Port of Spain

The first settlement here was near the Amerindian fishing village of Cumucurapo, "place of the silk cotton trees", in today's Mucurapo, west of the centre. The Spanish posted a garrison at the foot of the Laventille Hills in 1560, and their mud-walled fort was captured by Walter Raleigh's expedition in 1595. The port grew slowly, and only in 1757, when the old capital of San José de Oruña, now St. Joseph, had fallen into disrepair, did the governor move his seat here, making Port of Spain the capital.

The last Spanish governor, José María Chacón, shaped the town. After the Cedula of Population of 1783 encouraged French Catholic settlers to come, eleven streets were laid out westwards from the hills, creating the grid that still survives downtown, and in 1787 he diverted the flood-prone St. Ann's River to run east of the town. In 1797 a British force under Sir Ralph Abercromby landed at what is still called Invaders Bay, and Chacón capitulated. A fire destroyed the town in 1808, after which public buildings were built of brick, and repeated reclamation of the mudflats pushed the shore southwards through the 19th century.

Port of Spain became a city in 1914 and peaked at about 100,000 people in the 1960s. From 1958 to 1962 it was the temporary capital of the West Indies Federation. In July 1990 an armed group seized the Red House and held the prime minister and members of the government hostage for six days, while rioting and looting shook the city. Since then natural gas wealth has helped pay for the International Waterfront development on former port land, even as the population within the city limits has fallen.

Port of Spain is the centre of one of the largest Carnivals in the world. Weeks of fetes and band launches lead up to the street parades on the Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, when costumed mas bands cross the stage at the Savannah, where the Calypso Monarch, the King and Queen of Carnival competitions and the Panorama steelband finals are also held. Calypso, developed by Afro-Trinidadians, has been joined by soca as the music of Carnival, and the mas designer Peter Minshall, one of the city's best-known artists, also helped design Olympic opening ceremonies.

The steelpan developed in Trinidad in the 1930s and 1940s out of earlier Carnival percussion such as tamboo bamboo, and the hills of Laventille on the city's eastern edge are counted as its birthplace. It was declared the national instrument in 1992, and in 2023 the United Nations named 11 August World Steelpan Day. In the weeks before Carnival steel bands rehearse nightly in their pan yards, where anyone can listen.

The city's mix shows in its streets: French-influenced gingerbread houses and wrought-iron balconies beside high-rise towers, Gothic cathedrals, mosques and Hindu temples, a historically Indian St. James and a Syrian-Lebanese community that first settled around Marine Square. Cricket is followed closely at the Queen's Park Oval, and the city claims Brian Lara and the Nobel laureate Derek Walcott. Woodford Square, nicknamed the "University of Woodford Square", is where Eric Williams lectured crowds on independence.

The municipality is small — about 50,000 people by a 2017 estimate — because its boundaries take in little more than the business district and a few neighbouring areas, and its resident population has fallen as offices have replaced homes. Around 250,000 people come into the city each day, and the wider conurbation stretching from Chaguaramas east to Arima has an estimated 600,000. Rush-hour commutes along the East–West Corridor can take two to three hours.

The city is the country's shopping, administrative and financial centre. Most government ministries are here, along with the stock exchange, two of the largest banks in the Caribbean and the head offices of many oil and gas companies, although the refineries and petrochemical plants are further south. The port is the island's largest container port and the terminal for the ferry to Tobago, and a large central market trades produce from the surrounding countryside.

Housing ranges from waterfront apartments and the mansions of St. Clair and Lady Chancellor Road to board houses without indoor plumbing. East Port of Spain, including Laventille, Beetham and Sea Lots, faces poverty and gang violence, and redevelopment schemes have cleared old warehouses and poor housing at the eastern entrance to the city. Evenings revolve around liming, the bars of Ariapita Avenue and Western Main Road, and, for much of the year, the long build-up to Carnival.

Doubles are the city's street breakfast: two soft fried flatbreads, bara, around curried chickpeas, channa, finished with tamarind, mango and pepper sauces, sold from stalls on Independence Square and across the city. Roti is the everyday meal, either as "buss up shut", torn paratha, or as a dhalpuri wrap around curried chicken, chickpeas, potatoes or vegetables. Mango and pineapple chow and West Indian-style curries are other everyday tastes.

Creole home cooking brings callaloo, made with dasheen leaves, okra and coconut; stewed chicken; pelau, rice cooked with pigeon peas and meat browned in caramelised sugar; and macaroni pie. Chinese-Trinidadian and Syrian-Lebanese cooking are part of the city's food too, and the restaurants of Ariapita Avenue serve everything from Creole and Indian to Thai, Japanese and Venezuelan dishes. Bake and shark — fried shark in fried bread with condiments — is the classic beach food at Maracas Bay on the north coast.

Drinks are sweet and local. Mauby is a bittersweet drink made from tree bark, sorrel a deep red drink from the roselle plant, and peanut punch a blend of peanut butter, milk and sugar; coconut water is a local favourite. Carib and Stag are the local lagers, and rum shops are found all over the island.