Wrapped around the bastion, a favourite place for picnic and cricket
- Rampart Street
- 24/7
I’ve been playing cricket on the ramparts since I was 18 years old. You never quite know how the ball is going to bounce. With the sea wind that blows over the rampart walls, every delivery is unpredictable, but it’s all part of the fun!
7 am
An old couple walks along the quiet Hospital Street. Their pace is brisk. They pass a police station - little do they know an old Portuguese fort is hidden right behind it. They find shade under a beautiful breadfruit tree, which so happens to be the oldest in the country. They pause at the lovely Lady’s beach and take a rest on a stone slab, only to find out they are sitting on an old gunpowder storage building. If only stones could speak... Nothing here is what it seems.
7 pm
Once upon a time, sailors and soldiers got treated for seasickness, malaria, dengue and missing limbs here. In hospital wards, colonial officers could recover and enjoy a welcome respite from duty. Makeshift medics experimented with herbal remedies in the adjacent herbal garden. The entire white-washed colonial complex has long been converted into a chic shopping and dining destination. Only its name - Dutch Hospital - never changed throughout the centuries.