English: A view of
St. George's, Bermuda from the
Norwegian Majesty cruise ship leaving the island showing a residential suburb near the old
St. George's Garrison, with
"Town Cut Battery" or
"Gate's Fort" in the left foreground (with
Cut Road behind it, at left, becoming
Barry Road to the right), on the northern side of the
Town Cut shipping channel (out of frame to the left), and
St. George's Town (including
Ordnance Island) and
harbour in the left background.
The Town Cut had been a minor channel, suitable only for small vessels to enter or exit the harbour, until dredged before the First World War. Before then, larger vessels had used the St. George's Channel between Paget Island and Governor's Island, which was watched over by Fort Paget (on Paget Island) and Smith's Fort (on Governor's Island). In the 19th Century, Fort Cunningham was erected on Paget Island, making all three of the earlier batteries redundant. Alexandra Battery (at Building Bay on St. George's Island, immediately to the north of Cut Battery), visible in this photograph, and St. David's Battery on St. David's Island were later added to further cover the entrances to the St. George's Channel, Town Cut, and also The Narrows or Hurd's Channel, which leads around St. Catherine's Point to give access to the northern lagoon, and other harbours. Three other forts armed with coastal artillery batteries are also visible in this photograph, to the North-West of Building Bay: Fort St. Catherine's at St. Catherine's Point, and Fort Victoria and Fort Albert on Retreat Hill, to its rear. The large building shown on Retreat Hill seaward of Fort Victoria was a hotel operated from the 1970s to the 1980s successively by Holiday Inn, Loews, and Club Med. After sitting empty for many years, it was levelled in 2008.
St. George's Town and the various forts and related military installations at the East End of Bermuda are together a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) World Heritage Site, the Historic Town of St George and Related Fortifications, Bermuda.[1][2]
On
"Rose Hill", the high ground between
"Mount Hill" (on the left edge of the photograph, with the crest, occupied by
Fort George, just out of frame) and
"Secretary's Hill" (the second hilltop from the left edge), the St. George's Club time-sharing cottage complex is visible. This replaced the
St. George Hotel, which had been destroyed by fire in January, 1980. Before the 1906 completion of the hotel, the site had been occupied by the house and grounds of an estate named
"Rose Hill", which had served as
Admiralty House, Bermuda from 1795 to 1806. Secretary's Hill is also known as
"Cemetery Hill" since it became the location of the Parish Cemetery created in the 19th Century when no burial lots remained in the churchyard of
St. Peter's Church. The building atop of the third hill, to the east of the cemetery, was historically the parish Poorhouse. Below the lowpoint between the second and third hilltops (in front of and between two pink apartment houses) is
"Alnwick" (3, Floral Land, St. George's Parish), which was the home of Rear Admiral
Charles John Austen,
Royal Navy, the bother of author
Jane Austen, from 1804 to 1811.