Nostalgia: Henry Street. Werk-en-Rust
By Peter Halder
Henry Street in Werk-en-Rust is a short street. It is only one block long. It extends from Princess Street on the south to Durban Street on the north. It is sandwiched between George Street on the east and Smyth Street on the west.
A denizen of Non Pareil Street, Albouystown (vide my Nostalgia: The Street Where I lived: Non Pareil Street, Albouystown), I became familiar with Henry Street in the late 1940s when I met and became a close and lasting friend of Carl Agard. I joined him in Scholarship Class at St. Stephen’s Church of Scotland School at the junction of St.Stephen, Princess and Adelaide Streets, Charlestown. We would go swimming often at clay, the parloff or other parts of the Punt Trench or explore the mangrove area on the bank of Demerara River at Ruimveldt, next to Art Williams Transport offices.
Carl, who often referred to himself as Carl Nigel Stanislaus Yohann Divioli Agard, lived in a large, old house in a spacious “yard” near the southern end of the eastern side Henry Street. The bottom of the house was enclosed but there was no flat/apartment. The principal occupants of the bottom house at night were crapauds of the large, black, ugly variety with lumpy backs.
There was also a small cottage at the back of the yard which was rented.
South of Carl’s placed and towards the southern end of Henry Street was the Corinthian Lodge. The Lodge was a huge white building in the expansive grounds, both of which were always well kept. The caretaker of the Lodge lived in the cottage in Carl’s backyard. South of Corinthian Lodge and the end of street was a wide lawn which bordered the Princess Street trench. We played cricket or bat and ball on the lawn (as we called it) from time to time, using green starapples as balls and wood bats. We also played at St. Phillips playground from time to time.
In the front of the yard was a tall starapple tree. Apart from using the green fruit to play cricket, we would play Tarzan on it especially when we had seen a Tarzan movie at the Cinema. ….. continued…
Read full article here… NOSTALGIA – Henry Street, Werk-en-Rust
Comments
To Peter Halder, I am struggling to remember you and I can’t. I went to St. Stephen’s also and went to Queens from there, along with Hammie Green, Neville Valz, and Brandford Isaacs in 1945 and left Queens in 1950. Those were some very great years. I lived at 25 Princess St. Wortmanville, and was transferred to St. Stephen’s from St. Thomas Moore R.C. when Mr. Giddings came there from New Amsterdam. Like most boys at St. Stephen’s I had a crush on Mrs. Fox, and that had nothing to do with Mr. Fox who also taught there.
To Peter Halder:
I lived at 10 Henry Street when I was boy. From 1961 the year i was born until 1972 when we moved to Canada. We lived right next to the lodge. My father owned a business and rented the house from a lady called Mrs Gillard. My dad’s name was Anthony Vieira. Not sure if you knew him. Your story brought back a lot of memories of Henry Street.