Debris in the street following the partial collapse of Townhouse Gallery’s building in downtown Cairo (all photos by William Wells and courtesy Townhouse Gallery)
The façade of the historic building building at 10 Nabrawy Street in downtown Cairo that houses part of the revered Townhouse Gallery collapsed on Wednesday morning. Nobody was hurt in the incident, as Mada Masr first reported, partly because the building had long been unstable and its condition was visibly worsening.
“During the night [from Tuesday to Wednesday], stones began to fall into the street and we monitored the movement carefully,” William Wells, the gallery’s executive director, told Hyperallergic. “At 10am, morning of [April] 6th, the facade and rooms behind collapsed into the street, blocking the access to the neighboring school and at the same time destroying two vehicles that had earlier refused to move. Because we had arranged a system of communication earlier, reporting any trouble in the street of any kind, we were able to evacuate on time. Because of this there were no casualties.”
Debris from the partial collapse of Townhouse Gallery’s building in downtown Cairo (click to enlarge)
In addition to a number of businesses and the Cairo Hacker Space, the collapsed portion of the five-story 1890s building was home to Townhouse’s offices, a small exhibition space, its archive, and its library. Gallery staff were preparing to relocate the latter two when the collapse happened.
“We were to move the library and archives this coming Saturday [tomorrow],” Wells said. “At the moment we do not know if we will be allowed to retrieve these books and archives or not, as access to the building is forbidden. If it the decision is to demolish the building then they will not allow us to remove these important areas of our work.”
The gallery’s exhibitions, events, and public opening hours have been on hiatus since December 2015, following a multi-agency raid on its Nabrawy Street space that many considered a thinly veiled act of censorship. Despite the partial building collapse, Townhouse will continue to operate out of its adjacent Factory Space, where regular programming is set to resume next week.
“The remaining structure of the building, which is in fact most of the building, is in good condition, of this we are certain,” Wells said. “We, with the community will fight to try and restore the building. It must be remembered that this is not just a cultural space or a community of co-workers and residents but ahistorical place, very important in understanding the complex history of Downtown Cairo. If this building is lost, so are many different histories erased for good.”
Debris from the partial collapse of Townhouse Gallery’s building in downtown Cairo
