A City Consumed by Reynolds Nancy;

Author:Reynolds, Nancy;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 2012-04-10T04:00:00+00:00

Map 2. Downtown Cairo, 1952

The sense of combined moral, political, and economic violation caused by the continued British presence in Egypt pushed the crowd down the street from Casino Opera to the cinemas along Fuʾad and Sulayman Pasha Streets. The Rivoli, Metro, Radio, Miami, and Diana Cinemas, screening what the Muslim Brothers considered the “dirty” films of “naked” women imported from the West,14 were the next string of fires set. At one of the burned cinemas (Cinema Opera), the marquee headlined its showing of the American science-fiction film When Worlds Collide, an image picked up by local photographers to capture the cultural and political nature of the conflict.15 All told, the fires that day in the commercial downtown and out on Pyramids Road in Giza would consume ninety-two bars, seventy-three restaurants and dance halls, sixteen clubs, and forty cinemas.16 One British official noted, “The gangs attacked most places in the centre of the City where alcoholic drinks and luxury goods were sold, where ‘high living’ amenities were provided, and where ‘Western’ entertainment was available, irrespective in all these instances of the nationalities of the owners.”17 At one establishment, when the owner called out to demonstrators to halt their assault because he was Egyptian, the crowd retorted that the shop sold wine.18

The crowd did attack official British institutions and establishments that more overtly housed the political and economic power of the British in Egypt. Barclay’s Bank and the Turf Club, an all-British, exclusive men’s club where the British ambassador served as president, witnessed some of the most tenacious and severe attacks on their premises and employees or members. The rioters also set fire to Thomas Cook’s travel agency; the offices of Shell Oil and the British Overseas Airways Corporation; the British Council and British Institute; British automobile showrooms for Standard, Jaguar, Studebaker, and Ford cars; and the Shell service station.19 Also hit was Shepheard’s Hotel, one of the most prominent sites of European presence and tourism in the country. Shepheard’s was destroyed quickly, its big glass-domed ceiling crashing in after only about twenty minutes and its wide terrace and men’s Long Bar consumed by flames. Italian opera stars and the king’s own mistress were reportedly hotel guests at the time. Clubs associated with the king and the local elites also came under attack, including the Automobile Club, the St. James’s Club, and the Cecil Bar, as well as American companies, including the offices of TWA and the Chrysler showroom, and the French Chamber of Commerce, the Michelin Agency, the Peugeot dealer, and several other French businesses.20 All around the area, thick, black smoke rose from the fire, its blackness intensified by the sacks of sugar and flour from the nearby tearooms (such as Groppi) dumped into the streets and set alight. Even a week later, according to one witness, “in the streets burned automobiles, and piles of charred rubbish and twisted iron still blocked the traffic. The heat of the fires had even lifted and cracked the pavement in certain places.”21

Although

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