May 13, 2005
By Lucille Davie
SEVERAL "bad buildings" in the CBD have been given a much-needed - and rather overdue - facelift, with prompting from the City, and now look almost as good as new.
Sarel Ras, the town planning control officer for the inner city, said that in recent months 11 owners of badly neglected buildings were sent Clause 61 notices, requiring them to correct the "injurious conditions" that existed in their buildings.
The owners were given a month in which to take action, failing which criminal charges would be instituted against them.
This get-tough attitude seems to have worked with some of the owners - four of them have responded, restoring the façades of their buildings. The remaining seven will be receiving notices from the City's attorneys, in terms of the its building control regulations.
In 2002 and 2004 two heritage surveys were compiled of inner city buildings, the first time such assessments had been done. Recommendations from the report confirm that several heritage buildings are in dire need of repair work. It describes some as being in a state of "demolition by neglect".
These heritage buildings are older than 60 years, which means their owners need permission from the South African Heritage Resources Agency before any changes or demolitions can take place.
Four buildings stand out as examples of what can be done to breath life back into some of the city's oldest structures, often fine examples of period architecture.
Kirchhoff's
Kirchhoff's building, on the corner of Jeppe and Loveday streets, is a Gordon Leith building completed in 1921 in the Edwardian style. It housed the city's oldest "wholesaler and retail dealers choice vegetable, flower, tree and field seeds", F Kirchhoff & Co.
Originally a two-storey structure, a third storey was added in 1930, finished in red facebrick with white plaster fan-shaped flourishes over the windows, supported by columns. The unusual oriel or bay window on the first floor corner of the building is an attractive feature, with the front door immediately below it.
Kirchhoff's, in the final stages of restoration
The ground-floor windows in Loveday Street were originally decorated with canvas canopies but are now covered with large advertising boards, taken up by Fatti's Bottle Store, with the Fatti's Tavern and Sports Bar in the basement.
Owner Mark van Eck says he uses the top floors as a homeless shelter, charging a minimal rent. "It's my way of giving back to the community."
Van Eck bought the building five years ago: first he worked in the bottle store, which he then bought; then he bought the building. He received the Clause 61 notice some months back, and didn't know how to start. Then he saw external restoration work going on around the corner in Bree Street, on Roehampton Court. He approached the restorer, Jim Bolt, of Boltsons - and now the façade of Kirchhoff's has been beautifully restored.
This involved removing white paint from the lower third of the building, plus varnish, which, says Bolt, attracts pollution. But the main problem with these old buildings is pollution, mostly from petrol fumes, he explains.
The window frames have also been scrapped and repainted and the leaking roof of the oriel window has been repaired. Van Eck says he will be renovating the ground floor of the building before the end of the year, sprucing up the inside of the bottle store - an approach the City hopes will catch on.
Roehampton Court
Bree Street's Roehampton Court is a 12-storey Art Deco building built in 1936 by JC Cook & Cowen Architects. It is characterised by typical Art Deco features: a central vertical line and animal friezes on the second floor balconies. A row of generous balconies runs up the middle of the building, with a recessed section at each end. It has a plaster finish, interspersed with squares of red face brick on the sides.
In 1939 eight storeys were added to the rear of the building, facing Loveday Street.
Bolt says the plaster finish had become pitted as a result of acid rain. This allows moisture to penetrate the plaster, causing it to weaken and crumble.
The solution is to pressure wash the surface, then apply a cementaceous coating that reduces moisture absorption. The decorative friezes will also be pressure washed and treated. The walls inside the balconies are being painted with masonry paint. Cracked and broken window panes are being replaced, and window frames and sills are being repaired and re-painted.
Work on the east wing has been completed, restoring the natural, earthy colour of the plaster, and enhancing the red brick.
Geen & Richards building
The Geen & Richards building in Pritchard Street dates back to 1923. Designed by Robert Howden in typical Edwardian style, it was built as a showroom and warehouse. The four-storey building retains its attractive sash windows but the shop front on the ground floor has been modernised.
Geen & Richards is a furniture outlet, and probably has been one since the mid-1950s, with the top three floors acting as furniture storerooms. In the 1940s the ground floor of the building housed a café and restaurant, according to the survey. The building has undergone a number of minor alterations, from 1926 to 1979, mostly adding to the toilet facilities at the back.
Until recently its exterior was painted two shades of pink, but the building has now been repainted a more pleasing off-white colour with pale-brown fascias. The roof has recently been repaired, and work on the rusted and broken fire escape is ongoing.
Penlan House
Penlan House is one of the oldest buildings in Joburg. It was completed in 1897, the same year the Rissik Street Post Office was built. The building, in Eloff Street, is in the Edwardian style, finished with two attractive gables on the roof. Originally, there was a cast iron balustrade on the first floor balcony, according to the survey report.
Penlan House, with restoration complete but with reduced heritage value
Thrupp & Co, the first grocer and supermarket in Johannesburg, was an occupant in the 1940s. Thrupps, as it is called these days, still exists - it was opened in 1892 - and moved into the suburbs in 1950, where it still resides.
Penlan House was originally built for ground-floor shops, with flats on its upper two storeys. However, by the 1970s the flats had been converted to offices. Over the years the building has been vandalised - fireplaces and wooden floorboards have been removed, and special features, such as pressed steel walls, have been damaged.
In recent restoration work, the balustrade on the first floor has been replaced with a modern metal one, and the decorative but rotting iron pavement canopy has been removed. The building has been repainted and its fresh white and beige combination has given it new life.
Eric Itzkin, the deputy director of immovable heritage for the City, is pleased with the dramatic progress made at Roehampton Court, the Kirchhoff's building and Geen & Richards. Yet he is disappointed that the original shop front of Penlan House has been replaced, as the building has lost some of its heritage value. Conservation architect Henry Paine agrees, adding that the owners have "wrecked Penlan House".
Ras said that there were hundreds of buildings in the inner city that needed to be cleared of people because they were in contravention of the City's health and fire regulations. Once these buildings were vacant, the owners would be asked to upgrade them.
"The restoration is taking root more and more. These buildings have had no upkeep for a long time, but we are getting there slowly but surely," he said.
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