Old British Consulate

The Old British Consulate in Shangani is a heavy, multi-story building of coral rag and lime that stares directly out over the Indian Ocean. Its thick stone walls were built to withstand the humid coastal air and house the diplomatic center of the British Empire in East Africa. In eighteen seventy-three, John Kirk lived and worked here as the consul. He famously pushed the Sultan of Zanzibar to close the open slave market, keeping a telescope on the roof to monitor the harbor for slave ships.