The Rudolph Street mosque, Port Elizabeth (1970)

Yusuf Agherdien: ‘The Davids family, who lived just to the right of the Rudolph Street mosque, were the last of three generations there. Mr Saliem Davids, who passed on five years ago, told me how the trucks came and loaded everything up. He said the family could not take all their belongings because the new houses were so much smaller – there just wasn’t enough space. In the old house he made a prayer, asking that no matter what happened to South End, nothing would be built on that site. The land is still lying vacant.’ Photograph: Ron Belling

Rudolph Street mosque (2015)

The high brick wall and electrified fence along Walmer Boulevard next to the mosque is in stark contrast to the open stoep (verandah) visible in Ron Belling’s 1970 photograph, which was a typical feature of South End’s original houses. Both of the mosques in South End escaped destruction following intervention by the city’s Muslim community – on the premise that mosques cannot be deconsecrated – and remain in use today. The first mosque in the Northern Areas, Sabireen (‘Patience’), was built in the 1980s. Photograph: Yusuf Agherdien

Valley Road housing (1970)

When Belling took this and his other photographs, the South End neighbourhood was on the cusp of demolition. The first removals began in 1968 and were mostly complete by 1973: the Agherdien family was among the last to leave. Belling’s photographs are not just documents of ‘what once was’; they are documents of the moment of destruction.Photograph: Ron Belling

Ruins along Valley Road (2013)

In this photograph, the empty shell of a house that belonged to the Nicholas family is visible up against the Valley Road hillside. The remains of the wall in this contemporary photograph was once the back wall of a bakery; several foundations and flooring slabs are still embedded in the open grass here.Photograph: Yusuf Agherdien

Walmer Road (1970)

Yusuf Agherdien: ‘This was one of the main thoroughfares coming through South End towards the centre of town; a really bustling area. We lived close to the top end of Walmer Road – it was part of daily life; everything was situated there.’ Photograph: Ron Belling

Walmer Road (2013)

YA: ‘Comparing the two pictures of Walmer Road, you can see that there was once life and commercial activity there. To replace it with what is there now – how is it possible to link the two? That’s why I wanted to include these two guys walking from the construction site to the shop, just to show that maybe there is still a little bit of life around.’Photograph: Yusuf Agherdien

Restaurants on Walmer Road (1970)

YA: ‘The Kasbah, the Silver Lantern and CR Pillay’s Fish and Chip shop were all in this street. CR Pillay’s was the most famous for their fish and chips: it would come wrapped in white paper and you would run home with it as fast as you could, so it would still be hot when you ate it. Even now, thinking about that really makes your mouth water.’Photograph: Ron Belling

Gated community, Walmer Road (2013)

YA: ‘This is now a gated townhouse complex. When I visited here again for the first time, in 2012, I climbed the kerb in my car because I wanted to drive up the remains of the road and see what I could remember of what used to be Walmer Road. But my path was blocked by this big gate and a construction site. There was a guy working on the roof of the new complex and I recognised him as a fellow ex-South Ender. I chatted to him and he let me in to have a look around – I said I just wanted to walk down the street again.’Photograph: Yusuf Agherdien

Valley Road (1970)

YA: ‘To the right of this photo is a factory; on the other side, those steps used to lead up to a little café. Further up the road is the entrance to Alabaster Street, which led up to Mackay’s Pies. They demolished all these houses but they kept the buildings on the right, maybe because people were working there; it was a timber yard and hardware store. After the removals, people would still come back to work here, for a little while at least.’Photograph: Ron Belling

Valley Road (2013)

YA: ‘Many people lost their businesses and their livelihoods after the removals. My father, for example, was a tailor: I remember he was very concerned that the move would ruin his business because he made suits for people living in town. In the Northern Areas, it was very difficult for him to operate. The apartheid era didn’t just destroy people’s houses, it destroyed their lives.’Photograph: Yusuf Agherdien

The fig tree (1970)

The fig tree is one of South End’s most prominent landmarks, predating living memory and often said to be more than a hundred years old. Many former residents remember playing or picnicking underneath it: ‘That fig tree has been there as long as I or anyone can remember,’ says Yusuf Agherdien.Photograph: Ron Belling

The fig tree (2013)

YA: ‘In the late 1980s and 90s, the tree seemed to be dying – almost as if it was grieving. Everything that had been here was completely gone. I saw it with my own eyes: the tree was going yellow and brown – we all noticed the change. Yet around the time we started the South End Museum, across the road from the tree, in 2000-01, it started becoming greener and greener again. It is the only living thing that remains of South End.’Photograph: Yusuf Agherdien

The old coast road (circa 1970)

YA: ‘I went to Port Elizabeth’s Transnet terminal building when I was looking for a way to replicate this photograph, which had been taken from its roof. I bumped into Mahir Pandie, who works there, and showed him this photo – it’s always a good way to get people interested. I said I needed help getting on the roof to retake it, so we spent half an hour struggling to find the guy with the key. Eventually Mahir said to leave the photo with him, so he could use it to get permission. Then a few days later, he sent me the contemporary picture.’Photographer unknown

Settlers Way (2013)

In the 1970s, South End’s old street grid was replaced with a new street layout. The M4 freeway, or Settlers Way, was built running north-south alongside the coastline, effectively cutting the city centre off from the ocean.Photograph: Mahir Pandie

Frere Street (1970)

YA: ‘The Francis family lived in the house next to where the tree stood on Frere Street – that tree has now died. They were boat builders: at night, you could see the reflection of the light from the welding machines flashing up in the trees.’Photograph: Ron Belling

Frere Street (2013)

This viewpoint is no longer accessible: in 2013, when the picture was taken, construction was just beginning on the new residential complex that now occupies this land. Today, it is completely fenced off and the trees have disappeared completely.Photograph: Yusuf Agherdien

Victoria Park sports fields (1968)

YA: ‘Many South Enders were soccer players or sportspeople. Some even became Springboks – in those days, you were a ‘white’ or ‘black’ or ‘coloured’ Springbok. I played on this field in the junior teams; they were such good days in ‘Vee Pee’, as we called it. On the day of a game, everyone walked up together to watch. But there was never contact with the white players, even though our field was across from their tennis courts. You might accidentally kick the ball to the ‘white’ side of the field, but we still couldn’t play together.’Photograph: Latief Abrahams

Vacant Victoria Park (2013)

The sports fields at Victoria Park were divided by race, with separate football pitches and tennis courts for ‘white’ and ‘coloured’ players (the term ‘coloured’ is South African parlance for people of mixed-race descent, remaining in common use today). When South End was declared a ‘white’ neighbourhood, the ‘coloured’ fields stopped being maintained.YA: ‘Although the whole park belongs to the municipality, they never attended to this part of it after the coloured teams left – it was just left vacant.’Photograph: Yusuf Agherdien

South End Clinic (1970)

YA: ‘As youngsters, we would line up and get our immunisations here – in that way it wasn’t nice, because you associated it with injections. But it also has positive memories: at the back of the clinic is the Baakens Valley, where we used to go with our fathers for the sighting of the moon to mark the start of Ramadan. I still go up there today with my brothers, and it still brings back memories of the clinic. As soon as the moon was sighted, the elders would send the kids down to notify the Muslim community that Ramadan had begun.’Photograph: Ron Belling

The old South End Clinic (2013)

The old clinic has been renovated and turned into four flatlets, part of a gated housing estate. The point of view of Belling’s original photograph could not be accessed; it is now fenced off as part of a church car park, protected by a gate and barbed-wire fence.YA: ‘It’s strange to me that some buildings, like this one, were kept, while the rest were completely broken down.’Photograph: Yusuf Agherdien