Robb Street begins in Robbstown, down on the “waterfront” by the John Fernandes’ wharf area, both the ward and the street got their names from the man who designed the area in terms of the building lots and landscape, it ends at the famous Bourda Cricket Ground (Georgetown Cricket Club), on what is now Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, renamed to honour the achievements of one of Guyana’s great cricketers of the 1990s into the first decade and a half of the new millennia. The original name of Shiv Chanderpaul Drive was New Garden Street, because Robb Street was to originally end at the new Botanical Gardens, but that was pushed back a further block (an area that is home to the Georgetown Cricket Club, Georgetown Football Club, Ministry of Agriculture, and Office of the President.)
At the end of Robb Street, on the northern corner, is the Our Lady of Fatima Roman Catholic Church (if you’re a Portuguese language speaker, you may want to check out their Portuguese language mass that caters to our growing latin/spanish/Brazillian population), in the southern corner is (or, in a few days/weeks, was) Unity House, a three story wooden house.
I don’t know enough of it’s history, but it once housed the chapel in which Holy Mass was celebrated while the church across the road was being built (on the middle floor), and for many years it was the headquarters of the United Force, a political party which has held parliamentary seats in Guyana up until two elections ago. Prior to the last elections, also, there was some in-fighting among the executives, primarily as to who would lead the party, but that’s just politics. As I write this the building is being torn down, let’s hope the party can last a bit longer 🙂
I was processing a photo that I had taken near the gate, but that would not enlighten anyone as to the structure of the building, so I went on to process a wider photo for elucidation 🙂
Closed – 15-9996 | 2015 | Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm
Unity House – 15-9986 | 2015 | Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm
Click on the images to see them in their respective Galleries.
The Michael Lam Collection's Blog 
Such nostalgia for my old haunts you captured so poignantly as it progressively changes.
Of course GCC will be developed with new streets & buildings to strip such memories so!
Parting is such sweet sorrow. Return is a pang for those of us shaped by pain of absence.
Thanks. change is inevitable, but some of us will cling to past memories, and remember what was 🙂
I have many fond memories of Unity House. Back in th sixties John Fernandes jr. ,Noel Gonsalves, Cephus St.Aubyn et al used to have me doing stuff (which I enjoyed doing) for the party at UNITY HOUSE.
I even used the Unity House for my wedding reception in May 1970 – whoa , that was four decades & more.
Well said, Neville.
Just pulled out my map of Georgetown to situate myself. I had forgotten that Robb Street ended with the cricket ground. I grew up in Alberttown and Queenstown; Our Lady of Fatima was our parish church. To think it now has Mass in Portuguese is an amazing development.
Your photo is dramatic evidence of the decay of the old Georgetown. I wish that our racial/ethnic divisiveness of those former years would also pass away.
thanks. as the saying goes… “the more things change, the more they stay the same”
This blog is going to be a valuable resource for people researching GT in a few years.
uh, right. sure. if it survives