The arrival of the British German Legion in 1857 led to the decision to create the village of Panmure on the eastern bank of the Buffalo River, opposite the original town of East London. Each soldier was given a building lot there, as well as an acre lot further from the

East London in about 1857

village, and a 10 acre agricultural lot along the Nahoon River. The one acre lots were given no names but slowly evolved titles because of their geographic positions. The lots "to the north end of the town" became known simply as North End, while those that were "near the southern wood" became Southernwood.

Neither area was included in the original boundaries of the East London municipality in 1873 but were incorporated in 1876 when the Government cleared up certain vexing issues about the town's commonage. In 1881, both neighbourhoods were included in the new Ward 3. In 1896, North End became a Ward in its own right, while Southernwood and the Quigney together made up Ward 4.

Because of a failure on the part of the Town Council to draw up regulations preventing the subdivision of property, the acre lots in both North End and Southernwood quickly became sub-divided and sold off, causing a rapid devaluation. Indeed, the District Surgeon's report for 1882 pointed out that the two suburbs should have formed the finest building sites in the town but the plots had already been sub-divided to such an extent that there were ten or twelve to the acre, with narrow paths down the centre. The streets, he said, had become no more than tracks which were only twelve feet wide and many ending in a cul-de-sac. The lots would therefore in times to come form the "vilest rookeries" where the "most disgraceful scenes" might be expected in the "dark corners of the town that is to be".

The tightening up of building regulations in 1896 would not help the eastern section of Southernwood, although it did save the neighbourhood closest to Oxford Street.

See also: British German Legion North End Anglo-Boer War East London

Here it was that some of East London's grandest houses were built immediately after the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), when many businessmen in the town flourished because of an expanding trade to the imperial army.

Dr Keith Tankard