been laid out in a compact square enclosed by North Street, West Street, East Street and the sea. Over the years it absorbed the peripheral villages and pens spreading across the Liguanea plain and into the foothills of the Blue Mountains, in the process consuming some of the best agricultural land in the island.
In 1923 the local government bodies of the parishes of Kingston and adjacent St Andrew were amalgamated to form the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation. Kingston has always had a history of energetic municipal elections. Here began the tradition of burying unsuccessful political candidates in a mock funeral procession complete with coffin and joyful mourners. The custom continues but the tempo and temperature of national elections have escalated considerably. Unfortunately political rallies can no longer be neutralized by the simple ploy of singing the national anthem just as the main speaker is due to appear.
Kingston's schizophrenia began quite recently. In the old days true Kingstonians boasted of being born beneath the clock of Kingston Parish Church. Today the well-to-do live uptown while the poorer classes live below the bridge (Torrington Bridge) in politically polarized ghettoes nicknamed Southside, Rema, Jungle and Lizard Town where it is never safe to stray too far away from home. But it is here that the creativity of the Jamaican peaks:
Kingston ghettoes produced Reggae, Bob Marley and the current musical phenomenon of Dancehall.
During the 1960s the city expanded north and the once famous Knutsford Racetrack became New Kingston. With the development of New Kingston and a string of uptown shopping plazas the former commercial and shopping centres of King Street and Harbour Street became neglected and shabby. As an antidote to decay the government created the Kingston Waterfront Redevelopment Company to reclaim, redesign and upgrade 95 acres along the waterfront. The project produced a nucleus of wide landscaped boulevards and multi-storey buildings which include the Bank of Jamaica, Scotia Bank Centre, the Jamaica Conference Centre, and Kingston Mall. Casualties of the redevelopment process were the once famous Myrtle Bank Hotel, the picturesque finger piers jutting out from Port Royal Street, and historic Victoria Market, scene of traditional Sunday and Christmas markets for over a hundred years.
In the 1980s another redevelopment program was undertaken by governments Urban Development Company. The massive project, assisted by a loan from the Inter American Development Bank comprised traffic rationalization and elopment of the market area south and west of the Parade, refurbishing the four main markets (Jubilee, Queens, Redemption Ground and Coronation) and building 6 additional markets. You will have already discovered that Jamaica is a nation of shopkeepers, vendors and higglers . It is estimated that at peak periods close to 15,000 vendors use this area and as much as J$25 million may change hands over a weekend. Because so many vendors and shoppers come in from the rural and suburban areas, the transport centre is a key component of the redevelopment plan.
The Kingston Restoration Company, created in the mid-1980s with U.S.. $6.8 million seed money from USAID, is an attempt to cure downtowns inner city . To spark conservation of the decaying downtown areas, KRC distributes grants towards the restoration of strategic buildings; to create employment it acquires and renovates derelict buildings and then leases them out for light industry. To defuse the time-bomb of poverty it sponsors social programs.
Kingston commands the seventh largest natural harbour in the world and sits athwart major shipping lanes: import, export and transhipment are big business here. The Port Authority of Jamaica administers extensive and modern shipping facilities at Port Bustamante which include 11 lateral berths built by two private companies Western Terminals Ltd. and Kingston Wharves Ltd. The port area is a hive of activity and all too frequently the source of hair-raising reports alleging intrigue, corruption and smuggling. Kingston harbour is now so severely polluted by sewage, industrial effluent and oil spills that it has been called the cess-pit of the Caribbean. To date no serious attempt has been made to rehabilitate the marine environment although the problem was designated critical some twenty years ago by UWI scientists.
Adjacent to the port, the Kingston Free-Zone offers tax havens and excise exemption for export businesses and employs a large workforce mostly in garment factories. There are three other Free-Zone areas in the island, one of them close by on Marcus Garvey Drive.
Behind the port, the industrial section is home of some long established and prestigious firms like J. Wray & Nephew, distillers of Appleton rum, Desnoes and Geddes, brewers of Red Stripe beer, and Estate Industries, makers of Tia Maria Coffee Liqueur.
PLACES OF INTEREST DOWNTOWN
PARADE at the top of King Street was subjected to a major facelift in the late 1980s with the addition of paved walkways, a fountain, baptismal pool and elaborate lights. Aesthetes bemoaned the preponderance of steel and concrete and conservationists decried the destruction of most of the original trees including some rare species. In the days when it was a parade ground for the British Military it was also used for public floggings and hangings. Among those who met their fate here were the freed slave Pio who was paid to assassinate Simon Bolivar but mistakenly killed his friend instead, and two leaders of a St Mary slave revolt who were hung up in iron frames and left to starve to death. The park in the centre, formerly called Victoria Park was renamed St. William Grant Park after an early labour leader, a forerunner and then colleague of Alexander Bustamante. Always a public forum, Parade has witnessed innumerable crowds, meetings, and political speeches. Here in quaint juxtaposition are statues of a diverse trio: Norman Manley, Bustamante, and Queen Victoria.
North of Parade, the WARD THEATRE was built after the 1907 earthquake on the site of the municipal Theatre Royal. It was a gift to the city from Col. Charles Ward, Custos and rum magnate. Recently refurbished it has excellent acoustics. It is the venue for the annual LTM pantomime. The pre-Christmas Ward Season of Excellence presents internationally acclaimed companies and artistes.
BRAMWELL BOOTH head-quarters of the Salvation Army was built in 1933 an austere structure true to the claim that The Army never spends money on building unless it is absolutely necessary . The Salvation Army has many branches throughout the island and an impressive record of work amongst the underprivileged.
KINGSTON PARISH CHURCH south of Parade was destroyed by the 1907 earthquake and rebuilt. Among its treasures is a memorial by the famous sculptor John Bacon to the gallant Admiral Benbow who died in Port Royal of wounds received in a naval battle. (Deserted by two of his captains and with his leg mutilated by chain shot he continued to fight and chase the French fleet). The clock tower was erected as a memorial to those killed in the First World War. The bell dates from 1715.
COKE CHAPEL east of Parade was the cradle of Methodism in Jamaica. It replaced a smaller church known as Parade Chapel which was founded in 1789 by Rev Thomas Coke, a pioneer missionary. Like other adversaries of slavery, the early Methodists were persecuted by the establishment but in 1841 the House of Assembly contributed towards the erection of Coke Chapel.
THE PEARNELL CHARLES ARCADE. Scratch a Jamaican and you will find a higgler. This local name for a sidewalk or market vendor derives from the archaic verb to higgle to dispute terms or haggle a necessary first step when making a purchase here. Higglers, selling anything from fruits and cigarettes to imported Italian shoes are ubiquitous. Their preferred location is the sidewalk and once crowded the pavements of King Street so thickly that they impeded entrance to the stores. This was solved in the mid 1980s by building a market with tiny cage-like stalls and ordering the street vendors to re-locate. They went reluctantly. Located between Queen and South streets, the building was christened Pearnell Charles Arcade after the then Minister of Local Government who is also an honorary Chieftain of Nigeria.
SOLAS MARKET (officially called Jubilee) spills into the streets just west of the Parade. Bustling and vibrant it inspired the Jamaican folk song Come we go down a Solas Market, Come we go buy banana .
The CRAFTS MARKET on the waterfront west of Victoria Pier offers a wide selection of straw goods and souvenirs.
The state-of-the-art facilities at TUFF GONG RECORDING STUDIO at 220 Marcus Garvey Drive, part of the Bob Marley Empire, are used by established and aspiring stars.
The seafront along OCEAN BOULEVARD with a bracing sea breeze and grassy esplanade is an interesting place to watch the world go by and sample a roots snack, but beware of pickpockets and other assorted hustlers. At the foot of King Street an imposing statue dedicated to the working people of Jamaica and called Negro Aroused is the work of the late Mrs. Edna Manley, wife of National Hero the Rt. Excellent Norman Manley and mother of former Prime Minister Michael Manley. The Port Royal Ferry leaves from here.
At the NATIONAL GALLERY in the Kingston Mall the permanent collection includes works of Edna Manley, John DunkleyAlbert Huie, Kapo, Anna Henriques and other noted Jamaican artists. The annual National Exhibition mounted every December continues through the spring. In the foyer is a statue of Bob Marley by Jamaican sculptor Christopher Gonzalez. Intended for public display in a proposed Celebrity park, the symbolic concept of Bob so enraged his rootsy fans that it had to be hurriedly removed to its present sanctuary. The replacement by Alvin Marriott a lifelike facsimile of Bob plus guitar looms on
Arthur Wint park opposite the National Stadium. This was not the first time that Gonzalez proved too unsettling for the average person: a Christ figure commissioned for a Catholic church was rejected because his manhood was too clearly visible under the loincloth. The Christ found a home with collector A.D. Scott at the Olympia Gallery on Hope Road.
The mini COIN MUSEUM at the Bank of Jamaica building on Ocean Boulevard has an interesting display of money through the ages and the only gold Arawak artifact so far discovered in Jamaica a Zemi discovered and donated by Archaeologist Dr. James Lee.
In front of the Bank of Jamaica towers a monolithic likeness of a former Minister of Finance, the late N.N. Crab Nethersole who got the nickname from his curious sidling gait. This statue also caused a furor when it was erected because the original likeness, distorted by the scale, produced a caricature of a well-liked man.
THE JAMAICA CONFERENCE CENTRE on Ocean Boulevard was opened by HRH Queen Elizabeth in 1983. The fact that Jamaica had been named as the headquarters of the Seabed Authority of the International Law of the Sea may have had something to do with the lavish scale on which it was developed: five fully equipped conference rooms with adjacent caucus rooms, spacious lounges, a restaurant and office wing. It is impressive but underutilized.