Documenting OUR RICH HISTORY
Rhodes Cottage, designed by Sir Herbert Baker, was restored in 2012. WHEN Graham Viney asked to view a run-down, pokey house in Bantry Bay, even the estate agent said he wouldn’t like it.
The house badly needed attention and the area did not have the favoured reputation it now enjoys. Viney, however, saw the potential and transformed the Edwardian house into a remarkable home.
His sense of the possible is a trait shared by most owners of the houses featured in this book. Many have been rescued and lovingly revamped.
Even heirloom houses such as Kersefontein (owned by Cape farming family the Melcks for generations) or Meerlust (now in the hands of the eighth generation) have required major restoration work in recent years.
Each of the 20 houses is privately owned. From the glory of Cape Dutch, high Victorian and Art Nouveau masterpieces to farmhouses and cottages, each house reflects its past but, equally, is designed to be lived in. If not all could be classed as heritage homes, they are all interesting.
Nini Cloete provides a lively, informative text peppered with personal anecdotes from the owners. One legendary retort arose when Cecil John Rhodes proposed demolishing one bastion of the five-pointed Castle in Cape Town, arguing that “it was only one little point”.
An infuriated Marie Koopmans de Wet tartly advised his secretary: “Tell Mr Rhodes his nose is only a little point on his face. Let him cut it off and look in the glass.”
The jewel in the crown is the continuing restoration of Prynnsberg in the Free State. Constructed in 1881 for the Newberry family, its early guests included Rudyard Kipling, President Steyn and the dukes of Connaught and Westminster. The house remained in the family until 1996, when it was sold to a neighbouring farmer who, it was feared, intended stripping out all the wood and using the dilapidated building as sheds.
Fortunately, the Melvill family chanced upon the house. They found its past irresistible and their dedication has elevated it to one of our most precious heritage houses.
Superbly photographed by Craig Fraser, this is a book to not only treasure, but to inspire other owners to preserve our architectural gems.