Western Provincial, an album of paintings & drawings of the Western Cape,

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WESTERN PROVINCIAL |

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-AN ALBUM OF PAINTINGS AND DRAWINGS OF THE WESTERN CAPE

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DESIREE PICTON-SEYMOUR TEXT BY R. 1. B, WEBSTER

WITH 36 PLATES ;

MASKEW MILLER LIMITED. CAPE TOWN

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of the Western Cape

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An Album of Paintings & Drawings

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DEDICATED BY THE AUTHORS TO THEIR RESPECTIVE

__ RESPECTED MOTHERS

First Published 1952

CONTENTS Line and Wash Drawings in Colour The Lutheran Church and Martin Melck House, Strand Street, Cape Town The Manor House, Groot Constantia The First Courtyard, the Castle, Cape Town Houses in Bree Street, Cape Town Q Strand Street, Cape Town Interior, Koopmans de Wet House, Cape Town

Scraperboard Drawings

EXTERIORS

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The Wine Cellar, Groot Constantia

The Old Town House, Greenmarket Square, Cape Town

Caledon Square Post Office, Buitenkant Street, Cape Town Culver House, Upper Buitenkant Street, Cape Town The African Theatre, Riebeeck Square, Cape Town The Little Theatre, Government Avenue, Cape Town

The Pigeonry, Koornhoop, Mowbray The Old Supreme Court, Adderley Street, Cape Town Malay Quarter, Cape Town The Powder Magazine (Die Kruithuis), Stellenbosch _ Theological Seminary (Kweekskool), Stellenbosch _ Dorp Street, Stellenbosch The Drostdy, Worcester Warehouse in Bree Street, Cape Town Long Street, Cape Town Building in Corporation Street, Cape Town The Waterford Arms, Loop Street, Cape Town INTERIORS

The Organ Loft, Lutheran Church, Strand Street, Cape Town City Hall, Cape Town

Cape Town Station

ETAILS

Steeples Fanlights Gables ~ Mosques Stoeps LampStandards Urns Chimney-pieces Furniture Silver, China and Glass

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DeWREE

INTRODUCTION When Miss Picton-Seymour asked me to write the text to accompany her drawings and paintings of buildings in the Western Cape, I accepted with what the Provincial Lady’s children called “‘alacricity”. I felt that I knew enough about her approach to her work to write text that would “match”. Although I have frequently rued the day that I accepted the commission, T hope that the results are not unworthyof their place in this book. The Western Province of the Cape has many treasures in the way of buildings—somewildly over-publicized, and others correspondingly neglected. The Cape Dutch style of architecture, with its muscular gables and heavy sash windows, has captured popular imagination here much as the “Tudorbethan” style has in England. The result is neglect of less pretentious architectural orders. Both Miss Seymour and I feel that Cape Georgian, Cape Regency, Cape Victorian and Cape Edwardian deserve some attention, and we hope our efforts to interest readers in such buildings will not be in vain. There is no particular method in the sequenceof this book. Regard it as an unplanned walk around Cape Town,with occasional jaunts to Stellenbosch, Worcester and other Western Province towns. In preparing this text, I have inevitably consulted many authorities. Since _ this is not meantto be a work ofscholarship I have notincluded a bibliography. But I would like to praise the patience and helpfulness of the staffs of the Archives, Cape Town, the South African Public Library, Cape Town, the - Johannesburg Public Library and Africana Library, and the Africana Room of Maskew Miller Limited and to thank them fortheir unstinted assistance to us. In the reasonably near future, Miss Seymour and I hope to present a urther similar volume on some buildings of the Transvaal, tentatively called “Transvaal Republican”. There is no reason why the Cape should take the rchitectural credit for the whole of South Africa. The design of the endpapers is adapted from the William Morris-y urtains in the boxes at the Cape Town City Hall.

The WineCellar behind the Manor House at Groot Constantia is perhaps the glory of the whole estate, and this in turn is due to the decorated pediment by Anton Anreith, which is one of the most felicitous pieces of decoration

hs in South Africa. ater than the original manorhouse, but somewhatl is elf The buildingits unlike thelatter it is in mint condition. The pedimentis dated 1791 andits composition consists of a series of elliptical forms suggesting the ends of wine vats. In the centre Ganymedesits astride an eagle, with cherubs on each side playing with plaster draperies and bunches of grapes. Anton Anreith was a sculptor from Breslau. He came to the Cape as a soldier in 1777, and whenhedied in 1822 heleft the Cape very much the richer for his stay. But none of his other works exceeds his pediment at Groot Constantia for sheer joie de vivre. Every angle of the sun gives it different emphasis, andits richness is just as telling to-day as it was when it was first designed. The two wings of the building are decorated with modest garlands and shuttered windows which complement, but in no way distract from, the piéce de résistance in the centre.

The Wine Cellar, Groot Constantia

Cape Town’s earliest building of purely peaceful intention is the Old Town House on Greenmarket Square. It was built in 1755, and was in continuous municipal use for a hundred andfifty years. It began as headquarters of the Burgher Watch, a self-imposed police force or civic guard, and had dungeons beneath. In 1840, when Cape Town acquired municipalstatus, it became the Town House and remained so until the City Hall opposite the Parade was finished in 1905. Later it was remodelled inside to house a collection of Dutch paintings, the gift of Sir Max and Lady Michaelis. The

building waspresented to the nation in 1915.

Asoriginally built, the Town House was the dominating feature of the

Square. Nowit is sadly overwhelmed. However,it retains its charm and, to a

surprising extent, its original appearance. Among the paintings within are an early Rembrandt, a Frans Hals and a Pieter Breughel. Behind the building is a charming small garden where once the Cape Town Fire Station stood. From the balcony upstairs you see a remarkable view of Longmarket Street starting up in the Malay Quarter on theleft and ending in District Six on the right. The Old Town House is a constant joy to see—holding its own solidly against the rising skyline aroundit.

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Caledon Square Post Office, Buitenkant Street, Cape Town

This spectacular piece is the organ loft in the Lutheran Church, Strand Street, and is more of the work of Anton Anreith. Where Cape Town would be to-day without Anreith and Thibault, one is hard put to imagine. The central figure is King David: The woodcarving is in stinkwood and yellow-wood and these, with the theatrical-looking grey, gold and black © paint-work on the pipes, give the whole structure a richness of colour thatis in keeping with the richness ofdesign. It is a pity that the beautiful interior of the Lutheran Church should be so difficult for the man in the street to see. Those interested in the historical and artistic aspects of the church will find it the devil’s own job (in more senses than one) to get in on a weekday. It involves disturbing the staff in the front room of Martin Melck House, the getting of keys and the attendance of someone qualified, presumably, to prevent you making off with souvenirs or even performing somesinister rite. Not that a church, because it happens to be exceptionally beautiful, should becomea sightseer’s mecca: but I defy anyone to look around in the Lutheran Church without being inspired by the beauty to be seen there.

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ape Town. It is easy to see why.

dates in the main from 1820, though parts ofit are ‘earlier

h carvings within. The original building, erectedat tl Melck in 1776, was in the outwardform of a storeroom. yney was spent on it, and more and more decorati

In 1818, however, the main fabric ‘became souns‘

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Left to right: The Sexton's House, the Lutheran Church, the Martin Melck House, Strand Street, Cape Town

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Though the churches of the Cape can claim no great architectural distinction, they are friendly landmarks of some charm. Londoners particularly may feel attracted to the classical front of the old part of the

Anglican Cathedral, very reminiscent of the church of St. Pancras.

This

section has been condemned and a new Herbert Baker building is coming along onits left. The Wren-ish steeple and the neo-Grecian portico will be missed at the top of St. George’s Street. Rural Dutch Reformed Churches are always interesting: the second spire comes from the one at Worcester, splendidly set in the centre of the town, a landmark for miles around like so many other D.R. Churches.

The third is certainly the oldest—it belongs to the Groote Kerk in Adderley Street. In the Flemish style, it contains a clock which arrived in 1727 and is topped by a magnificent iron weathervane. Thelast spire, in the Gothic manner, is from the Metropolitan Wesleyan Church in Greenmarket Square, for a long time a dominating feature of the city, but now, like the Old Town House, rather eclipsed by more worldly

buildings.

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The Mother City is proud of the good care she takes of her architectural heritage, and with some reason. But every now and then one comes across a blood-curdling case of neglect. The demolished Bree Street houses are an example. Another is the gradual disintegration of Culver House, formerly Uitkyk, in Upper Buitenkant Street. This elegant home, attributed to Thibault (when in doubt, attribute it to Thibault), has changed hands several times recently: each succeeding season has increased the cost and the difficulty of repair until now, in the opinion of “an estate agent who knows the property” quoted in a local newspaper, “it is doomed to destruction”. The temptation to write a homily on this disgraceful state of affairs is very strong, but must be resisted. Therefore let Capetonians remember, while they boast to the Transvaler, or the Natalian, or even the Free Stater, — of the cultural background that the Cape alone offers the South African, that several very important pieces of culture are rotting away unnoticed.

Culver House, Upper Buitenkant Street, Cape Town

The fanlight is to the old Cape town house what the gable is to the country house—a piece of uninhibited decoration in an otherwise conservative frontage. All these examples come from Cape Townexcept the upper central doorway, which is from Phillimore House (formerly Grosvenor House), Stellenbosch. There seemsto be an unlimited numberof possible designs for a fanlight. One seldom sees the same design repeated. And one seldom sees onethat is not graceful, even though the canons of good design are sometimes flung to the winds, as in the top right-hand example, from a house in Buitengracht Street. :

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freak South Atcces oldest theatre survives to this day, ;

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1952 sees the 2Ist birthday of the Little Theatre, which stands beside Government Avenue on University property and is reached by passing through the famous Lion Gateway, originally designed by Anton Anreith

as the entrance to a menagerie. .

The Little Theatre has a remarkable atmosphere, the most authentic atmosphere of any theatre remaining in the country. This is partly due tothe great names that have appeared there, but chiefly, to my mind, becauseit is a training ground, the only one ofits kind in the Union, for the theatrical arts. It is not a glamorous playhouse, with a glittering first night every so often. It is a workshop where, by expert tuition and hard work, the theatre in South Africa has been kept alive—in the face of great odds. Its faithful audiences, who will make a paying concern out of wildly “experimental” plays, demand a very high standard. They are seldom disappointed. For many years the Cape Town Repertory Theatre Society staged productions at the Little, by arrangement with the University. For most of the time, the Society was campaigning for a theatre of its own.

They now

haye one. TheLittle is still the most atmospheric theatre in Cape Town.

The Little Theatre, Government Avenue, Cape Town

So much has been written about the Manor House of Groot Constantia thatthereislittle left to say except that it was built 25 years ago by the Public Works Departmenton the burned-out ruinsof the house renovated andaltered in 1779 by Hendrik Cloete, who took over the decayed remains ofthe estate founded in 1699 by Simon van derStel. : : Its chief beauty lies in the admirable choice of site, with its avenue of oak trees in front and the spectacular view of False Bay from the stoep. The houseitself sparkles in this lush setting and is as successful as a reconstruction of this kind can be. However,its very newness, particularly indoors, makes the manor house unconvincing and unatmospheric as a_ historical monument, and it is only when you have passed through the inner hall that a view of the wine cellar at the rear of the house gives you an authentic taste of the 18th century Cape. The popularappeal of the Manor House hasled to a thousandimitations, not only in the Cape butasfar afield as Pretoria. Although this is a charming tribute to a distinctive style, it must be added that pseudo manor houses look extremely uncomfortable when built on }-acre plots, and that corrugated iron orslate tiles are an inadequate substitute for thatch.

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Groot Constantia

The trademark of the 18th century Cape Dutch style, the ornate central gable, varies little from house to house. These of course are the gables over front doors, not the simpler ones at each end of the block. Those illustrated come from Libertas and the Burgherhuis at Stellenbosch, and l’Ormarins and La Provenge at French Hoek. Of white-washed plaster (as opposed to the brickwork of their counterparts in the Netherlands), they stand in the sunlight against bright blue sky. Sometimes they are dappled by the shadow from old oak trees. Urns, shells, pediments and garlands decorate

them, and their outlines are often formed by a series of graceful curves. All in all, the front gable is the most elegant thing about the Cape Dutch country house—the one concession to decoration for the sake of decoration, How successful they are can be judged from these drawings and from the many other examples to be found all over the Western Province.

Top: Libertas, Stellenbosch; Burgherhuis, Stellenbosch Bottom: /’Ormarins, French Hoek; La Provence, French Hoek

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The Pigeonry, Koornhoop, Mowbray

XIV

Originally on the site of the Old Supreme Court—the top left-hand corner of Adderley Street—there wasa slave lodge, built in 1680. The present building also began life as a slave lodge, in 1750. Early in the 19th century the slaves were removed and the building turned into public offices. In 1815 a large hall was built which wasused as the Supreme Court. An 1897 guide described it as badly arranged, unsuitable and insanitary. It is recorded that on one occasionthe entire Court retired to the Library, driven out by evil smells from beneath thefloor. For one reason and another, the Old Supreme Court was held in very low esteem atthe turn of the century, being considered “a commonplace, prison-like structure”, : Its appearance to-day, however, has been considerably brightened up _ by the intelligent face-lifting, copied from old designs, which the buildi ng received when the road outside was widened. Although the facade is not authentic, the remaining parts are; and the block, freshly whitewashed, is a suitable prelude to a walk up Government Avenue. : A proposal to destroy the Old Supreme Court in order to widen the Street at its side has caused an uproar among many who possiblybelieveit to be an authentic and complete piece of Africana. Manyof these protestan’ must be people who watch the Bree Street houses being demolished withou t so much as a murmur. But, patchwork thoughitis, Adderley Street, ani indeed Cape Town, would be the poorer for the loss of this dignifi ed an handsomebuilding of great charm and somedistinction.

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XV

Cape Town’s Malay Quarter occupies roughly the area bounded by Strand Street, Chiappini Street, Buitengracht Street and WaleStreet, a district that was once occupied by Europeans. The Malays took over some time — in the mid-19th century and began building their mosques, whose minarets give an Eastern profile to the otherwise Western shapes of the district. Malays have an eye for dashing colour-schemes, and a deft hand with a paint-brush. As a result there are some astonishing pieces of domestic decoration, both indoors and out. A favourite form of interior decoration is imitation marble with puce pillars painted on. Acid green-yellow is a popular colour for woodwork. os From the outside, the Malay Quarter presents a fagade that is part slum, part Arabian Nights. Colours that you would imagine to be unusable outside the décor for some exotic ballet rear up at you as you round the corner of a cobbled street. All sorts oflittle touches remind you of the age of this part of Cape Town—authentic 18th century windows, doors and fanlights; the Cape Town Municipality’s iron hitching-posts at the top of narrow flights of steps. From the windows comeenticing curry smells—butjust in case the atmosphere and surroundings should prove too pungent, your ears are assailed by the radio programme from Lourengo Marques playing thelatest American hits and advertising the merits of half-a-dozen brands of toothpaste.

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The untrained Western eye cannot easily appreciate the subtleties of Malay architecture. Butit is still possible to get much pleasure from these outbursts of Eastern design which are to be found in many parts of the Western Province besides Cape Town. The towerontheleft, for example, is on the Mosque at Paarl which looks like a Victorian wedding cake, complete with icing stars and crescents. The dome and spire are both from the Kramat at Faure, the tomb of Sheik Yussuf who was banished from Macassar, and then Ceylon, by the Dutch and ended his days near Cape Town in 1699. The tomb is of much later date. The minaret on the right is in the Cape Town Malay Quarter and conforms to the Western idea of Eastern design to the extent of lookinglike something out of the pantomime of Aladdin. There’s no denying that the Malays have added enormously to the Cape scene, both as people and in their buildings.

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Left to Right: Paarl; Kram

Any reveller at Lady Anne Barnard’s celebrated parties at the Castle who gazed listlessly through the window in the early hours would have seen substantially the sceneillustrated on the opposite page. It is the first courtyard of Cape Town Castle. On the left is the oldest portion of the Castle, which was completed in 1679 and has been frequently altered and added to since then. The main addition has been the Kat, a curtain of buildings flung across the middle of the erstwhile wide-open pentagon. It is from the upstairs windows of this building that our view is taken. In the Cape Town Foreshore Plan, provision is made for the Castle to be restored to some of its former importance. As the city developed, buildings and particularly railways encroached on the bastions dangerously— in factit is almost possible to stretch from a train entering Cape TownStation and touch the bastion called Buuren. The removal of the railways nearer the foreshore will open up the north-eastern walls, and this, with the sagacious pruning of disfiguring temporary buildings that cling like barnacles to the fabric of the original structure, will give everyone a chance to see the oldest building in the Cape in a worthysetting. It is something to be proud of that the Castleis still, after nearly 250 years, the headquarters of the Cape Military Command—thatit still serves its purpose, instead of being merely a quaint historical monument.

The Powder Miscine at Stellenbosch.is a small, s¢ the Braak. It was built in just six months in 1776/ Company at the request of the Burgh

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Oneof South Africa’s mostgifted bellettrists, Miss Norah G. Henshilwood, __has recently recounted (in her Stellenbosch Days) how shelived for eight years in one of the two houses flankingthis delightful building, the Theological Seminary, or Kweekskool, at Stellenbosch. Shetells that it was built on the site of the old Drostdy, which Lady Anne Barnard visited and sketched. What Miss Henshilwood doesn’t write is that it looks exactly like a Monte Carlo hotel, with its baroque decorations mounted carelessly one on top of the other up the centrepiece, and its precise symmetry. Even the palm trees, replacing two Van der Stel oaks which decayed and were removed, add to the illusion. The purposes ofthe building are anything butfrivolous: it is an important training centre for ministers of the Dutch Reformed Church.

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XX A familiar sight in the older Western Province towns is the oak-lined street, generally very near the centre of town, where whitewashed private houses crowd almost across the pavements, and elaborate banks of ferns and hydrangeas in oil drumstake the place offront gardens. Dorp Street, Stellenbosch, is probably the most picturesque and perfect of these, combining practically every element of domestic architecture know to South Africa. Plain-fronted Georgian houses have sprouted elegant cast-iron verandas with supports and brackets ordered by numberfrom the fascinating catalogues of Messrs. Macfarlane of Glasgow. The roof of these verandas is often moulded corrugatéd iron painted in broad stripes of chocolate and white. 5 : Within, the Dorp Street house is dark and refreshingly cool, a complete contrast to the dazzling exterior. A handsomefanlight surmounts the front door, but, being shaded from theglare by the stoep roof, lets in insufficientlight to fade the hall wallpaper. It would not be proper to intrude further than the hall, though a tantalizing glimpse of thickly varnished woodwork and heavy curtain can be gained through the high sash windowseachside of the front door. All is privacy—a sort of over-compensation for the house’s familiarity with the street. Whitewashed Stellenbosch, with its varied domestic and public architecture, is a microcosm of the old Cape—and, to some extent, of the new. For the University and the Town Council, eschewing the temptation to fake the Old Dutch style, have each kept abreast of the times and produced a fascinating cross-section of taste in large-scale building, all the way from Prince Consort Pretentious via Monte Carlo Baroque to Scandinavian Airy. Yet the heart of Stellenbosch—and the Western Province—lies in shadowdappled streets like Dorp Street.

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One ofthe peculiarities of domesticlife in South Africa is the presence in almost every house of the “‘stoep”. Indeed, South Africa gave the very word to the world, and a happy wordit is, too, making “balcony” or “veranda” sound like genteelisms. 2 Atfirst, the stoep was merely a paved platform in front of the house, without covering. Its purpose must have been more decorative than useful, though it did, to some extent, make up for the lack of paving in thestreets, making grand coach-borne entrances and exits possible even after wet weather. The purpose now, however, is to provide an extra room, shaded but open to any breeze that may be passing, where the evening pipe can be smoked and the “sundowner” consumed. The two typesillustrated here accountfor most of the stoeps built during the 19th century. On theleft, taken from a house in Wellington, is one of wooden trellis-work surmounted by curved corrugated iron and entwined with creeper. Large pot plants and hanging baskets complete a picture that is hard to rival for sheer elegance. On the right is a confection ofdelicate castiron, ordered no doubt from Macfarlane of Glasgow. This style is now out of favoureven as a curiosity (the exampleillustrated, from a LongStreet

shop, has been condemned as unsafe and is being removed). s One risks becoming tiresome by sighing for the departure ofthe cast-iron products of Victorian industrial design, and there is much to be said for the cantilevered canopy or the sun-directed slats of to-day. But for those with the eyesto see it, there is great charm in thefrilly iron decorations of yesterday, and charm is a quality that is sadly lacking in so muchof to-day’s building.

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There seems to have been a conspiracy of silence about Bree Street, Cape Town. Thefurthest that any of the old guide books will commit themselves is to say thatit is so called because it is broad. Perhapsthere is a clue to this reticence in Lawrence Green’s book about Cape Town, Grow Lovely,

Growing Old. For it appears that Bree Street had a very bad reputation indeed. It wasn’t the Mountain end of the street that people minded—there were handsome houses there, lived in by industrious artisans. Nor the middle part, near the African Theatre, where Thibault had built some houses with pediments decorated with cupids in bowler hats. No, it was the sea end that let down the tone so badly. Mr. Green quotes chapter andverse. His sailors’ stories and reminiscences make it quite clear that the lower end of Bree Street was a place where no lady would be seen. Certainly its attractions were not the kind that the visitor would be directed to in a guide book. Nowadays there is little left of the residential part of the street: some of the houses remain, but they are used asoffices, with nasty beaverboard walls partitioning the spacious old rooms, andlettering painted all over the front wall. Even the air of unrespectability has almost gone. But not quite.

Warehouse, Bree Street, Cape Town

55

To see the Cast-Iron Age at its most rampant, take a walk up the top part of Long Street—indeed there are traces all the way down. From the

shelter of one side of the street, look across at the other: observe the variety

of design in the railings and supports, note the rich effect of the different levels and different colour schemes. This is Victorian Colonial at its best. It is easy to imagine with what pride the shopkeepers of the period ordered their newiron frontages which would enable customers to inspect windowssheltered from the rain or the sun, which would also give the shopkeeper’s family (if he were the type to live on the premises) a fine balcony atfirst-floor level from which to watch the passing show of a hot evening—thus happily combining customer-convenience with personal comfort. f Though the Long Streetrailings arein’varying degrees of disrepair, and will almost certainly disappear altogetherfbefore long, they are delightful to the eye and a good match for anything infthe way of protection from the weather that has been invented since.

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"Long Street, Cape Town

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Corporation Street, Cape Town

XXVIII

Cape Town,like all the world’s great sea-ports, is rich in public houses. In them, for nearly three centuries, seafarers from all over the globe have drowned their sorrows. To-day there is a tendency for the brewer-owners to take pride in streamlining and chromium-plating, to emulate the popular idea of the smart (Berlin 1926) cocktail bar, with-concealed lighting and flat-washed walls. Carved mahogany shelves and sandblasted looking-glasses advertising obsolete brands of whisky are only rarely found and then, more often than not, in incongruous modernized surroundings. The Waterford Arms in Loop Street not only sounded Irish—it looked Srish. Its functional, poker-faced exterior suggested sheerutility. Its prisonlike windows gave it a forbidding appearance for those not particularly interested in the business of drinking. No elaborate porch attracted the eye or suggested a welcome. A plain double doorup a well-worn step,lit at night by a severe unshaded lamp, led to an unknown but undoubtedly businesslike interior. Nothing of the gin palace about the Waterford Arms. Yet one can be surethat trade was brisk in this down-to-earth, somewhat salty pub at the Tavern of the Seas. The Waterford Arms has been modernized recently: new windows, new front door—probably the owners said to themselves “‘Let’s give the old Waterford a new look”. Oh, well.

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The V Waterford Arms, Loop Street, Cape Town

Thevitality, prosperity and supremeself-confidence of Queen Victoria’s colonial empire showed itself_in every inch of building during the last half of the 19th century. It happened that Cape Town developed heavily in that period, with the result that westill have many marks of colonial status left— as in this view of the section of Strand Street opposite the Grand Hotel. The hotelitself, now demolished,lived up to its namein the sheer luxuriance

of its decoration.

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The unusual three-tiered cast-iron balcony must have caused quite a senation whenfirst erected: it looks more like New Orleans than Cape Town. On the corner is the building of Lennon’s the Chemists. The bulgy fish-scaled roofhas defied efforts made recently to modernize the building. In the background is the simple, white-faced Customs building, providing a welcome — contrast to the florid but somehow heartening decorationsin the foreground. — *

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XXX

Although Cape Town Station can hardly be described as up-to-date, or even reasonably modern, it has its own attraction for those who admire the early, exuberant efforts of Victorian railway-makers. It has all the features of a first-class terminaloffifty years ago—high, cast-iron, soot-laden, glassed-in arches; coats of arms (of the long since defunct Cape Government Railways) worked into the pavement in mosaic and scrubbed lovingly and regularly; a handsomestreet frontage suggesting a Victorian luxury hotel rather than a station; and a wealth of authentic railway detail—grotesque lettering on painted signs, burgeoning ticket offices and newspaper stands, and bars and buffets with lincrusta, ornate iron pillars and cut glass, It should be stated here that all this is doomed and will yield to a commendably modern and efficient new station nearer the foreshore. There is a charmingly makeshift air about the platforms, their irregularity corresponding to the piecemeal additions made from time to time to cope with traffic thrusting forever further into the hinterland. Cape TownStation was the starting point of Cecil Rhodes’s Cape-to-Cairo railway dream. Although you cannot reach Cairo from Cape TownStation, youcan go to Rhodesia—a healthy 1600 miles. The luxurious Blue Train makesits airconditioned way to Pretoria—999 miles—twice weekly. Every development on the South African Railways has made the old station look and sound more archaic. Yet a spot that holds many memories for Cape Town residents and visitors will vanish when the Station goes.

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Cape Town Station

The lights that guide the pedestrian by night take a hundred forms. Those illustrated on the opposite page are someof the more delightful to be found in and around Cape Town. The centrepiece, known to everyone who has ever been told to “turn right at the Rondebosch Fountain”, is a good example of private generosity and an intelligent combination of uses. For, as it was originally installed, it not only provided a lantern-light: there were cups on chainsto drink ftom and quench thethirst. There were troughs for horses and even small bow-fronted troughs for dogs to drink from (provided they weren’t terrified by the iron hooves on eachside). Lamp standards like the one on the left are fairly commonplace but nevertheless atmospheric—observe how often their baleful light plays an

important part in movies. The lamp bracket beside it might almost have come _ from an American film about Londonin the late 1700’s, whereas it andits mate are fixed to the Government Avenue gates of Government House. The twirly fixture in the top right-hand corner used to be on the frontwall of a chemist’s in Wynberg—alas it has gone now. While the standard with the uncomfortable fish holding it up is one of many to be foundall around Parliament House. Similar standards can be seen near the Housesof Parliament in London—were they the source of inspiration? These pieces are not perhaps very important in themselves, but they serve, or have served, a useful purpose besides adding a touch of the decorative to everyday life.

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XXXII

The fireplace is not the focal point in the South African homethatit is in less temperate climates. In spite of this, it was fashionable until comparatively recently to have fireplaces in Cape Town homes and_ public buildings, and many good specimens can be found. Ofthe fourillustrated here, the one at the top left comes from the Old Supreme Court. The grate and its decorative surround are iron, and the mantelpiece is of wood. The whole thing is shapely andattractive even when not in use. Next to it is an example from Koopmans de Wet House, also iron, gracefully ornamented. Below is another version ofthe iron grate with wooden mantelpiece, in vaguely Gothic Revival style, from Schoonderzicht in Prince Street, Gardens (now demolished), The fourth example is what might be called the “improved model’, with a grate that lifts out and a trap-door to stop soot falling in throughout the summer months. The mantelpiece is also of iron and used to be painted to represent red marble,

though the result was morelike corned beef. It is in the homeof the artist, paintedturquoise.

Left to right, top: The Old Supreme Court and Koopmans de Wet House, Cape Town

Bottom: Schoonderzicht (17 Prince Street, Cape Town) and Haytor, Alphen Hill, Wynberg

This armoire, in Koopmans de Wet House,is a fine example ofthe style of furniture brought to the Cape by Dutch colonists. In design it is as solid, bulgy and capacious as the Dutch vrouw of old. The door panels are in — satinwood, the rest stinkwood. The silver keyholes and handles are the work of David Hendrik Schmidt whosettled in the Cape in the late 1700's. Modifications of this style can be seen to-day in any furniture or wireless shop, where such anachronisms as cocktail cabinets with claw-and-ball feet and 3-speed radiogramophones with linenfold panels are offered. This applies, to a lesser extent, to electrified versions of the chandelier, which came originally from the Lutheran Church and is now also in Koopmans de Wet House. The chair and gueridon show later applications of stinkwood: the chair, with its riempie seat, is particularly graceful. Those who imagine that all stinkwood furniture must perforce be heavy and highly decorated should study these chairs, of which therearestill numerous examples‘to be,foundin the Cape, many of which were madebyslaves.

nachna Left to Hee Gueridon(the Artist’s); Chandelier (Koopmans de Wet House); Armoire (Koopmans de Wet House); Chair (the Artist's)

ur oe and odd storerooms,upstairs. The:pilas

house, remodelled inthe late 18th century andp uitous Thibault, is extremely handsome, one

XXXVI

The most controversial piece in this group of early Cape household goods is the bokaal on the right bearing the VOC mark and on view in the Rijks-

museum, Amsterdam.

For the late Mr. David Heller cast grave doubts on

the authenticity of any VOC glass (see In Search of VOC Glass). However, there is no doubt about the authenticity of the VOC plate of blue and white Imari, made in Japanin the 17th century for the Dutch East India Company’s

use. ;

The Madeira label belongs to Mr. Rowland Hill. On the back are the initials T. T., which denote the work of Thomas Townsend, one ofthe first _ English silver craftsmen at the Cape. In the centre is an elegant covered cup — of the kind madebyearlier Cape silversmiths, particularly the Lotter family. In the right foreground is a brass komvoor which, when filled with burning charcoal, was used for keeping the coffee pot warm. These small touches ofcivilization must have been cherished by early settlers at the Cape as reminders ofthe life they had left behind. They have certainly been cherished since, for such is the interest in them that they — command colossal prices to-day.

Left to right: Madeira label; Imari plate; silver covered cup; brass komvoor; V.O.C. bokaal