The Lagos That Existed Before the Skyscrapers

Today, Lagos is a city of towers.

From Victoria Island to Ikoyi, Lekki and beyond, glass-fronted offices, luxury apartments and high-rise hotels compete for space against an increasingly crowded skyline. The city is associated with traffic, technology, finance, entertainment, nightlife and an endless appetite for expansion.

But there was a Lagos before the skyscrapers.

Before towers rose above Victoria Island, before Lekki became one of Nigeria's most sought-after addresses, before Third Mainland Bridge connected vast stretches of the metropolis, Lagos was a much smaller world shaped by water, fishing, trade, traditional authority and closely knit communities.

To understand modern Lagos, it helps to look back at the city that existed before concrete and steel transformed its skyline.

Before Lagos Was Lagos, There Was Eko

The story begins around the waterways.

The area now known as Lagos developed from settlements associated with the Awori, a Yoruba subgroup whose communities were connected to the lagoon, creeks and surrounding mainland. Oral traditions link early settlement to figures such as Olofin and to communities around Iddo and Lagos Island.

Lagos Island was not originally a modern urban centre. It was a place where fishing, farming, canoe transportation and local exchange were central to everyday life.

The island was known as Eko, a name still widely used for Lagos today. In the sixteenth century, the area came under the influence of the Kingdom of Benin and developed as a military settlement or war camp.

The name Lagos came later through Portuguese contact. Portuguese explorers encountered the coastal settlement in the fifteenth century, and the name Lagos—associated with lakes or lagoons—eventually became the name by which the city was internationally known.

So, long before Lagos became a megacity, its greatest infrastructure was not concrete.

It was water.

A City Built Around the Lagoon

Modern Lagos can sometimes make it easy to forget just how important its waterways were to the city's earliest development.

The lagoon was a highway.

Canoes connected communities. Fishermen moved through creeks. Traders used waterways to transport goods. The geography of the area influenced where people settled, how they travelled and how commerce developed.

In the early nineteenth century, Lagos Island itself was remarkably small compared with the sprawling metropolis that surrounds it today. Historical research describes the town in the early 1850s as occupying no more than about one-third of the five-square-kilometre island, with mangroves, swamps, creeks and undeveloped areas surrounding the built-up sections.

Imagine that for a moment.

The Lagos Island that today feels almost completely consumed by buildings once contained large areas of wetlands and vegetation.

There were no towering office blocks dominating the horizon. No gridlocked commercial corridors filled with thousands of vehicles. No skyline stretching towards Ikoyi.

There was simply a compact coastal town growing around the water.

The Old Lagos Was a City of Quarters

Lagos did not develop as one uniform neighbourhood.

It grew through different communities and quarters, each reflecting the people, occupations, histories and migrations that shaped the city.

Isale Eko was one of the oldest and most important areas. It was associated with the traditional political heart of Lagos, including the Oba's palace and major markets.

Other communities developed around it as Lagos attracted traders, artisans, migrants, returnees and Europeans.

By the nineteenth century, Lagos had become remarkably diverse.

People from different parts of West Africa lived alongside European merchants and African returnees from places such as Brazil and Sierra Leone. The city's social and architectural character was consequently shaped by several cultures rather than one tradition alone.

That multicultural character remains one of Lagos' defining features today.

The Legacy of the Agudas

One of the most visible reminders of old Lagos is the Brazilian influence on Lagos Island.

African returnees from Brazil—often referred to as Agudas—began arriving in significant numbers in the nineteenth century. Many had acquired skills in construction, masonry and other trades during their years in Brazil and brought those skills back to West Africa.

They helped shape areas such as the Brazilian Quarter, also known as Popo Aguda.

Their influence can still be seen in the distinctive architecture associated with old Lagos: elaborate façades, arches, verandahs, decorative details and multi-storey buildings.

These structures tell a story that goes beyond architecture.

They represent people who crossed the Atlantic under devastating circumstances and, after emancipation or return, came back to West Africa carrying new skills, cultural influences and memories of another world.

In Lagos, those influences became part of the city's identity.

Before the High-Rise, There Was the Courtyard House

The architecture of old Lagos looked very different from the glass towers that dominate the city today.

Traditional Lagos homes were designed around the realities of the tropical environment and local social life. Courtyards provided communal space, while verandahs, overhanging roofs and ventilation openings helped houses respond to the heat.

Later, Brazilian and colonial architectural influences introduced new forms and materials.

The result was a city where indigenous building traditions existed beside Brazilian-style houses, colonial buildings, churches, commercial premises and government structures.

Some of these buildings remain scattered across Lagos Island.

They are easy to overlook when rushing through the city.

But they are architectural records of a Lagos that existed long before the skyline became its most recognisable feature.

When Lagos Became a Colonial Capital

The nineteenth century brought dramatic political and economic changes.

British intervention in Lagos intensified after the 1851 bombardment and the removal of Oba Kosoko. In 1861, Lagos was formally annexed by Britain and subsequently developed as a colonial centre.

This changed the physical appearance of the city.

The colonial government developed administrative institutions, roads, public buildings and commercial infrastructure. The waterfront became increasingly important, while areas around the Marina and Broad Street developed into major commercial and administrative corridors.

But colonial Lagos was not simply a collection of European buildings.

It was a contested and constantly changing city where indigenous Lagosians, African returnees, merchants, workers, colonial officials and migrants interacted—and sometimes struggled over land, space and political power.

The modern Lagos business district has roots in this period.

Broad Street Before the Banks and Office Towers

Today, Broad Street is synonymous with business.

But its importance began long before modern banking halls and corporate headquarters.

The development of the Marina and Broad Street area turned the southern edge of Lagos Island into an increasingly important commercial zone during the colonial period. European merchants, shipping interests, government offices and African businesses contributed to its growth.

The city was gradually becoming more connected to the outside world.

Railways, ports and improved transportation strengthened Lagos' position as a commercial centre. The railway reached Lagos in the nineteenth century, while harbour development in the early twentieth century further reinforced the city's economic importance.

The transformation was already underway.

The skyscrapers simply came much later.

Lagos Had a Skyline—Just Not the One We Know

It is tempting to imagine old Lagos as a sleepy fishing village with little urban sophistication.

That would be misleading.

By the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Lagos was already an important political, commercial and cultural centre.

It had markets, religious institutions, newspapers, schools, businesses, government offices, transport networks and a growing professional class.

By 1914, Lagos had undergone substantial physical changes. The Marina had been developed, parts of the city had been reclaimed, a steam tramway was operating, and infrastructure around the harbour had expanded.

In other words, Lagos was already a city long before it became a megacity.

Its transformation was gradual.

One road became another.

A market became a commercial district.

A lagoon crossing became a bridge.

A neighbourhood expanded into another.

And eventually, low-rise buildings began giving way to taller structures.

Then the Skyline Began to Rise

The skyscraper era did not suddenly create Lagos.

It was another chapter in a much longer story.

Modern high-rise construction in Lagos began emerging in the twentieth century, with skyscraper development taking off from the 1960s.

As Nigeria's economy expanded, Lagos' population increased and the city became increasingly important as the country's commercial centre, demand for office space, housing, hotels and other large-scale developments grew.

The physical city changed accordingly.

The old horizontal Lagos began developing a vertical dimension.

Buildings climbed higher.

Roads became busier.

Neighbourhoods expanded.

The mainland became increasingly integrated with Lagos Island and other parts of the metropolis.

Eventually, the Lagos skyline became a symbol of the city's economic ambition.

But beneath that skyline is another city.

The Lagos Beneath the Concrete

Walk through parts of Lagos Island today and it is possible to see several centuries of history compressed into a few streets.

A traditional community can sit beside a colonial-era building.

A Brazilian-style house can stand close to a modern commercial property.

An old market can exist within walking distance of contemporary offices.

A street can carry a name whose significance predates the buildings now surrounding it.

This is what makes Lagos different from a city that was planned and built at once.

Lagos accumulated.

It absorbed.

It adapted.

It replaced some things while preserving others.

The modern city was built over earlier versions of itself.

The Old Lagos Is Still Here

The Lagos before skyscrapers has not completely disappeared.

It survives in the architecture of Lagos Island.

It survives in traditional institutions.

It survives in family histories and neighbourhood names.

It survives in the food, language, festivals, markets and cultural practices passed from one generation to another.

It survives in places such as Isale Eko and Popo Aguda, where the physical environment still offers glimpses into different periods of the city's development.

And perhaps most importantly, it survives in the relationship between Lagos and water.

Even as concrete continues to spread, the lagoon, creeks and coastline remain fundamental to the city's geography.

Lagos may have become a city of skyscrapers, but it was born as a city of waterways.

A City That Refused to Stay Small

The most remarkable thing about old Lagos is not simply that it looked different.

It is that the small coastal settlement of earlier centuries became one of Africa's most influential cities.

Its journey passed through fishing settlements, traditional political structures, regional and international trade, the traumatic history of the slave trade, British colonialism, commercial expansion, independence and decades of urban growth.

Every era left something behind.

That is why Lagos should not be understood only through its newest buildings.

The skyscrapers tell us what Lagos is becoming.

The old streets tell us what it has survived.

The markets tell us what it values.

The historic buildings tell us what previous generations built.

And the lagoon reminds us where the story began.

Before Lagos became a city of towers, it was a city of canoes, courtyards, markets, fishermen, traders, chiefs, artisans and waterways.

The skyline may be new.

The city beneath it is centuries old.