And this is just an ordinary day.
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About Me
Everybody's looking for something. Mary Ann is looking for the real Beirut, whatever that means. These are the photos she takes along the way.
You can browse around the archives here or check out her other blogs. There's one from a few years ago, back when she blogged about art. And then there's another from '09 when she lived in St. Louis (USA).
You can browse around the archives here or check out her other blogs. There's one from a few years ago, back when she blogged about art. And then there's another from '09 when she lived in St. Louis (USA).
Blog Archive
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2011
(258)
- December (12)
- November (24)
- October (21)
- September (11)
- August (5)
- July (20)
- June (21)
- May (30)
- April (28)
- March (30)
- February (28)
- January (28)
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I love the color combination (and the peeling paint).
ReplyDeleteI love the way the colours fade together here ... it's like a watercolour painting,
ReplyDeleteHallo. I haven't posted on your blog before, or even looked over much of it yet. Just wanted to say you have some great photos.
ReplyDeleteI used to live in Beirut in the 1960s, in fact I was born there (my father was a pilot with Kuwait Airways, and until 1970 their foreign crew could live in Lebanon!). He took quite a few pics see http://www.nawaller.com/site/beirut60s.html
They're mostly family-oriented rather than architectural or of the city environment, unfortunately. But they still might be interesting even to someone outside the family. And you certainly get a sense of how relatively empty west Beirut was around 1960 compared with now.
We lived in rue Abla (now Mansour Jardak, near Bliss); off rue Madame Curie; and at Bir Hassan, near the golf course for the last year or so.
Since my last trip as a teenager in 1975 I got two trips back in 1993 and 1994 on business (with a college publisher) and took more pictures then. I had left my decent Nikkormat camera behind in England, worried it might be nicked or confiscated, but instead, my house was burgled while I was away so I still lost it!
I haven't been back since then, but my younger brother did last New Year and even got into the apartment in Ras Beirut we lived in for ten years, which he hadn't been into since 1969. Plus I am exchanging memories with a Facebook group of other refugees from the 60s, some of whom still live in Lebanon or have gone back.
Hello, i lived there too from 1961-1972 and went to the same school. Your photos and movies brought back some memories....would love to get in touch and see who we knew.
DeleteHi Armitaj, thanks for sharing your story and the link to the photos. It's amazing how the city has changed in only a few decades. Thanks for commenting!
ReplyDeleteI've looked over a lot more of your site now and the comment stands - great photos!
ReplyDeleteI am pleased so many old building seem to survive in Beirut. Many are rather run down, which is picturesque but may mean they also don't have long before they're knocked down. To me it's a bit depressing at this distance that a lot of Beirut's old fairly lo-rise cityscape has apparently been punctured by some very high rise glass buildings.
I wouldn't wish a civil war on anyone, but in a way the trauma of 1976-1991 or so, while it damaged plenty (especially downtown), ironically had helped to preserve at lot of the stuff I remembered from childhood until I went back in 1993 and 1994, no doubt due to lack of interest in investing. The BCS school on the (old) airport road, the Carlton Hotel, the Spinneys near us, across the road from Pigeon Rocks. Even the MEA 720 airliners were the exact same planes I remembered from 20 years before!
The BCS has recently had a massive extension, judging from Google Earth, and the Carlton and Spinneys have been knocked down, and MEA looks very different.
I like your photos comparing 1965 and now. When my brother revisited Beirut our apartment earlier this year, he took an iPhone video. I grabbed some of the images and matched them with old family photos. So they are mostly internal, but still of some interest. I just put them online about five minutes ago:
http://www.nawaller.com/beirutCompare/
I don't wish to outstay my welcome or dominate your comments, but you might also be interested in some 16mm movie footage my father took in the 60s in Beirut, which I put online for the Facebook "60s" group I mentioned.
ReplyDeleteThey're all pretty short and cover things like Beirut from the air in 1956 or so; the wreck of the Macedon near Pigeon Rocks and the escape of two sailors (it's now a dive club target, I gather); skiing at, I think, Faraya; Christmas at home; sports day at the British Community School when I was about 7 or 8; the Beach Club, which we rarely went to; and building works round our apartment in Ras Beirut and which finally drove us away.
http://www.nawaller.com/landBei.mov
http://www.nawaller.com/macedon-1964.mov
http://www.nawaller.com/skiLeb.mov
http://www.nawaller.com/xmas1967.mov
http://www.nawaller.com/Bei_60s_BCS_sm.mov http://www.nawaller.com/beachclub-1968.mov
http://www.nawaller.com/rasBeirut-building1968
This last one is the view from the cockpit landing in a Dakota at Jerusalem about ten years before 1967 and the 6-Day War.
http://www.nawaller.com/jeru.mov
There's more footage I haven't digitised yet and I must some time, including from my parents' first year or so in Lebanon, before I was even born.
Armitaj, this is really great; I don't know of anything else like it. I haven't been able to look at the videos yet, but it's great that you have so much content and that you've made it available for everyone.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it interesting how personal photos and home movies now play an important role in the documentation of Beirut's evolution. Amazing.
What I find interesting, among other aspects like colour - is why this door is offset from the 'awning' and its current set into ... nothingness. One assumes it is not longer able to be opened.
ReplyDeleteBig, beautiful, blue boys! Nice portrait of them!
ReplyDeleteBTW, did that American Rotary scholar even contact you? I would think she arrived in Beirut in September??
Hello, I just came across your beautiful blog on Beirut. Seeing the above dates are from 2011 I wonder if your blog is still live?
ReplyDeleteI watched the home movies of Nicholas Waller and loved them! I too have a home movie of the sportsday at the British Community School that could have been made the same day. But I believe it was a year later. Like your brother I was born in 1959 so we should have been in the same class. I remember names as Lyell Slade, Julia Munyard, Michael Clark. We lived in the Ramlet al Baida area of Beirut looking out over the sea. As a family we had the best times there. My name is Anouk de Vlieger and we are Dutch.
Hello, i too lived there also from 1961-1972 and went to the BCS. Would love to see your movie and catch up on the past memories and friends.
DeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI too was born in Beirut in '61, and went to BCS till '69 (when I was in class 4). Anybody iver here from my time there?
And Mr Waller, thanks for all the lovely Beirut photos - pure nostalgia!
Hello, i was born in 1960 and lived in Beirut from 1961-1972 and went to BCS. Would love to catch up on past times and friends.
DeleteAnd Mary Ann, lovely blog!
ReplyDeleteso weird, I just happened to google this after wandering through bbc coverage of Paris bombing arrest today...4_8_2016 .
ReplyDeleteI was at BCS until 1971, above the name Lyell Slade stood out. I was in her class. Born in '60, my father worked at MEA, nice to see that there are remnants of those days throughout the years on here.
Hello, i was there too from 1961-1972 and went to BCS. Would love to catch up on old memories and friends from the past.
Delete