Lovers of history and heritage can look forward to exploring some of these on a walking tour with the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation.
The tour, Parktown – West of Jan Smuts Avenue, will take sightseers around the houses that have fallen into the deep shadows cast by the legendary Herbert Baker.
“When the satirist Denis Santry built his house in Rhodes Avenue, he called it Kleine Schuur in demure and tongue-in-cheek reference to the grand home in the Cape,” said the foundation’s Flo Bird.
“In keeping with the concept, he employed the architect Joseph Solomon, one of Baker’s understudies.”
Bird said Baker employed a number of top-class architects, many of whom went on to start their own highly successful practices.
“However, the talent of these architects is often overlooked or even attributed, entirely incorrectly, to Baker himself,” she said.
The tour will include access and views to the garden of at least one home.
Along the way, sightseers will see such stately homes as Bishopskop, built for Archdeacon Furse in 1904, and architect Robert Howden’s house.
“Other architects to be featured are Richard Sloper, Francis Fleming, and Solomon,” said Bird.
“Join us for a tour that celebrates the underdog, the beautifully-detailed but modest homes and their architects, in this oft-forgotten part of the ridge.”
The tour will take place on 10 May and will begin at the park between Seymour and Falklands avenues, Parktown West, at 2pm.
Booking is essential.
Details: 011 482 3349; www.joburgheritage.co.za; www.computicket.com
-
-
-
-
