Freetown cabins recall birth of colony - in pictures

Painted weatherboarding covers the facade of a board house on King Street. The traditional dwellings are known as 'bode ose' in the Krio creole Photograph: Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters

A dog takes a rest on the steps of a door into the compound in Murray Town Photograph: Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters

Walls repaired with various materials including corrugated iron at a house in Murray Town Photograph: Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters

Groceries neatly displayed for sale at a kiosk in Congo Town Photograph: Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters

Entrance to a former British colonial administration building in the Hill Station Photograph: Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters

Traditionally bright colours and makeshift premises in Congo Town tempt bypassers to an electronic world within Photograph: Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters

A traditional colonial-style board house in Murray Town Photograph: Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters

About 100 years old, this colonial-style Congo Town board house has a provisions shop Photograph: Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters

Resident Jacob Thomas, outside 7 Grey Lane, Congo Town. The cabin was built in 1902, and is the oldest colonial-style board house in Congo Town. Thomas said it was built by his great-grandmother's family after she returned from Britain. She was taken as a slave from her home in Brazzaville, Congo Photograph: Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters

A man listens to the radio in a narrow walkway in Congo Town Photograph: Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters

Board houses like this one on Pademba Road, dating back about a century, are thought to replicate the style of American east coast architecture of about 1776 Photograph: Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters

Women sit in their porch in a courtyard in Congo Town Photograph: Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters

A Murray Town resident at side of a house that has a base layer of porous stone to help anchor the house during Sierra Leone's torrential wet season Photograph: Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters

This two-storey board house is in Murray Town. The architecture recalls the West Indies as well as 18th America Photograph: Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters

Wooden stilts raise a former British colonial administration building in Hill Station. About 100 years ago the British authorities relocated their settlement from the stifling coastal flats to higher, cooler, ground Photograph: Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters

Latice-work protects the stairway of a former British colonial administration building in the Hill Station neighbourhood Photograph: Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters

The main road in Congo Town is signposted on a board house that seems to have been extended over the years Photograph: Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters