Hawthornden House is a double-storeyed house on Herschel Walk in the suburb of Wynberg in

Cape Town, South Africa Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

. The house likely dates from 1683, but was substantially rebuilt in the French

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

style in 1881 by a Capt. John Spence. It was bought by the

Randlord The Randlords () were the capitalists who controlled the diamond and gold mining industries in South Africa from the 1870s to the First World War. A small number of European financiers, largely of the same generation, gained control of the diamon ...

Sir J.B. Robinson in 1891 and was where he lived until his death in 1927. Count Natale Labia, grandson of J.B. Robinson, donated Hawthornden to what is now the Government of the

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

in 1978, but continued to live there until his death in 2016. The site was declared a

national monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a sp ...

in 1983 and became a provincial heritage site in 2000 when the legislation changed.Section 58(11)(a), National Heritage Resources Act, Act 25 of 1999, Government Notice 506, Republic of South Africa Government Gazette, Vol. 406, No 19974, Cape Town, 28 April 1999 In 2014 the area protected was extended to include the entire remaining gardens. Hawthornden is one of the major surviving examples of high style Victorian domestic architecture in Cape Town. It is a private dwelling and is not open to the public.

References

{{coord missing, South Africa 17th-century establishments in the Cape Colony Houses in Cape Town South African heritage sites Houses completed in 1683 Victorian architecture in South Africa

See also

References