By Julien Durup, a student of history
Saint Louis District has a lot of little Cantons, with interesting names and some with unknown origins. However, with the
continuous changing of the district boundaries, it has made it
difficult for any residents, especially the school children, to know
their borough. We still do not have a name for its inhabitants, could
it be Saint Louisian or Saint Louisiane?
The name of the district came from the river Saint Louis, a name given by the early French colonisers. On that river the French
wanted to build a saw mill to exploit the timber.
However, the name of the river came from the French King Louis IX,
commonly known as Saint Louis the confessor, the only French Monarch to
be declared a Saint. He was born in 1214 at Poissy, a commune in the
department of Yvelines, and died in 1270 in Tunis during the 8th
Crusade.
The hub of the first public school and the Freemason’s lodge belonging to the Grand Orient de France (GOdF) was also in the Saint
Louis district. Their first lodge was down at La Grande Rue (Royal
Street), now Revolution Avenue, and the second one was further up at the
place of the now lower Belonie School, formerly Saint Joseph of Cluny
Convent and School managed by the Sisters. Later, they built another
lodge of which Lodge Street was named after. Nevertheless the Masons,
with their egalitarian principles, contributed to the early development
of education in the Seychelles. They gave that place to the Roman
Catholic Church to start a school and they also looked after the early
arrival of Priests and Sisters.
The Sisters moved out after the avalanches of 1862 and then the place was later taken over by the Christians teaching brothers. The
name of their institution was the Saint Louis College, in line with
the district’s name. It was also known as Saint Louis de Gonzague’s
College, which was run consecutively by the De La Salle and Marist
Brothers. When the Marist Brothers left the College was renamed after
Saint John Bosco, the Italian Catholic educator, priest and writer.
The first public maternity hospital was also situated in Saint Louis. That place later became the Government Printing Office.
The Saint Louis College was quite good and produced many famous
Seychellois surgeons, doctors, dentists, pilots, sea captains,
accountants, and lawyers etc... even many well-known musicians and
politicians including Monsieur France Albert René the second former
President of the Seychelles and his vice President Dr Maxime Ferrari.
Monsieur René had his early education in an elite school run by the
Sisters of Saint Joseph of Cluny and there he was named le petit Jesus by
the Sisters. Because, according to them, he bears a resemblance to
Jesus… However, the sisters had it wrong because, according to Pope Leo
X (1513-1521), Jesus never actually existed. He said “It has served us
well, this myth of Christ.” If he did so live he could not have been a
white man.
At the Saint Louis College, René behaved like any other boys… and was alleged to have participated in damaging the bicycle of Hassan Ali, and proved that he was no more le petit Jesus.
Saint Louis was the worst place to be affected by the continuous rainfalls that affected the whole of Mahé due a nearby
hurricane in 1862. The marks of the avalanche are still visible by
ravines near Serret Road and along the road opposite Waterloo going up
to the Saint Louis water reservoir.
If the present Saint Louis District boundary goes down up to the town, then according to old plans the Mile Zero (M.0) of Mahé was
situated at the now Taxi Stand opposite the traffic lights. It was
demarcated by a “Trois Bras”, a post with three arms, one
pointing towards Saint Louis, the second facing the clock tower, and
the third towards the Roman Catholic Church. It was from the “Trois Bras”
that distances were traditionally measured by miles. En route to Beau
Vallon the first Mile stone with Roman numbers was placed near the main
road on top of Saint Louis. On the way to Anse Etoile the first one
was next to the Frichot Property, near La Bastille. Going to of East
Mahé, the first one was opposite the former blacksmith shop of Mr
Vidot, just after the Chung Faye shop. Mile stones were visible at
every mile on the main road on Mahé.
Part of Plan Terrier de l’ile Mahé by CJ Hoart August 1829. NB Port Victoria
The Taxi Stand was formerly called the “Banc de Blagueurs”. That place was first used by horse carriages, oxcarts, and later rickshaws. It was known locally as pousse or pousse-pousse station. On the riverside of the present Taxi Stand is the Basin
Cheval, built during the time when horse and oxcart carriages were in
use for the public and the animals had a place where they could drink
water. The cooper plaque recently erected there gives the wrong
historical facts; it should be removed immediately because the lavalasses did not create the Gordon Square (now Freedom Square).
The Japanese invented-pousse was introduced by the early Chinese to improve the mode of transport and soon became the most
popular method of transportation. Most of the early pousse
were imported from Tamatave (Toamasina), Madagascar, where there had
been a big Chinese community since 1862. The Chinese initiated the
cinnamon distillery and were at first agriculturists. They opened their
first shop in 1886 and later their Pagoda in Saint Louis District.
There were two ethnic groups, the Hakka and the Cantonese who conspired
with the authorities and managed to keep away the Hakka out of the
town for nearly fifty years.
Recently the Hindus built their Devalayam but before that they had a yearly celebration behind an Indian shop called Kot Longaille. Strangely, according to oral tradition Longaille was not Indian but an African from Mozambique who had a small shop
there. Afterwards that place was acquired by an Indian Merchant and Longaille remained until today the name of the shop.
The most famous cabaret in the district was the Capitol, owned by the late Julien Parcou, and practically opposite was another
Cabaret run by the Lai Lam. Further down at the bottom of Market Street
are two headquarters of former rich Indian Merchants. One is now the
property of Jivan Jetha and was originally owned by R S Naiken and
opposite that was one belonging to K C C Chetty. This property is still
for the heirs of K C C Chetty, however, a new building was built on
the site in the 1970s. Their two shops face each other on Market
Street; one was called Paradis des Dames and the other Paradis des Enfants.
Facing the present Taxi Stand is the Saint Paul Cathedral of the Church of England which was one of the oldest buildings. It had
many modifications and additions until the recently newly restored
Cathedral.
Opposite Saint Paul Cathedral is the Premier Building, known for its cinema attractions. Before the building was built that place
was the old Taxi Stand, but prior to that there was a house which was
the residence of the Chaplain of the Church of England. It later became
on the Magistrate Court which was under the jurisdiction of Paul
Camille, a brilliant Seychellois jurist. It was in that building that
the last contingent of Seychellois were recruited in 1951 to join the
British forces in the North African Campaign. The adjacent building was
the former Continental Hotel owned by Richard Mancham. Previously the
Continental was called Hotel de Mascarenas and now it has been
converted into a supermarket.
If ma mémoire est bonne, just after Premier Building on the way to the Roman Catholic Church, there was the only cul de sac in town that used to go up to the market wall. This public domain does
not seem to have legally been transferred to a private individual. Next
to it was the Headquarters of the Moulinie & Company, who was the
general manager of the Chagos Archipelago, Farquhar, Agalega Island,
and also of Astove. That company used to employ over 3 000 people and
sadly no archives of the company are left. According to the late
Robert Kim-Koon, what was left in that building were many documents and
old medical books of two famous Seychellois, Mr Tony D’Offay FRCS and
Dr. Arthur Henri Chenard de la Giraudais. The documents were stored
there by Paul Chenard who was an employee of the company. Those
valuable documents were taken out recently by the Chinese contractor to
the dumpsite? If this had happened in China they would have been
prosecuted; in the Seychelles nobody bothers.
The footpath between the Police Headquarters and Cathedral is called “Keate Lane” after Robert William Keate, Civil Commissioner,
1850-1852. It was built by Church of England congregation on their own
land before the Cathedral was built in order to get access to their
temporary Church and School which was then behind the now Teemooljee
Shop. Legally “Keate Lane” is still the property of the Church of
England, and the colonial government used to lease it for 50 cents per
year. The first Roman Catholic Church of Saint Anthony of Padua was
near the present entrance of the State House.
As we have previously pointed out, the first police station was at the now first Seventh Day Adventist Church. The present Police
Headquarters was built on the second Police Station and was alongside
the first British-built colonial prison. Opposite the police station
was the former headquarters of recent Union Lighterage Company (ULC)
which later became “Mahé Shipping”.
The first lighterage company was started by a certain Mr. Adrien Jouanis and was later acquired by Harold Jacques Law Baty and
Court Bergne which was known in 1899 as ‘Baty Bergne’ & Company.
Baty died on 8th September 1903 and in 1904 Bergne took as partner
Harry Pare, a Royal Navy engineer (Pare later built the Carnegie
building). Later Harry was joined by his brother Maurice in running the
company.
In 1907 Mr. Newsam bought out the shares of Bergne and the company became known as Newsam & Pare. With the departure of the
Pare brothers to South Africa in 1916, the company was acquired by
Captain Jouanis, Edouard Lanier and Maurice Esnouf. Its offices were
based on the first floor of that building. On the ground floor was the
‘Clarion’ Printing Press of Dr Thomas Bradley. The Clarion was the
first newspaper to start an article written in the Creole language. The
weekly article was titled “Mon Cher Jean-Jacques”. It was
written and composed for the printing press by Emmanuel Laval. His
articles were much appreciated by the public. The Creole that Laval
wrote was the common Creole used by the Police and the Court, and was
closer to the French language. Sadly our modern Creole of Danielle
D’Offay and Guy Lionnet made no mention of our previously written
creole and gave the wrong impression that our written creole was
invented by them.
Later on, in the 1970’s, the ULC was managed by Lieutenant-Commander Anthony William Bentley-Buckle, the son of a tea
planter. Bentley-Buckle was the man who started Air Seychelles and also
the African National Shipping Company. When he left the company all the
old files belonging to the company were taken to England. Tony died on
the 24th May 2010 at the age of 88. Maybe the Seychelles National
Archives can now request copies of those priceless documents from his
surviving families in Beaulieu, in Hampshire, England.
The Royal Street, now Revolution Avenue, was formerly the hub for the lawyer’s chambers. Interestingly, Mr James Mancham and Mr F
A René started their careers in the same building which is now a snack
bar. Next door is the former Continental Hotel. Behind the snack bar
was the printing press of the Seychelles Democratic Party, led by Mr.
Mancham who later became the first unelected President of the
Seychelles.
Albert Street was previously called Victoria Street and together with Port Victoria and the Victoria Town, is now part of the
Saint Louis District. It is interesting to note that it was in 1841,
according to Ordinance 12, that the Town, previously named Port Royal and Establisment du Roi
by the French, became Victoria and the Port, Port Victoria. According
to some historians it was named in honour of our little Queen Victoria
(1819-1901). It is now doubtful that the Port was named after her;
historical documents seemed to say otherwise. Documents in the
Seychelles National Archives proved that the Port was in fact named
Port Victoria in 1829 or even before, when Queen Victoria was only ten
years old. Most probably it was first named after her mother Princess
Marie-Louise Victoria who spoke no English.
Later, the long reclaimed road from the Roman Catholic Church to Mont Fleuri was completed under Charles Augustus Mylius,
Civil Commissioner 1839-50. The section of the road leading to Mont
Fleuri was called Bathurst Road, named after Henry Bathurst former
British Foreign Secretary, and the part leading to North East Point was
named Hodoul Road; we are unsure if it was named after the Corsair
Jean-François Hodoul.
If the State House, formerly Government House, is in the Saint Louis District and under the Mayor of Port Victoria, then
something should be done to remove the recently made plaque which
indicates the wrong date of its opening. This superb colonial building
was designed by a woman, Margaret Agnes Fielding (presumably she was the
first woman to have designed a colonial mansion in the Seychelles).
Margaret was the wife of Governor Edward Walter Davidson (1904-1912).
The architect, Mr W M Vaudin, took her design too seriously only to
realise after two years of construction that it had no staircase.
Work on the building started on November 1910. The masonry part was under the charge of Astride Collet, (the father of Charles
Evariste Collet) and the head mason of the Public Works Department
(P.W.D). When Davidson left on 17th December 1912 to take an
appointment as Governor of Newfoundland, the building had not been
finished. However, he decided to have a going-away party on the ground
floor.
Davidson was replaced by Charles Richard Mackay O’Brien, who arrived on 28th December 1912. The construction of Government House
along with the front lawns were finished in August 1913 and O’Brien
moved in as the first occupant. The first Seychellois to occupy that
place was Mr James Mancham.
Places and their names do not die as people do. However, they often change so drastically that little is left of what they once
were. ‘La Baie des esclaves’ was somewhere in the vicinity of the middle of the Quincy Street; it was where the slaves disembarked. Further up was the Camps des noirs.
All of this forms part of our history. History is a social science of
recording and analysing the past. It is also a link to our ancestors.
It has to follow, interpolate and never falsify, in spite of
totalitarian governments justifying seizing power and imposing
political systems which are alien to a nation’s history or traditions.
Some have tried to implement Karl Marx’s interpretations and make
history their servant, but they have so far failed dismally.
This little narration on the Saint Louis District is far from being complete; I hope that the authorities concerned will use it
as a guide to write a better history of Saint Louis for the benefit of
our school children and visitors.
The following are the names of some known little cantons:
Biznack which we do not know its origin, but maybe from Bismarck the German Iron Chancellor or from a Seychellois
known as Biznack Gontier.
Chemin Serret (Serret Road) starts up from Marie-Antoinette’s Restaurant and ends up at Kontour Madamm Serret,
near the top of Saint Louis on the main road to Beau Vallon. Marie
Antoinette Restaurant was the former residence of Mr Abdool Rahim Hadee,
a Shiite Muslim from Kerbala, and it was called Kot Rahim.
Captain James Tregarthen acquired that place from Rahim. He renovated
the place and named it Le Grand Trianon, and the restaurant after
Marie-Antoinette our beheaded Queen, his own little mansion at the back
was called Le Petit Trianon. However, very few people in the
vicinity know the origin of its name. It was in fact named after a
Mauritian Lawyer, Mr Eugène Serret (1844-1905), who resided in the area
of the now Saint Louis’ Flats belonging to the Chetty’s Brothers.
‘Serret Road’ has previously been wrongly referred to being named in
honour of Eugène J E Serret (1864-1934), another bright Mauritian
Jurist. The latter was a scholar of the middle temple and was a Judge
in the Seychelles from 1911-1912, and later became Chief Justice of
Mauritius. Mr Eugène Serret’s property is the now Saint Louis’s
Flats area. His house was on the land adjacent to the present property
of Mr Hoffman, and he named the whole area “Rose Belle”, presumably in
honour of the place of his birth in Mauritius. He was the son of Eugène
Serret and Aurore Demay both of Mauritius. Eugène Serret worked as a
Judge and later as a private lawyer in the Seychelles and died at Mahé
on 23th February 1905.
Dan Cocos; may be named presumably after the dense coconut plantations in the area.
Dan He he; the origin of that name is unknown, that place was very well known for its weekend festivities
such a contredanse, moutia etc. The road to ‘Dan he he’ started from
Leong Wing’s shop formerly the shop ‘la boutik grain sec’ of
Franzoni Morel. It is now an Indian shop. That road is now called
Stevenson-Delhomme Road, after Dr Marie Hilda Stevenson-Delhomme. It
was previously in a very bad and muddy terrain especially while
crossing the river at night before the bridge was built.
Delanos; was named after Captain Nicholas Hebert Delanos. It was on his former property that the British
Colonial Government built a camp in the 1920’s to isolate the
prostitutes from town. The prostitutes had been infecting mostly
visiting sailors of British Man of War with venereal diseases. Later
prostitutes were referred to as fir (girl)or fanm (woman) Delanos. They were also immortalized by the following once common Creole melody “O Carmen piti Napoleon, ranpli mon ver aven ou al Delanos”
Grand Peron; also known as Peron Manzel Shara, it was part of Chemin Kato that had many steps (peron) that led to the upper part of Chemin Kato.
Kontour Baka ; was situated opposite the bus stop near Dan Koko. There they had a la cambuse for selling baka, later colonial low-cost houses were built on that site.
Kontour Madame Jean-François; named presumably after Mr. Jean-François a well-known proprietor in the vicinity.
Kontour Neneze; named after Mr Nenze who resided in the vicinity.
Kontour Madame Serret ; Named after Mrs. Serret.
Kot Eglise Adventist, named after the newly built Seventh Day Adventist Church; next to it was the proposed clinic
for Dr Marie Hilda Stevenson-Delhomme which was built by his father Ti
Jean Stevenson. That place was also used as a school. Incidentally,
there is now two Adventist Churches in the District. The first one in
the corner of Revolution Avenue and Quincy Street was built in 1932 on
the site of the old Police Station.
La Chapelle, is after the summit of Saint Louis Road, and it is a Roman Catholic Chapel founded a long time ago;
however, its modern structure was built in the late 1960s.
Locap, was a little village after “Dan he he” and had difficult access; however, it had magnificent views of the town.
Lo Oter ; was also called ‘Kot Ah-Kee’ after a Chinese shopkeeper and butcher. That shop was previously run by
another Chinese named Lewis Ah-Tave. He, according to oral traditions,
came from Singapore. Prior to the Chinese that building was a brothel
and it was called Delanos. Interestingly the women involved were called
Bordel, Fanmdevi, Delanos, Piten, but strangely, rarely called
“prostitute”.
Lo Park ; was the flat part near the Chapel. It was used by fishermen coming from Beau Vallon and Bel Ombre
as a temporary market to sell their fish. Opposite Lo Park there was a
Chinese shop run by Sham-Peng-Tong. He later moved to town and his
shop was taken over by another Chinese called Mr Ah Wong.
Pont Biznack; a bridge on the way up just after the junction La Bourdonnais and Aucler Street. That bridge had
been immortalised in one of Emile Hugon’s paintings. In that junction
there is the oldest masonry building in the area now called Tip Top. It
was once the shop of François Shamlaye. It was built as military
barracks for early British troops. La Bourdonnais Street was named after
Mahé de La Bourdonnais, the famous Breton Governor of Mauritius, and
Aucler Street after Mr Aucler the contractor who built that street.
Semen Cato; was named after the baker in the area of a certain Mr. Parcou.
Topilo; was a shop with a cabaret belonging to Mr Philip Dorasamy in which he had regular dancing activities.
Waterloo; is the current soft drinks factory of Mr. Hyacinth Payet; it was also named by him because
of the difficulties he had to obtain a licence from the colonial
government.
A more recent map of Victoria
Ref.
- Special thank you for Mr William McAteer for his infos on Baty Bergne & Company.
- Plan Terrier of Mahé, 1829 by Hoart, Seychelles National Archives.
- Plan of Victoria 1841.
- Ex infos: Late Kantilal Jivan Shah and Guy Morel; Dr Maxime Ferrari; Eugene Mondelie alias Sando and K. Coopoosamy of London.
- William McAteer: Hard Times in Paradise, 2000.
- Old Plan of Victoria, completed by Berthelot de La Coste.
You need to be a member of The Sechelles Heritage Trust to add comments!
Join The Sechelles Heritage Trust