LEWIS, John (Colonel)

Military Engineer

Lewis was Commanding Officer of the ROYAL ENGINEERS at the Cape around 1839, and was responsible for several early buildings in Cape Town: he designed the first buildings of the South African College with J ADAMSON in 1841 and Woodstock Military Hospital. Radford notes that the College was built in the Egyptian style, one of only two buildings in the country in this style (Radford 1979:210). The Military Hospital, Georgian in style, was among the first hospital buildings in the country, it was considered unsuccessful due to its poor drainage and lack of cross-ventilation. Before he left in 1843, he sold a number of architectural books in Cape Town.

All truncated references not fully cited in 'References' are those of Joanna Walker's original text and cited in full in the 'Bibliography' entry of the Lexicon.

List of projects

With photographs
With notes

Military Hospital: pre-1843. Woodstock, Western Cape - Architect

Books citing LEWIS

Greig, Doreen. 1971. A Guide to Architecture in South Africa. Cape Town: Howard Timmins. pp 39

Lewcock, Ronald. 1963. Early Nineteenth Century Architecture in South Africa : a study of the interaction of two cultures, 1795-1837. Cape Town: AA Balkema. pp 277, 292, 444

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 Johannesburg: Unpublished Ph.D thesis.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. pp