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House Neave - Fairfield Claremont, Cape Town, Western Cape TULLY and WATERS: Architect

Date: 1902 Client: C Stewart Neave Type: Homestead Status: Adaptive re-use Street: Harfield Road

Double-storeyed house, stables, coach-house and stores for C Stewart Neave (Pryce-Lewis list 822). Curtis Stewart Neave, owner of the Crown Hotel built this house in the hotel grounds in 1902, and named it 'Fairfield'. He sold the hotel and part of the grounds in 1916, but kept Fairfield and the rest of the property. Fairfield was the venue for a private royal family luncheon to celebrate Princess (later Queen) Elizabeth's 21st birthday in 1947. The royal family was touring South Africa at the time. The house was acquired by the Kingsbury Maternity Home in 1951, and was used as such for the following forty years. The proprietors sold part of the grounds in 1959, and a block of flats named 'Fairfield' was later built there. The maternity home was incorporated into the new Life Kingsbury Hospital complex in 1992, and is currently called 'Kingsbury House'. The house is double-storeyed, with a verandah and a first-floor balcony, and bow windows at the eastern end. Aerial surveys from the 1930s show a wing projecting from the back of the house, forming an L-shaped footprint. A second wing was added to the front of the house in the 1950s. Both wings were demolished in the early 1990s. (Arthur Radburn, July 2025)