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House PH Marais, Highbury Kenilworth, Cape Town, Western Cape Anthony (Antonie) Mauritz DE WITT: Architect

Date: 1895 Type: Homestead Status: Demolished c1960

Survey plans and diagrams reveal that Petrus H. Marais bought a large (7185.90 sq m) property, known as 'Wynberg Villa', in April 1896. 'Highbury' was built in the grounds, and in September 1918 it was separated from Wynberg Villa and transferred to Hector B. Morris. The photo of the house in Picton-Seymour's Victorian Buildings in South Africa (pg 117) shows a double-storeyed house with what appears to be a mansard roof edged with wrought iron lacework; at least two verandahs with balconies above; and a tower with conical roof at the NW corner. Picton-Seymour describes it as "solid, well proportioned yet romantic, columns and balustrading making a weighty base for the varied roof levels and turret, all decorated with very lacy ironwork". The house was demolished in the late 1950s or early 1960s, to make way for a block of flats, also named 'Highbury'. References: Bakker, Karel A, Clarke, Nicholas J & Fisher, Roger C. 2014. Eclectic ZA Wilhelmiens : A shared Dutch built heritage in South Africa. Pretoria: Visual Books. pg 61 Picton-Seymour, Désirée. 1977. Victorian Buildings in South Africa. Cape Town: AA Balkema. pg 117, 121 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 Johannesburg: Unpublished Ph.D thesis.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 314