Historic Bridgetown’s inscription as a World Heritage Site offers us an opportunity to turn our City into a magnificent capital.
To do this, we not only have to conserve and restore our treasures, but also to continue harmonious development. Otherwise, Bridgetown may end up a beautiful mausoleum. I’ll have details in future columns, but let’s start by highlighting the more provocative suggestions.
• First, create an independent entity, Bridgetown Inc., to manage Bridgetown. Its job? Ensure that Barbados complies with all the UNESCO-mandated requirements; oversee all redevelopment planning; procure services; and manage a Bridgetown Future Fund.
• Make Bridgetown truly a city of bridges. Bring a refashioned and widened Constitution canal from the Careenage through an artificial lake in Queen’s Park, along Constitution Road and then back into the Careenage. Or, if we’re really bold, along Roebuck Street and then back into the Careenage, or both routes. Bring the sea inland at other points in Bridgetown, for example, a canal going around the Pelican Village complex and re-entering the sea by the fish market. The canals would cater to small pleasure craft and also act as a flood control.
• Redevelop the waterfront from the Bridgetown Port up to the Careenage, with a refurbished fish market as the centrepiece of an arts, crafts and food complex.
• Erect a high footbridge connecting the wharf side of the Outer Careenage with the tip of the Pierhead.
• Move or relocate Nelson’s Statue to the Pierhead near a refurbished screw dock as the centrepiece of a maritime museum depicting Barbados’ role in the naval history of the Caribbean.
• Rename Heroes Square Parliament Square and erect a statue of Samuel Jackman Prescod on a base on which are inscribed the names of all members of Parliament since 1639.
• Replace the Treasury Building with a boutique hotel with a terrace café and a rooftop restaurant.
• Erect a statue of Clement Payne in a beautifully renovated Golden Square. On its base inscribe the names of all those killed or imprisoned in the 1937 National Rebellion.
• Erect statues of National Heroes Charles Duncan O’Neal in Queen’s Park, Sir Hugh Springer on the grounds of Government House (daily tours for the public), Bussa in Jubilee Gardens, and Sarah Ann Gill in a new mini-park stretching from the Montefiore Fountain to the Synagogue.
• Make over Queen’s Park. Tear down the railings. Along Constitution Road put a set of broad “liming” steps (think Spanish Steps, Rome) with shade trees and shrubs bounding the roadway along the new canal extension. Preserve and restore Queen’s Park House and create a small open-air theatre for use in the dry season.
• Attract more people to live in The City by building many well designed, high-density, mixed-income, low-rise buildings (three to eight floors).
• Knock down that embarrassing white elephant, Pelican Village, and replace it with a couple of residential buildings with shops on the ground floors. The shops that can’t be accommodated in the new buildings could form part of the arts and crafts complex on the sea side of the road.
• If we need a new hospital, site it next door to the present Queen Elizabeth Hospital and replace the QEH with a low-rise residential complex with doctors’ offices and related services on the first two floors.
• Reorganize the present public transport system into crisscrossing routes with transfer tickets. No need for the anachronistic Bridgetown bus terminals. Passengers would simply catch a bus from wherever they happened to be and transfer subsequently to the bus going to their destination.
• Create park-and-ride facilities on the outskirts of Bridgetown with shuttle services into The City. In the City centre we might have electric golf cart-type trollies, charging $1 per passenger, travelling circular routes.
• Bridgetown Inc. should install and operate high-charge parking meters throughout The City.
• Supplement land transport with a sea ferry service running along the South and West Coasts [with jetties] as far as Oistins and Holetown, respectively, and at points within Bridgetown from the Port to Needham’s Point.
Think big; think future. Let’s unleash our ingenuity.
Imagine Bridgetown!
• Peter Laurie is a retired diplomat and commentator on social issues. Email [email protected]
