Warwick Bruce Chapman

I know “PE” is now named Gqeberha, or GQ to those locals, who recognise its obvious status as a global fashion capital rivalled only by Milano😂🇮🇹 You just need to visit for a day to note the obvious comparison… But one of my favourite things about the old name Port Elizabeth is that Elizabeth wasn’t named after an English queen, as many think. No. She was Elizabeth Donkin, the beloved late wife of Sir Rufane Donkin, the Acting Governor of the Cape in 1820. Elizabeth died of fever in India in 1818. A devastated Donkin subsequently named Port Elizabeth after her, as one does in an acting capacity, and built that wonderful stone pyramid on the hill overlooking the city in her memory. Which means we have an Englishman commemorating his English wife, who died in India, with an Egyptian pyramid in Africa. To think we could have had the Taj Mahal if he knew his monuments a little better. Talk about mixed iconography. 🤣 Perhaps an explanation? Donkin was in fact, Irish-born. Because apparently it takes an Irishman to commemorate India, with a pyramid from Egypt, in South Africa. 🤣 And then, just to make absolutely sure nobody could accuse PE of excessive thematic consistency, they later built a lighthouse next to it. A pyramid and a lighthouse right next to each other. On the same hill. By the time you spotted that lighthouse, in the deep mist, you’d already have been wondering why your ship was stranded on a beach - or dashed against the rocks 🫣🤣 PE vibes today ❤️ Ah but wait, there’s more… At the bottom of the hill stands the Campanile. Pronounced Campa-nee-lee. Campanile, naturally, being Italian for bell tower. You all knew that 😉 And naturally, ours was designed in the style of an Italian Renaissance campanile, reminiscent of St Mark’s in Venice. What does our Italian bell tower commemorate? Well, it’s the forerunner to us becoming GQ - and thus back to Milano 🇮🇹 🤣 You see, if not PE or now GQ, all roads do indeed lead to Rome… or close…