HEAD of the European Union (EU) Delegation, Ambassador Jernej Videtic, has urged that a special effort be made to restore the iconic City Hall, as soon as possible.

The ambassador has also reminded that the EU had already contributed 280 000 Euros, the equivalent of G$64M, for the financing of a Comprehensive Restoration and Sustainable Conservation Management Plan for the City Hall. Copies of the blue print which was crafted by Alanet Global and Euronet, in collaboration with their local counterparts, were handed over to the Government of Guyana and the Georgetown Mayor and City Council since July 2018.

The EU envoy, made the request at a ceremony at the Pegasus Hotel on Friday evening to mark Europe Day, in the presence of President Granger, his wife, First Lady Sandra Granger and Minister of State Karen Cummings, among other distinguished dignitaries.

The Ambassador whose tour of duty comes to an end in August, also proposed that places where Henri Charrière, also known as Papillon, was living in Georgetown, after his escape from the Devil’s Island prison in French Guiana, be identified.
This way tourists could then imagine, better, the life of a person whose memoirs became a bestselling novel..
City Hall, located at the corner of Regent Street and Avenue of the Republic, is currently in a deplorable state with sections of the façade already fallen off and others hanging loose, thus creating an eyesore for locals and tourists alike who can be observed often taking photographs of the building that is considered one of Guyana’s Heritage sites.

In 2018, during the handing over of the blue print, the then Town Clerk had disclosed that some US$4.3M was needed to save the historical building
City Hall, a the three–storey rectangular building that ‘imitates’ the Classical (Gothic) Revival architectural style, is known to be one of the Caribbean’s finest timber buildings that was erected in 1889.