CAPE TOWN CITY ENGINEERS DEPARTMENT (Former MUNICIPALITY of CAPE TOWN)

Engineer

As Shorten (1963: 334) states
... much of the history of the Department is the history of Cape Town itself.

Within the Former Municipality was an Architect and Engineers Office. And early holder of the position of Architect and Engineer was Walter REIDREID, he was employed as Municipal Architect and Chief Assistant Engineer to the Cape Town municipality, a post he held for a year (1886 to 1887), and again by 1890, Reid had returned to Cape Town and had resumed his post with the municipality, resigning in 1894 and setting up independent practice in 1895

The contemporary creation of the City Engineer's Department dates from the Unification Ordinance of 1913 which required the integration of various engineering departments and branches into a single entity. This was at first the onerous task of WJ JEFFRIES, but was in fact achieved by his successor IN 1914, DE LLOYD-DAVIES. In 1928 he decentralized the Department into Sections including Architecture, Building Survey, Chemical, Cleansing, Land Survey, Roads and Drainage, and Waterworks to which were added Development (1937) and Quantity Survey (1938), Mechanical Engineering (1947) and Forests, Parks and Gardens (1952).

Up until 1963 the City Engineers were as follow:
WJ JEFFRIES (1913-1914)
DE LLOYD-DAVIES (1914-1932)
J THOMPSON (Acting 1932-1934)
TP FRANCIS (1934-1936; died in office)
WS LUNN (1936-1950)
SS MORRIS (1950-) (Shorten, 1963:346).

List of projects

With photographs
With notes

Athlone Power Station: 1954. Cape Town, Western Cape - Engineer

Municipal Baths Long Street : Turkish Baths: 1908 : 1926. Cape Town, Western Cape - Engineer 1908 *

Public Convenience: 1895. Riebeeck Square, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect

Public Convenience: 1895. Prestwich Memorial Precinct, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect

Public Convenience: 1895. Woodstock, Western Cape - Architect

Public Convenience, Chalet: 1895. Company Gardens, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect

Wemmershoek Dam Administration Building and Purification Plant: 1957. Franschhoek, Western Cape - Engineer

Wemmershoek Dam Hoist Gallery: 1957. Franschhoek, Western Cape - Engineer

Wemmershoek Dam Inflow-outflow Control Station: 1957. Franschhoek, Western Cape - Engineer

Books citing CAPE TOWN CITY ENGINEERS DEPARTMENT (Former MUNICIPALITY of CAPE TOWN)

Shorten, John R. 1963. Cape Town : A record of the Mother City from the earliest days to the present. Cape Town: JR Shorten in association with Shorten and Smith Publications. pp 334-346