Speightstown To Finally Get Facelift

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It looks like Speightstown is finally getting the long-promised facelift that supposedly will propel it to the forefront of Barbados tourism. As pictured above, workmen were spotted this weekend setting up the fencing so that work may start on the chattel house commercial crafts village that will take over the parking lot next to the Adrian’s Complex. Two years ago Paul Atlman, the man behind this effort, told the Financial Times: "Speightstown is a town that is going to happen, …when everywhere is cleaned up, you'll see foreigners coming here far more." Altman earlier this year opened the Arlington House Museum next door which is already attracting visitors to the island and is behind moves to restore several other derelict buildings in the town, some of which date back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.


All of this is happening against the backdrop of the debate as to where the locate the second cruise port on the west coast promised earlier this year by the new administration of the island. That debate centers around locating it in St. Lucy, a constituency which has faithfully supported the new administration over the years, and which is largely still untouched by tourism development except for the promised 5-star luxury development at Harrison’s Point; or locating it in Speight town - the heart of a constituency that faithfully supported the former Prime Minister. Guess who is likely to win that debate. This blogger is not a prophet nor the son of one but wherever the cruise port is located in the north Mr. Altman and Speightstown will not be too far from the gravy - it is apparently being hoped.