The trees have been uprooted and lie piled up, ready to be carted away, while the jogging track has become a narrow obstacle course of large machinery and construction vehicles.
Some grassy areas, a playground and the long-defunct Ferris wheel have been spared. But about two-thirds is barren land, topped with large concrete pipes, mountains of boulders and dotted with a web of traffic cones.
Yes, with the construction of Dubai Canal now well under way, much of Safa Park is unrecognisable. “Welcome to Jumeirah” reads one signpost; another warns: “Danger: deep excavation” – marking a cavernous hole.
But Safa Park was not always a place to relax or exercise. Len Chapman, who runs the website Dubaiasitusedtobe.com, says the site, in the 1960s and early 1970s, was originally a “plywood city” – a makeshift camp made of scrap materials, inhabited by immigrants mainly from Asia. “There was no formal structure to this shanty town. It had just grown as more people arrived and found a place and materials to build their shelter,” Chapman says.
The workers, he explains, built homes from whatever they could find. “For example, Port Rashid generated a lot of waste timber, which was dumped outside the port’s gate each evening. These illegal immigrants collected this timber, presumably to build shelters. They will have also collected waste materials from the building sites that were starting to appear in the early days.”
Chapman says it had no fresh water, electricity or sewerage – and most shelters were lit by oil lamps. There were some shops.
Programmes to help these workers were organised by the Save the Children Fund, supported by the ladies of the Holy Trinity Church in Dubai.
“These ladies were volunteers, who followed a routine of bringing food to the camp on specific days at specific times.” In 1973, he says the camp was cleared and replaced by Safa Park two years later.
By the 1990s, it boasted a video game arcade, trampolines, a Ferris wheel, a maze, bumper cars, an artificial lake with boats for hire, sports courts, more than 20 barbecue sites and a waterfall feature. Once a safe haven at the outer reaches of the city, it soon became a much-needed green space as the skyscrapers crept up to its perimeter and loomed over it.
Safa Park was also home to more than 16,000 types of trees and bushes and it was not uncommon to spot lizards basking in the sun. Every Ramadan, the park continues to host cannons, set off by police at maghrib prayer to indicate the breaking of the fast.
Gail Gordon, a mother-of-two, says the park was a “great place for strolling around” – recalling how upsetting it was when it was badly damaged by a storm in the 1990s. “It is vital to have parks for people to enjoy and relax in – especially since so many people here live in very small spaces.”
The Dh1.76 billion Dubai Canal project is perhaps one of the emirate’s most ambitious since the Burj Khalifa. While there are few places more symbolic of the city’s constant reimagining than Safa Park, residents will hope it remains a green space once the canal project is complete.
Hareth Al Bustani is a features writer at The National.
