Divisoria / Tutuban

 

Divisoria, and the Tutuban Mall, is another of those locations that don't rate high on the tourism lists, but carry a great appeal for me.

For women, the area is a shopping mecca, tonnes of cheap clothes, kitchenware, produce, electrical goods, toys and just about anything else you can imagine, probably a few things you can't.

All the photos appearing in this blog entry were taken in the area of the above map.
The green square marks Tutuban Mall, the original Tutuban railway station.

Divisoria, a Spanish term meaning divide or division, is the busy commercial centre between Tondo and Binondo.

A lot more historical information can be found here on Wikipedia. How much of it is correct.......well...

Love this shot of the old Jeepney. Gives a feeling of the image being taken earlier than it actually was.

So much happy.

I really have no idea what a lot of the items being sold actually were.
But for most things, the competition was quite fierce, with many seemingly waiting ages before a customer came along.

Tutuban Mall (former railway station).
We are lucky that, despite the heritage vandalism that went on converting the location to a mall, the magnificent front entrance has been retained.
It is a fine example of early railway architecture, and well worth a visit just to have a bit of a look.
 Security guards here can have a wide variety of attitudes. For most visits, they have just gone about their duties. Though on one occasion, one tried to stop me photographing from the public road outside, well outside his mall jurisdiction. 

Below: another look at the fine brickwork of the original Tutuban railway station. There is often talk of the mall being redeveloped into a railway hub, something we can only pray will happen.

People walking around the mall would likely notice all the dark green Iron Corinthian poles that abound.
More than just a nice decoration, these were all used on the platforms of the original station, further adding to the heritage value of the location.

These walls were built to last forever.

Below are some of the huge amount of vendors to be found in the Tutuban Mall.
The bottom shot being two I regularly went in to Tutuban to see. Alas, they had gone by the time of my more recent trips :-( 

Actual photographer of above photo was David Xuereb.

----------------------------------------------------------

Other Recent Articles:

Sabangan Beach Resort - Laiya

Visit to Tanduay - Cabuyao

Sta Cruz - Manila

Quezon Memorial Circle

Payatas A - Quezon City
Where Cabbies Fear To Tread Apparently.