Another Big Loss For Speightstown And Barbados

The Nation newspaper is today reporting that the Roland Edwards house in Speightstown is to be torn down. This is so sad words fail this blogger. When are fellow Bajans going to wakeup to the knowledge that they are throwing away the country's architectual heritage and patrimony? This is particularly sad at a time when Speightstown is just getting on the tourist map with the recent opening of the Arlington House Museum a stone's throw away from this house, and the starting of work on redevelopment of the Adriana's complex area. Speightstown has already suffered far too much loss in terms of its building heritage to let this one also fall. Bajans seem to be of the misguided view that if it is not new and big, it is no good. How so very, very sad!

“THE home belonging to the man who composed the music of Barbados' National Anthem is to be demolished on Sunday.
But family members, who have been opposing the move for five years, are hoping that the sentimental and historical value of the house will be enough to save it from being bulldozed.
The old two-storey wall and timber house, where music composer and shopkeeper Roland Edwards lived for several years until his death in the 1980s, is located along Chapel Street, Speightstown, St Peter, opposite the old Speightstown Boys' School.
It has been on the Environmental Protection Department's (EPD) demolition list for derelict houses since 2003 and director Jeffrey Headley told the WEEKEND NATION time had run out…” - more -