March 26, 2007
By Neil Fraser
THE preamble to the National Heritage Resources Act states: "Our heritage is unique and precious and it cannot be renewed. It helps us to define our cultural identity and therefore lies at the heart of our spiritual wellbeing and has the power to build our nation.
"It has the potential to affirm our diverse cultures, and in so doing shape our national character. Our heritage celebrates our achievements and contributes to redressing past inequities."
Hmmm - contrast that statement with the observations of Paul Theroux in Dark Star Safari, observations that can apply to most South African cities: "The city was much larger, and the new buildings tall but graceless. The older buildings had not been maintained and looked blighted, haunted relics of an earlier time. It seemed to me that the new buildings would go this way too, fall into disrepair and not crumble but remain defaced and unusable, whilst still newer ones were built.
"This seemed a pattern in the African city, the unnecessary obsolescence of buildings. Nothing was fixed or kept in good repair, the concept of stewardship or maintenance hardly existed.
"Little sentimentality was shown for the colonial structures in independent Africa. Since they represented the pomposity and wealth of the white overlords in the oppressive years of overlordship, they were usually the first buildings to be vandalised or defaced."
I had occasion briefly to visit two historic buildings in Port Elizabeth, in the Mandela Bay municipality, earlier this week before coming to Stellenbosch, a town so rich in its finely maintained heritage, for a family wedding.
The Main Library
The buildings I visited in Port Elizabeth were the Main Library, in daily use, and the previous City Police Station, now derelict. The two buildings epitomise the South African heritage dichotomy, while Stellenbosch serves as a model for what maintained heritage can result in.
The Main Library building has a history dating back to 1835, when the Market Square land on which it stands was granted by the governor, Sir Benjamin D'Urban, for the purposes of a library and commercial hall. A building was built in 1843 but was requisitioned by the Cape government when the local court house burned down.
After a new magistrates' court was built in 1885, the library reclaimed its building but reckoned that it was now inadequate and held an architectural competition for a new building (with a grand prize of £105 for the winning entry). This was won by the practice of Henry A Cheers of Twickenham, England. It was funded roughly equally by the Cape government, the municipality and a local family after whom the building's Memorial Hall was named.
The building was due for completion in 1901 but was delayed by the South African War and opened in mid-1902. It was the first steel framed building to be erected in Port Elizabeth. At the time, the design was classified as "Elizabethan", but it is now described as "late Victorian Gothic and Flemish revival".
Whatever its style, for me it is a remarkable building on two counts. The first is that it appears to be really well maintained, and the second is, notwithstanding its colonial origins, it is clearly well used. In the short while that I was there, its reading tables were pretty full and there were numerous people, quite a few of them school pupils, coming and going.
I know that the latter certainly applies to our library on Beyers Naude Square. My point is that however old, however unacceptable its origins to the majority of South Africans, it is alive and well and still serving a fantastic purpose.
The City Police Station
Not so the second building, the old City Police Station. It is literally a minute's walk from the library in the same historic area of the city; it is also a magnificent building with unique architectural attributes, yet it is derelict and slowly rotting.
The story it tells is a fascinating tale that includes the incarceration of both BJ Vorster and Steve Biko. The cell walls are covered with an amazing wealth of prison graffiti and the building cries out for restoration and economic re-use.
I understand that the local authority, during the previous regime, actually sold the building to a private developer who appears to have a philosophy of demolition by neglect. Neither the current council nor the heritage authorities, with the full weight of legislation behind them, are taking any action - shades of the Barbican and the Rissik Street Post Office (although I hear that the Barbican is very much on the drawing board again with work anticipated to start this year).
But back to Port Elizabeth - a quick drive through the downtown area revealed an abundance of historic buildings mostly in one or other stage of decay. This includes a once-magnificent terrace of what is thought to be the oldest surviving residential houses in the city, now falling to pieces. What a wealth of history and heritage – what an asset base for tourism and economic activity being allowed to go to waste and, unless something is done, an asset base that will never be possible to recapture.
Stellenbosch
Now, come with me to Stellenbosch. I remember this town from 25 years ago as a university town and a quite quaint place that one passed through on the way to sample wine at one of the many farms that surround it.
No longer - it has been transformed into a destination in itself. A walking guide spells out the roots from which the change has come: "The village has fully blended with its surroundings through the centuries, as no scientifically planned town could have. In growing naturally, the village has integrated with nature, as much as Papegaaiberg and the Jonkershoek Twin Peaks are part of nature; its houses seem to have settled here, sinking their roots deeper and deeper into the earth as if saying: ‘You'll never move us, just try to shift us; you'll rue the day you do.'"
Building off those roots, the restoration and maintenance of a hundred historic buildings, some 300 years old, has transformed this town. Today it is packed with tourists using this as their base for a few days instead of Cape Town so that they can enjoy one of the most continental of atmospheres of any towns in Africa.
Pavement coffee shops and restaurants abound, as does funky retail in quirky arcades that wend their way through restored buildings. It's all about economics and Stellenbosch has taken that lesson to heart - a bachelor flat here costs more than a million rand and a very small house starts from over two.
I'm writing this Citichat in the Stellenbosch Hotel – the first buildings on this site were erected probably between 1700 and 1705. The facades of the two houses that form the nucleus of the hotel were restored in 1987. The façade of the corner house is Cape Dutch and restored to the original architecture of 1815, while the adjoining house has a rare Cape Dutch Revival facade circa 1876.
Today these facades embrace a lovely hotel that provides employment to a large number of local people. It's all about economics. Heritage preservation is not about saving old buildings to save old buildings; heritage preservation is a tool of economic development. Adaptive reuse of functionally obsolete buildings is central to effective heritage conservation as an economic development strategy.
Donovan Rypkema (Globalisation, heritage buildings and the 21st century economy) states: "For the 21st century, only the foolish city will make the choice between historic preservation and economic development. The wise city will effectively utilise its historic built environment to meet the economic, social and cultural needs well into the future."
Stellenbosch has chosen and chosen well; Port Elizabeth (and Joburg) has still to make the choice – the two cities will not have that opportunity forever.
Ciao, Neil
Walking and bus tours by the Parktown and Westcliff Heritage Trust
The costs below are for members and non-members respectively. Bookings can be made at Computicket on 011 340 8000 or through the Computicket website. For more information, phone 011 482 3349 in the mornings only.
Saturday, 31 March: a bus and walking tour of the Joburg CBD. Join me on a tour of the developments that are helping to revive Joburg's inner city. Meet at Sunnyside Park Hotel at 2pm; the tickets are R100 and R115 and the tour is three hours long. Space is limited.
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