The view from the jagged, smashed window reveals azure waves crashing to shore, an odd contradiction to the decay of the building.

The same salty breeze which penetrated the crusty sandstone pillars refreshes the abandoned wards against the filth of faeces, foul fast-food cartons and faded hospital records.

Water drips from the first floor, forming large puddles in the muddy corridors strewn with smashed ceramic basins and toilets, and giant webs of tangled wiring. A child's wheelchair lies rusting on the ground floor.

Upstairs, near the lift which has been stuck on the first floor for years, a few steps from the outdated surgery, lies a colourful doll, an old crutch and a child's walker.

Abandoned mops and drips and overturned rubbish bins lie in the old admissions office. The only signs of life are the cardboard beds of the homeless and shrubs growing through cracks in the brickwork.

This is the sad state of one of Durban's most fascinating heritage sites, the old Addington Children's Hospital at Durban's South Beach, an asset abandoned to crumble before the elements since it closed its doors in 1985.

But now the Department of Health has in principle approved the R120 million refurbishment of the 79-year-old hospital and adjacent nurses' home, which also houses a quaint medical museum, also long discarded.

The hospital was built in the late 1920s and commissioned in 1931.

Michael Hogg, programme manager for the department's hospital revitalisation programme, is upbeat about the proposed revamp, saying it will take about five years to completely restore it to its former architectural and medical glory, though the latter will be tweaked to meet the modern-day demand for health services.

Restore

MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo and heads of several provincial departments met last September and took the decision to restore the hospital.

Since then, they have been in discussion with a team of heritage architects and funding agencies to find a way to finance the restoration.

Hogg...