City of Gold’s four castles
Standing proudly in the city and its suburbs, the oldest was built in 1898
FOR a town that started on a dusty, open patch of veld 117 years ago to be able to boast a number of castles seems incredible. But it’s true – Johannesburg has four “castles” around the city and suburbs, the oldest having been built in 1898 and opened by president Paul Kruger, when the town was barely 12 years old and still a rough, raucous place where men believed they would make their fortunes from gold.
But don’t expect to see grand, medieval castles that would have housed kings and princesses and knights, with a moat and impressive battlements. Johannesburg’s castles are modest, two of them are homes with one or two turrets, one is a hotel and conference centre, the other a burnt-out shell of a building, one of its wings operating as a business.
The Three Castles Building, Marshall Street
The Three Castles Building, on the corner of Marshall and Goud streets in the semi-industrial, rather rundown, eastern end of the city, was home to the town’s first cigarette factory. It was opened in 1898 by Kruger, who was an enthusiastic smoker. It became known as the Three Castles Cigarette Company.
The two-storey building has three turrets in an L-shape with the middle, larger turret positioned on the corner of the street, with edging of stone running up the walls and battlements around the square tops of the turrets.
The building’s in a sorry state these days. The west wing was badly damaged in a fire five years ago. This wing had been home to various nightclubs over the past decades, and for 25 years a gay club called the Dungeon Club had its home in the wing.
According to Hannes Meiring in his book
the building “is typical of the freedom of architectural styles rampant in the last decades of the 19th century, when flights of fancy were welcomed. Most of the historical styles had been revived, people were getting bored with them and new ideas were actively encouraged”.
The architects were Carter and MacIntosh and it’s likely that the building was commissioned with the three turrets to reflect “Three Castles” cigarettes.
The company was eventually taken over by United Tobacco Companies, which had its offices in the building until 1953, when it moved to new premises in Industria, according to
The Parkview Castle, Kilkenny Road
Hidden behind Kilkenny Road’s oak trees and a well-established garden, the Parkview castle nestles happily on the hill below Westcliff koppie. It’s a large four-bedroomed house built by Major John Wesley O’Hara in 1907.
The house is a delight – it’s made completely of stone: it has an outer stone wall, a stone fountain in the garden and a long, stone and white plaster verandah the length of the front of the house and running around its east side. A typical castle door beneath a gable greets the visitor – with tall, arched doors attached with large black hinges to its frame. The house has a grey iron roof.
It has 3.6m-high ceilings, wonderful wood and tile fireplaces, wooden floors, beautiful pressed steel ceilings with deep cornices, lovely light fittings and a warm and cosy kitchen with a glorious coal stove.
It has a two-storey turret in its west wing, now offices for the owners, Richard Beynon and his wife, Trish Urquhart. Beynon has lived in the house for over 20 years and wouldn’t want to live anywhere else, he said.
O’Hara came to South Africa from Ireland in 1893, joined the Imperial Light Horse Regiment and fought as a major in the Anglo-Boer War.
He raised his five daughters and one son in the house that was built with stone from the Westcliff koppie behind Parkview.
It’s believed that he modelled it on his grandfather’s castle in Ireland, upon which the Kilkenny Castle, a grand U-shaped three-storey castle with four large turrets, was based.
O’Hara gave the suburb its Irish street names: Kilkenny, Kerry, Westmeath, Kildare, Tyrone and Galway being the most obvious ones.
O’Hara died in 1948 at Kloof in KwaZulu-Natal, apparently while on holiday. His wife Ivy lived in the castle until her death at the age of 73 in 1946.
Kensington Castle, Highland Road
One of the city’s most impressive castles is in Kensington. Constructed in 1911 of stone, it has 10 rooms on four levels and is perched on the hill opposite Langerman’s Kop, in Highland Road. It was constructed with stone taken from the southern edge of the koppie on which it stands.
It was built by Englishman Samuel Scott Wilson for his wife Kate MacKirdie, who agreed to marry him on condition that he build her a castle. On arrival in Johannesburg, Wilson started immediately on the castle and the couple moved in in 1911.
It’s believed that the castle was modelled on the Rothsay castle in Scotland, with help from Herbert Baker’s architectural firm. Its walls are 1m thick, with battlements, two walk-on roofs and a ship’s cannon in the garden.
The Wilsons lived in the castle for only a few years, being forced to sell after falling on hard times, according to The Sunday Times of September 1992. Ownership changed many times.
The Castle, Kyalami
Joburg’s newest and perhaps most striking castle is The Castle in Kyalami, a 24-suite hotel some 20km from the city centre. Visible from kilometres around, its 12 impressive stone-coloured, angular turrets face west, stretching over an acre or two and reached via a long drive lined with flagpoles and flags waving in the breeze.
It was originally built as a private residence by architect Mike Dinopoulos in 1992, who lived in this expansive building for only nine years before putting it on auction. It was bought by Planet Hotels and opened as a 4-star hotel in 2001.
The original castle consisted of the main house, three self-contained apartments, garages, yacht workshop and stables, stretching over several hectares. The main house has now been converted into 11 en-suite rooms and the self-contained apartments now consist of 13 en-suite rooms. ♦ https://www.lucilledavie.co.za/single-post/2003/07/23/Joburg%E2%80%99s-castles