Locks of Joburg: photo, description, reviews
In the fascinating article below, journalist Lucille Davy explores the history of four iconic Joburg castles. This article was first published on the City of Johannesburg's website on July 23, 2003.
Unfortunately, the Three Castles building deteriorated significantly in 2018 and currently remains at risk. Local heritage organizations are concerned about the lack of information about the condition of Kensington Castle. They were able to determine that the cannon and brass plaque were stolen a couple of years ago. Kyalami Castle is now owned by the Church of Scientology.
Для города, который 117 лет назад был основан на пыльном открытом участке, возможность похвастаться множеством своих замков,кажется невероятной. И правда – в Йоханнесбурге есть четыре «замка» вокруг города и пригорода, самый старый из которых был построен в 1898 году и открыт президентом Полом Крюгером, когда городу едва ли исполнилось 12 лет, и он все еще был грубым, хриплым местом, где люди верили, что они способны делать свои состояния из золота.
Но не ожидайте увидеть великие средневековые замки, в которых разместились бы короли, принцессы и рыцари со рвом и впечатляющими зубцами. Йоханнесбургские замки очень скромны. Двое из них являются домами с одной или двумя башнями, другая часть замков это отель и конференц-центр, третья часть – сгоревшая ракушка здания, у которого одно из его крыльев работает как бизнес.
Three Castles Building, Marshall Street
In the old and rather worn-out, eastern part of town was the city's first cigarette factory. It was opened in 1898 by Kruger, who was an avid smoker. It became known as the Three Locks Cigarette Company.
This two-story building has three L-shaped towers, with the middle, larger tower located on the street corner, with stone edges running up the walls and jagged walls around the square tops of the towers.
Today the building is in a deplorable condition. Five years ago the west wing was badly damaged in a fire. This part of the building has been the site of many nightclubs. For the past decades, and for 25 years, a gay club called the Dungeon Club has been in the wing of the building.
Today, the west wing has blackened window openings and its exterior doors are firmly locked. Sections of the floors and ceilings have been destroyed by fire. Two shades of beige on the exterior are peeling off, giving the building a decrepit appearance despite its striking medieval appearance.
Ruins of the Three Castles BuildingСогласно Ханнесу Мейрингу в его «Раннем Йоханнесбурге» – о зданиях и его людях, постройка «типично для свободы архитектурных стилей, свирепствовавших в последние десятилетия 19-го века, когда приветствовались полеты фантазии.Большинство исторических стилей было возрождено. Людям стало скучно с ними, а новые идеи активно поощрялись».
The architects were Carter and Mackintosh, and it is likely that the building was commissioned with three towers to reflect their Three Castles cigarettes.
В конечном итоге компания была передана Объединенным табачным компаниям, чьи офисы находились в здании до 1953 года, когда они переехали в новые помещения в Индустрии, согласно Йоханнесбургу – сто лет.
The current owner of the building, who wishes to remain anonymous, runs a pipeline business from the site, providing supplies for the engineering industry. His father rented space in the building about 20 years ago and then bought it from the owner, who ran a lingerie business called Fashion Form Foundations.
«Пятьдесят лет назад они производили бюстгальтеры наверху», – говорит нынешний владелец. Теперь восточное крыло было забито стойками с трубами и аксессуарами. А секции потолка сейчас разрушаются и нуждаются в срочном ремонте.
Владелец говорит, что все табачные аукционы проходили в большом восточном крыле, а сигареты производились наверху. Следы от железнодорожных путей все еще видны на полу, ведущие от входной двери к середине здания – возможно, они были выстроены для небольшой тележки, которая использовалась для загрузки табака около двери и перемещения в здание.
According to the owner, his father bought the building for about 350,000 rubles. These days, the building must be worth between R2 and 3 million rubles, but he doubts that he can get that amount.
The original building was green in color, shaped like tin cigarette cans, which were 10 by 12 centimeters on the outside and labeled "Cigarettes with Green Locks."
The following wording appears on the inside of the cover:
Every genuine Three Castles cigarette carries the WD & HO Wills name.
There is no sweeter tobacco from Virginia and no better brand than Three Castles.
Three Castles cigarettes were first made by WD & H0 Wills in 1878, a merger of the cigarette company that was founded by the Wills family in 1786 in Bristol, England.
Shortly before World War I the company changed its name to the Imperial Tobacco Company, and today it still produces some of the most famous brands of cigarettes: Embassy, Regal, Woodbine, Capstan and Rizla cigarette paper. A member of the Wills family served the company from 1786 until 1969.
One of Joburg's icons (The Heritage Portal)Parkview Castle, Kilkenny Road
Hidden behind the oak trees of Kilkenny Road, with a manicured garden, Parkview Castle is aptly located on the hill below Westcliff Coppie. It is a large four-room house built by Major John Wesley O'Hara in 1907.
Дом вызывает восхищение – он полностью сделан из камня: у него есть внешняя каменная стена, каменный фонтан в саду и длинная каменная,белая штукатурная веранда,вдоль фасада дома, проходящая вокруг его восточной стороны. Входная дверь замка под фронтоном приветствует посетителя высокими арочными дверьми, прикрепленными к раме большими черными петлями. Сверху серая железная крыша.
The house has 3.6 meter high ceilings, beautiful wood fireplaces, wood floors, beautiful pressed steel ceilings with deep eaves, beautiful light fixtures, and a warm and cozy kitchen with a gorgeous coal stove radiating waves of warm air.
The west wing was the two-story tower that now houses the office of owner Richard Beynon and his wife, Trish Urquhart. Beynon has lived in the house for more than 20 years and would not want to live anywhere else, as he says himself.
Parkview Castle (Google Maps)O'Hara arrived in South Africa from Ireland in 1893, joined the Imperial Light Horse Regiment, and participated as a major in the Anglo-Boer War.
He raised his five daughters and one son in a house that was built of stone. He is said to have modeled it on his grandfather's castle in Ireland, on which was founded a stately three-story U-shaped castle with four large towers.
O'Hara gave the suburb its Irish street names: the most obvious ones are Kilkenny, Kerry, Westmeath, Kildare, Tyrone, Galway.
He became an active member of the community. He was elected to the city council in 1909 and became mayor in 1914. He was also involved in local government until 1930 and remained chairman of the Taxpayers Association in Parkview County for many years
In 1915 he chaired a committee appointed to negotiate with the government for the establishment of a university in Johannesburg.
When the university's will was delivered to Cape Town by the Minister of Education, O'Hara demonstrated his Irish fighting spirit. He called a protest rally at City Hall, attended by some 2,500 people, including mayors from nearby towns.
The result was a decision to raise money locally, and the council began to get the ball rolling by donating an 80-acre parcel west of Braamfontein, which was farmland and a stone quarry. The first stone for the central block was laid in 1922, and the University of the Witwatersrand opened the following year.
Façade of Robert SobukweO'Hara died in 1948 at Cluff in KwaZulu-Natal, apparently on leave. His wife Ivy lived at the castle until her death, at age 73 in 1946.
The house was then sold to Israel and Jenny Targowski, who divided the property, allowing the stone stables to become part of the neighbor's property. In 1953 Judge George Munnick and his wife Mary bought the house and made additional alterations to it.
They closed the lobby on the east side of the stables, making it a nice sunroom. They added a bathroom to the master bedroom and made many other small changes.
«Я приложил огромные усилия, чтобы подобрать цвет передних столбов к каменным стенам», – говорит Мари Мунник. В наши дни столбы окрашены в белый цвет.
Rand ClubMunnick describes an original wood, brass, and orange tile fireplace in a living room as large as the ceilings by 3.6 meters. It consisted of three sections, the lower section being opened to light the fire, then, when the fire burned, the upper section was opened so that the heat could flood the room.
She says the fireplace was commissioned for the Rand Club downtown, but when O'Hara saw it, he took it for his home.
Because of its height, the upper third of the fireplace was removed and placed in the garage, from where it disappeared. When the Munics sold the house in 1961, they took the fireplace with them, and it is now in their daughter's home in Parktown.
Munnick also says there was a buzzer in the bathroom, perhaps to call the butler. O'Hara had several master switches in the master bedroom, one of which plunged the entire house into darkness. Apparently he meant business when he said to his family at night, "Lights out."
Munnick says she still dreams about the house and, in particular, the planned renovations.
Rumor has it that neither she nor the current owners have encountered ghosts in the house.
The house had several owners after the Munics sold it and before the current owners bought it in the late 1970s.
Kensington Castle, Highland Road
One of the city's most impressive castles is in Kensington. Built in 1911 of stone, it has 10 rooms on four levels and sits on a hill opposite Lungerman's Copenhagen on Highland Road. It was built of stone taken from the southern edge of Coppie.
It was built by Englishman Samuel Scott Wilson for his wife Kate McKirdy, who agreed to marry him on the condition that he build her a castle. Upon his arrival in Johannesburg, Wilson immediately went to the castle, and the couple moved there in 1911.
A portion of Kensington CastleIt is believed that the castle was modeled on Rothesay Castle in Scotland with the help of the architectural firm of Herbert Baker. Its walls were one meter thick with crenellated walls and two mansard roofs and a ship's cannon in the garden.
The Wilsons lived in the castle for only a few years, having been forced to sell it after falling on hard times, according to The Sunday Times of September 1992. Ownership of the castle changed only three times, and in 1973 the Van den Speck family bought the castle and 30 years later it was taken over by Marius van den Speck, son of the original Van den Speck, given to him by his father in 1982, who spent his last days in Paarl.
Van den Speck Sr. never lived in the castle, even though he spent several years renovating the building. He demolished the east wing and added a huge dining room with battlements and a second passageway tower. He also erected a "Strictly Private, No Passage" sign on the castle's wooden front gate, set into a one-meter-thick stone entrance wall to keep out many prying eyes.
Marius van den Speck is very fond of the castle, The Sunday Times reports. He has spent a lot of time maintaining the castle because the parlor is below ground level and constantly prone to dampness. The dining room, which his father built, also has a leaky roof and damp walls.
Van den Speck had removed the "No Access" sign on the front gate, but that didn't mean he was easy to negotiate with. He considered himself a very private person and he did not want to be contacted, despite repeated attempts.
The castle still imposes its grand and stony presence on the suburb of Kensington, and no doubt still attracts many curious people, hence Van den Speck's reticence.
Castle, Kyalami
The newest and perhaps the most striking castle of Joburg is the Castle in Kyalami. It is a hotel with 24 suites located about 20 kilometers from the city center. Visible from many kilometers around, it is 12 impressive angular stone-colored turrets facing west, extending over one or two acres, reached by a long road dotted with flagpoles and flags flying in the wind.
Kyalami Castle from a distanceIt 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 up for auction. It was bought by Planet Hotels and opened as a 4-star hotel in 2001.
Dinopoulos originally planned to provide a castle for his extended family so that when his two daughters and son married, they would live with their families in the castle.
The original castle consisted of a main house, three self-contained apartments, garages, a yacht workshop and stables covering several acres. The main house has now been converted into 11 en-suite rooms, and the self-contained apartments now consist of 13 en-suite rooms.
Room 11 was originally built for Dinopoulos' son with a separate entrance and spiral staircase to the kitchen because, according to his father, "the boys would get hungry at night."
The hotel restaurant, Bastion, was originally a sunken lounge with a full-size pool table. The lounge has been modified, and the room now seats 120 guests.
What was originally the entertainment room of the Dinopoulos family was later turned into the hotel's wine cellar. It now accommodates 20 people as a cozy dining room with a separate entrance.
Kyalami Castle from aboveThe original sauna and jacuzzi in the tower have been preserved, as well as the swimming pool and the clay, tennis court. The stables with 22 horses were converted into a conference center for 500 people with a modern kitchen.
The original garage and yacht workshop were converted into Bailey's conference room. Dinopoulos completed his yacht in the workshop and sailed to the south of Spain, where he remains motionless because his children have grown up and left home.
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