Kingstown travel guide

The capital, Kingstown, stands on a sheltered bay and is surrounded on all sides by steep, green hills, with houses perched all the way up. However, it is a generally unattractive port city with the waterfront dominated by the container port, cruise ship terminal, fish market and bus station. There is no promenade along the seafront and buildings along the reclaimed land look inland rather than out to sea. Nevertheless, an active beautification association is making huge strides in cleaning up the city, with overgrown bridges repaired or rebuilt, buildings painted and re-roofed and plants maintained. Some buildings have been demolished. The most attractive and historical buildings are inland along the three main parallel streets, Bay Street, Long Lane and Grenville/Halifax Street, also known as Front Street, Middle Street and Back Street.

Kingstown is known as the ‘city of arcades’ and it is possible to walk around most of the centre under cover. There are even building regulations to encourage the practice in new construction. The shopping and business area is no more than two blocks wide, running between Bay Street and Halifax Street/Grenville Street. The New Kingstown Fish Market, built with Japanese aid, was opened in 1990 near the Police Headquarters. This complex, known as Little Tokyo, has car parking and is the point of departure for minibuses to all parts of the island. On Halifax Street at the junction with South River Road is the Old Public Library, an old stone building with a pillared portico.

The Market Square in front of the Court House is the hub of activity. A new covered market with cream and brown horizontal stripes has been built from Upper Bay to Halifax Street. Fruit and vegetables are downstairs and clothing is upstairs. In the middle of the market building is a circular area where farmers sell their produce on Fridays.

Kingstown has two cathedrals, St George’s (Anglican) and St Mary’s (Roman Catholic). St George’s, consecrated in 1820, has an airy nave and a pale blue gallery running around the north, west and south sides. It became a cathedral in 1877 when the Diocese of the Windward Islands was constituted and the chancel and transepts date from 1880 to 1887. The cupula was blown down by a hurricane in 1898 and after that battlements were added to the tower. There is an interesting floor plaque in the nave, now covered by carpet, commemorating a general who died fighting the Caribs. Other interesting features include a memorial to Sir Charles Brisbane (1772-1829) who captured Curaçao. A lovely stained-glass window in the south transept was reputedly commissioned by Queen Victoria on the death of her grandson. She took exception to angels in red rather than the traditional white and it was put into storage in St Paul’s Cathedral. It was brought to St Vincent in the 1930s. St Mary’s is of far less sober construction, with different styles, Flemish, Moorish, Byzantine and Romanesque, all in dark grey stone, crowded together on the church, presbytery and school. Building went on throughout the 19th century, with renovation in the 1940s. The exterior of the church is highly decorated but dark and grim, while the interior is dull in comparison but quite light and pretty. The Methodist church, dating from 1841, also has a fine interior, with a circular balcony. Its construction was financed largely through the efforts of freed slaves. There is a little bell tower at the south end, erected in 1907....read more