a bit of history about wrightston road

​Wrightson Road, in Port-of-Spain, is named after English engineer Walsh Wrightson, a racist who held that non-whites ought not to vote or govern the country.
Wrightson, Director of Public Works and member of the Legislative and Executive Councils from 1895 to 1907, was responsible for the construction of what became known as Wrightson Road, a 1.6 km roadway cut­ting along the shoreline on the western edge of downtown Port-of-Spain to the lighthouse.
In 1900, he built the road from the Charles Street junction to gain access to town’s sewerage pumping station sited at Mucurapo Point on the Maraval River. It followed a path along the seashore on the Woodbrook Estate.
The roadway, extended in the 1930s by India-born engineer Ranjit Kumar, was named for Wrightson.
Wrightson was also responsible for several landmark projects on the island.
He supervised the construction of a sewer system for Port-of-Spain in 1897. He designed Knolleys Tunnel which was built in 1898 to enable the railway line from Jernigham junction, Cunupia to Tabaquite to go through a hill in the central range. He built the Moruga Suspension Bridge in 1899. And he designed, through architect Daniel Hahn, the best building in the city at the time, Queen’s Royal College, which was built in 1904.
Wrightson, however, was a central figure in the Water Riot of 1903, having drafted a waterworks bill that sought to install water meters in homes and increase water rates.
The bill was hotly opposed, and it sparked off unrest. The episode had political implications because the agitation against the waterworks bill was said to arise from bitterness caused by the abolition, in 1899, of the borough council of Port-of-Spain.
The eruption, precipitated by a volatile combination of disenfranchised masses and an oppressive colonial government, led to the Red House being set on fire by angry burgesses. More than a dozen people were killed by police.
Over the years, there have been calls for the renaming of Wrightson Road to Ranjit Kumar Highway.
Dr. Brinsley Samaroo, professor emeritus of history at the St. Augustine campus of The University of the West Indies (The UWI), supported the call. In an article published in the Daily Express on 12 June 2020, Samaroo described Wrightson as “one of the worst imperialists. Absolutely racist”.
Samaroo said, “He (Wrightson) sparked the Water Riots in 1903 since he took the decision to meter water, and he imposed water rates on poor people.
“He was adamant non-white people didn’t have the right to govern themselves. He strongly believed Crown Colony government must be perpetuated. It’s in the Hansard. If you are not white, you don­’t have the gift to govern yourself.
“He was totally against the movement for the franchise (right to vote). Wrightson Road should be renamed after the director of works, engineer Ranjit Kumar. Kumar designed it and built it in the 1930s.” Source: Dominic Kalipersad, June 12, 2021