Lifestyle
PHOTOS: Old Residency, Calabar – “Colonial Nigeria’s Aso Rock”
Perched high on Consular Hill in Calabar, Cross River State, the Old Residency stands as one of Nigeria’s most significant surviving relics of the colonial era. Built in 1884 from Scandinavian red-pine wood—shipped in knock-down form from Britain and assembled in Old Calabar—it served as the official seat of government for the Niger Coast Protectorate, later the Southern Nigeria Protectorate.
In its day, the Residency was the Aso Rock of colonial Nigeria—home to the British governor and the nerve centre of administration in the region. From its commanding height, it offered sweeping views of the Calabar River, not for scenery alone, but to monitor incoming and outgoing ships. These included merchant vessels carrying palm oil, ivory, and other valuable goods, as well as the slave ships that once departed from these waters before the abolition of the British slave trade in 1807.
Calabar was one of Britain’s busiest West African ports. Between the late 17th century and 1807, nearly one-third of all enslaved Africans trafficked by Britain were shipped from this area. Long before the Residency’s construction, the Efik people had developed distinctive architectural traditions, crafting homes and palaces from wood, bamboo, and thatch. Duke Town, one of the earliest Efik settlements, was already a thriving hub of political, cultural, and commercial life when Europeans arrived.
Today, the Old Residency houses the National Museum, Calabar, safeguarding artefacts and stories that speak to both the elegance of its architecture and the complex, often painful legacy of colonial rule.
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