Stabroek in Demerara, the origin of the town plan of George-town (Guyana) in the eighteenth century

Authors

  • Lex Bosman

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7480/knob.102.2003.4-5.305

Abstract

The eighteenth-century establishment of Dutch towns overseas is interesting because such town-planning matters were hardly an issue in the Netherlands itself at that time. For the then colony of Demerara (Guyana) in South America J.C. Heneman made an interesting design for a small town planned some distance upstream by the river of the same name.

His starting point was the existing structure of a plantation. The design reminds you of an ideal town of Simon Stevin. Just as in other West Indian colonies under the rule of the Dutch West India Company, decision-making was utterly slow. The little town was never realised.

On a narrow strip of land near the coast and situated by the riverbank a small town was started under the French government at the end of the eighteenth century, which later developed into Stabroek and eventually into Georgetown. A comparison with other colonial towns in the region of the WIC does not show any strong similarities.

Frequently a dominant axis was present; however, as appears from various examples, the reasons for this axis were very different and it had nothing to do with some sort of ideal for such a town, for such an ideal did not exist. In Georgetown the structure of the existing plantations in its turn determined the structure of the various parts of the town.

Author Biography

Lex Bosman

Dr. Lex Bosman is als architectuurhistoricus werkzaam bij de Opleiding Kunstgeschiedenis van de Universiteit Utrecht. Na zijn studie kunstgeschiedenis promoveerde hij in 1990 in Utrecht op De Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk te Maastricht. Bouwgeschiedenis en historische betekenis van de oostpartij (Utrecht/Zutphen 1990). Naast onderzoek naar uiteenlopende aspecten van de architectuur van de Middeleeuwen en de Nieuwe Tijd, zoals de betekenissen van architectuur, heeft hij interesse in de geschiedenis van de Nederlandse koloniale stedenbouw, zoals onder meer blijkt uit het boek Nieuw Amsterdam in Berbice (Guyana). De planning en bouw van een koloniale stad, 1764-1800 (Hilversum 1994). In zijn huidige onderzoek richt hij zich op de betekenis van de toepassing van spolia in de architectuur van de St. Pieter te Rome.

Published

2003-09-01

How to Cite

Bosman, L. (2003). Stabroek in Demerara, the origin of the town plan of George-town (Guyana) in the eighteenth century. Bulletin KNOB, 102(4-5), 186–195. https://doi.org/10.7480/knob.102.2003.4-5.305

Issue

Section

Articles

Plaudit