Time Frame: Old neighbourhood renewed

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Back in 1978, with dredging for the new port at Jebel Ali under way, a Dutch photographer and her husband moved into a compound of newly constructed villas.

Jebel Ali Village was home to 200 families, mostly British and Dutch, involved in the building of the port.

Anita Van Der Krol, whose captivating images of Dubai in those days can be seen at www.anitavanderkrol.com, recalls that the city was 30 kilometres away. "If we wanted to go to the shops we drove to Dubai," she recalls. "There was  nothing."

Jebel Ali Village now lies in the shadow of Ibn Battuta Mall, with a  Géant supermarket almost within walking distance. But now no one lives there. The compound was scheduled for demolition in 2008 and left abandoned when the financial crisis later that year put  development plans on hold.

Now it seems families will be going back to the village. The villas are to be refurbished by Nakheel rather than demolished. Around 400 people, some former residents, are ready to return and a part of Dubai’s past suddenly becomes its future.

* James Langton