…adds that roof lined with tarpaulin to prevent leakages
There was a moment of tension when Town Clerk Royston King announced that a part of the northern section of City Hall simply fell off last Wednesday or Thursday, bringing the issue of urgent repairs to the building back on the front burner.
King’s revelation came after Mayor Patricia Chase-Green, at Monday’s statutory meeting, called for an urgent meeting to discuss the state of the building and for the realization of a restoration fund.
City Hall
“I am asking to meet with the General Public and National Trust and let us launch the restoration fund. We will open an account with signatories of Councillors and general public to manage the fund,” Chase-Green said.
She said the council needs to start somewhere and then help would follow. Accordingly, ordered that the Administration fix a date in March for a public consultation to determine the way forward. She added that after work would have commenced, the other agencies — inclusive of governmental, private and international — would follow suit and join the bandwagon.
However, King disclosed that he had received a notification from the City’s Engineers Department informing that the building would no longer be suitable for human occupancy, since it is rapidly deteriorating.
“I received a notification from the City Engineer with respect to this building, and I suspect that very soon we would not be able to use it for any meetings. I have asked him to look at it again, and he is in the process of giving the Office of the Town Clerk a citation, and we perhaps would need to meet urgently to decide what we will do,” he related.
“That notification was triggered by the fact that last Wednesday or Thursday, part of the building fell off — that is, more to the northern side of the structure — and I received notification. We need to meet urgently to discuss this, and it is in a state where we can no longer continue (occupying it). The roof is lined with tarpaulin to prevent storm water,” King added.
To this Chase-Green advised that the City is in no financial position to rent a building for administrative purposes.
“If we have to move, I don’t think this council is in any position to rent a building at any exorbitant sum. We can’t afford to rent a building. I would propose that we build a complex. The time it will take to spend money to rent a building, you can use that money to build a building, so you will have something and not pay the bank to pay rent,” Chase-Green noted.
She further related that the council was informed that the building’s foundation is in tip-top shape and only the structure needs repairing. She added that it was also advised that the building remains occupied to slow the deterioration rate, but she opined that it should be repaired at the soonest time possible.
City Hall is a nineteenth-century Gothic Revival building located at the corner of Regent Street and Avenue of the Republic in Georgetown, Guyana. The building was designed by architect Reverend Ignatius Scoles in 1887, and was completed in June 1889.
According to the National Trust of Guyana “City Hall, an eloquent example of Guyana’s built architectural heritage, is located with its main façade facing Avenue of the Republic, and is bordered by Regent Street to the north and Charlotte Street to the south.
The foundation stone was laid in the north-eastern corner of the structure. The building was completed 18 months later, and declared opened before a large audience by Governor Viscount Gormanston, K.C.M.G, on July 1, 1889, during a heavy downpour of rain.
The Town Hall represented an excellent example of Neo-Gothic colonial architecture in British Guiana. The 29-metre (96 feet) tower with its conical pinnacles was and still is considered one of the building’s main attractions.
