Contact Artefacts please if you have any comments or more information regarding this record.	Menu Home Upfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon		Gill College KwaNojoli (Somerset East), Eastern Cape VARIOUS: Architect James BISSET: Architect 1865 SIEMERINK and BRINKMAN: Architect 1935

Date: 1869 Type: School Status: Extant   Click to view large map Coordinates: 32°43'19.99" S 25°35'17.49" E

The College comprises several buildings, the original college built in 1869 which is now the library, College House built in 1892 is the boys' hostel and the Old Bellevue Seminary which was the girls' high school. The college was established in 1869 through a bequest of Dr William Gill (1795-1863) as a high school and university training centre for boys. It was originally intended as a university for the Eastern Cape but, owing to strong opposition from the newly formed Rhodes University College, it was unable to meet the regulation that limited university college status to institutions with over 75 matriculated pupils. In 1903 it became a high school only. Gill College was one of the first institutions of higher education in South Africa to admit women. It seems that one of the buildings was designed in 1935 by SIEMERINK & BRINKMAN. (SAB May 1935:47) (See also Wikipedia) References: Kramer, Patricia & Proust, Alain. 2021. Hidden Karoo. Cape Town: Struik Lifestyle. pg 130 +ill Radford, D. 1979. The architecture of the Western Cape, 1838-1901. A study of the impact of Victorian aesthetics and technology on South African architecture. Johannesburg: Unpublished Ph.D thesis. Dept of Arch. University of the Witwatersrand. pg 111 Richardson, Deirdré. 2001. Historic Sites of South Africa. Cape Town: Struik Publishers. pg 42