The Social Whirl of
the 50s
Whilst the older generation
were sipping their pink gins at the Union Club in
Steamer Point the young singles and couples from BP
Bunkering, Luke Thomas,
Besse, Government offices
and the American consulate had a busy social scene
centred on the Crescent
Hotel and Goldmohur.
Dances to recorded music were
held on Thursday evenings on the open roof terrace
of the Crescent Hotel,
it was a weekly ‘must attend’ social event and
tables had to be reserved well in advance. The girls
wore their prettiest dresses and the men looked
dashing in ‘Red Sea Kit’. (See photo below)
In the hot months this
consisted of white trousers, white short sleeved
shirt with or without a bow tie and a black
cummerbund. In the cooler months a black dinner suit
could be worn or black trousers with a white
‘sharkskin’ jacket made by a tailor in the bazaar.
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Sunday evenings on the roof were devoted to
classical music concerts, again from
records, and this was a relaxing way to
recover from the sun after a hectic day on
the beach.
Goldmohur was an anti-shark netted corner
of a deserted beach with a rickety diving
board, a barnacle strewn raft, communal
showers and dilapidated huts around a bar
under the Gold Mohur trees, this seemingly
un-prepossessing place was the most magical
and important place in the universe,
especially on Sundays! |
Mohamed Ali, our Yemeni cook
would have the picnic basket ready by 6am, filled
with fried egg sandwiches and flasks of tea and
fresh lime juice. After driving through Steamer
Point we eventually reached the traffic light ( I
think it was the only one in Aden at that time) on
the narrow one-way bridged-road that went down into
Elephant Bay and then onto Goldmohur – from the
bridge to Goldmohur there was nothing but sand – no
buildings, no people.
|
Gradually friends would arrive and we all
had own favourite places to sit and would
spend the day in and out of the water-
playing our own version of water polo if the
tide was in or just cooling in the shallows
if the tide was out. |
 |
You had
to be careful around the raft and diving board
because if you were cut by the barnacles the wounds
took ages to heal in the humid atmosphere. We could
walk up to the lighthouse above the beach and gaze
down onto a deserted Conquest Bay which was always
known as a ‘no swimming’ area because of the heavy
surf and threat of sharks.
A good Sunday at Goldmohur
meant you returned home exhausted, sunburnt and
sandy; ready for the Crescent concert in the
evening.
There were other safe beaches
for swimming – Cable and Wireless employees had
their own pool in Telegraph Bay, the shark-proofing
was done with concrete pillars, and the
Port Trust had a small
shark-netted beach at Ras Morbut but neither of
these had the social cachet of Goldmohur. The
emphasis was always on safe bathing – the wife of an
RAF officer was taken by a shark whilst swimming in
shallow water in Telegraph Bay and I never confessed
to my parents to swimming with friends in the surf
by the elephant’s trunk in Elephant Bay.
One Sunday morning a group of
us decided to climb Sham-Sham
from Crater and go down the other side into
Goldmohur! There was a vague pathway from the Tanks
to just below the summit where I turned round and
went back the same way – I can’t remember if anyone
went down the other side – John, Paul, Maurice,
Peter, Lyn, Kay, Carmen – if you read this let me
know if you made it.
It is at the
Crescent Hotel and
Goldmohur that I have the happiest memories of my
years in Aden.
by Ann
Berryman (now Atkinson)
Goldmohur is
the name of a tree that was to be found at it's
namesake location. Its botanical name is Poinciana
regia Bojer. It is also known as the Gold Mohur
Tree, Flamboyante, or Flame tree.
Gold Mohur
is also the name given to a gold coin which was paid
to British soldiers stationed in India if they
agreed to marry a local Indian and remain in India
longer rather than return frequently to England.
