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		House CJ Rhodes: The Woolsack Rondebosch, Cape Town, Western Cape Sir Herbert BAKER: Architect

Date: 1900 Client: CJ Rhodes Type: Homestead Style: Cape Dutch Revival Status: Extant   Click to view large map Coordinates: Alt: 67m

On the Groote Schuur estate, Herbert BAKER in 1900 built this house for Cecil RHODES, to house visitors. Rudyard Kipling was a frequent guest here. Built in Cape Dutch revival style, it keeps closer to its prototypes than most of BAKER's work in this style (except for the arcaded atrium between its back wings - now roofed over). It uses plausible holbol gables and good copies of casement windows (though ignoring the gable width). The year before, BAKER had 'restored' Nooitgedacht, and presumably got to know the style more intimately. [Fransen 2004:104.] Nowadays the house serves as a recreational centre for the Woolsack student accommodation built around it. References: Baker, Herbert. 1944. Architecture & personalities. London: Country Life. pg b&w photos, 34-35 Fransen, Hans. 2004. The old buildings of the Cape. A survey of extant architecture from before c1910 in the area of Cape Town - Calvinia - Colesberg - Uitenhage. Johannesburg & Cape Town: Jonathan Ball Publishers. pg 104 Greig, Doreen. 1970. Herbert Baker in South Africa. Cape Town: PURNELL. pg 61, 62 Stewart, John . 2021. Sir Herbert Baker : architect to the British Empire. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc.. pg 43, 47 ill, 48, 51, 78, 95 Walker, Michael. 2012. Early architects of Cape Town and their buildings (1820 - 1926) with postcard illustrations, The. St James: Michael Walker. pg 91