‘Desecrators’ at large

THE EDITOR: Peter O’Connor’s letter “Desecra-tion at Lapeyrouse Cemetery” (Jan 29) about a coat of white paint defacing the masonry stone wall sends me back to the old Barclay’s Bank building on Independence Square. When the bank was being renovated some years ago, I was pleasantly surprised to see hidden beneath the neo-colonial facade — arches with Greco-Roman keystones; and columns of brownstone bricks. But the next day, this wonderful piece of craftsmanship had disappeared, never to be seen again. Such insensitivity reminds me of the Carlyle Chang’s mural in the old airport at Piarco which was brutally reduced to rubble by a wrecking crew with sledge hammers.

Then I think of George Brown — the 19th century Scottish architect who was responsible for changing the residential landscape of Port-of-Spain. Fortunately, a group of concerned citizens was vociferous enough to save one of his magnificent buildings around the Queen’s Park Savannah from being ripped apart by some real estate developers. And as I write, there still exists a small section of clay tiling on the pavement in front of St Mary’s College which was laid when Frederick Street was a two-way street with a tram-line running down the middle. But it wouldn’t surprise me, if by tomorrow this last vestige of the city’s colourful past is not uprooted by some URP worker with a pick-axe. Vandals is too polite a term for these desecrators.

JEROME  AUDAIN
Curepe