Dickson House
Standing opposite Seif Palace, Dickson House, home of the first British political envoy, stands as a symbol of the strong political ties between Kuwait and Britain. Built in the early 1900s, the house was used as the headquarters of successive British political envoys appointed to Kuwait, beginning with Colonel Knox in 1904, with the last and arguably the best known resident being Colonel Harold Dickson who left it in 1935 to work in the new headquarters at the British Embassy. After retiring, Colonel Dickson and his wife Lady Violet went back to live in the house. The colonel passed away in 1959 and his wife, known to Kuwaitis as Umm Saud, remained living there until the 1990 invasion of Kuwait when she was evacuated to Britain, where she died shortly afterwards. Dickson House is now the property of the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters, which has transformed it into a cultural center. The house was originally owned by a Kuwaiti merchant, a simple house comprising two floors overlooking the sea, with walls made of mud as was the case with all houses constructed here at the time. One of the most attractive features of the house was the elevated porch, which created relative coolness in rooms and reduced the summer heat. The second floor comprises ten rooms, and the house has three gates. The house was traditional in design and was later renovated by the British to take on a more colonial appearance. The largest amount of reconstruction work occurred in 1959 when the west wing collapsed, and this was an opportunity to expand several rooms in that area.
Location: Opposite the dhow harbor in Sharq & East of Seif Palace on the Gulf Road
*Taken from Kuwait Times/KUNA
Location: Opposite the dhow harbor in Sharq & East of Seif Palace on the Gulf Road
*Taken from Kuwait Times/KUNA
Kuwait Towers
The Kuwait Towers are three towers of reinforced concrete in Kuwait City. The main tower is 187 metres high and serves as a restaurant & water tower. It also has a Viewing Sphere which rises to 123 meters above sea level and completes a full turn every 30 minutes. The second tower is 145.8 metres high and serves as a water tower. The third tower houses equipment to control the flow of electricity and illuminates the two larger towers. The towers hold 4,500 cubic meters of water. The towers were designed by Sune Lindström and Malene Björn and were built by Energoprojekt, a company from Belgrade, Yugoslavia. They opened to the public in March of 1979. The towers were heavily damaged by the Iraqis during their occupation of Kuwait from 1990 to 1991. In 1991, after the liberation of Kuwait City during the First Gulf War, Vic Clarke of Nottingham UK abseiled the Kuwait Water Towers during structural surveys. Mr. Clarke was introduced into Kuwait by Mr. Michael Stewart, of the Stewart Group International, also from Nottingham UK. There was substantial shell and bullet damage to the towers' exteriors. The interior damage was mainly to electrical gear, mostly lift equipment. Some of the large triangular glazed panels shown in the photograph were also damaged by shell fire.
KuwaitTowers.com
KuwaitTowers.com
The Liberation Tower
The Liberation Tower is the second tallest structure in Kuwait. Construction of the tower commenced before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990. It was meant to be called The Kuwait Telecommunications Tower. When the invasion took place, construction, which was almost half-way complete, was put on hold. However, the structure received no damage, and construction resumed after Saddam Hussein's forces were expelled on February 27, 1991. Upon completion in 1993, the tower was renamed the Liberation Tower, symbolizing Kuwait's liberation from Iraq. The tower contains a revolving restaurant and observation platform (in the first disc-shaped pod; now closed to the public for security reasons), and also houses radio and other telecommunications offices. The structure stands at 372 meters high (1,220 ft) at its pinnacle. The roof of the second pod on the tower is 308 meters high (1,010 ft). It is similar to the CN Tower since both contain a revolving restaurant, observation platform, telecommunications equipment and similar architecture.