| Date: | 1938 | Type: | Homestead | |
| Status: | Unknown |
| | This is a mansion in the suburb of Newlands, Cape Town, was the country residence that superseded Rustenburg House as residence for governors of the VOC, originally built in 1751 for the governor Ryk Tulbagh. Fransen (2004:111) attests that, however, Simon van der Stel had a garden residence erected there, evidenced by a unique hexagonal Voorhuis or voorkamer (front room) discovered during C21 excavations when building there.
Various other VOC governors lived in the house until the extravagant CJ van de Graaff was recalled and the house and property (some 60 ha) sold to Hendrik Vos (who was related to the family of silversmiths of that name) in 1791.
Upon the First British occupation in 1795, Vos divided and sold the property, the house being bought in 1798 by three young English civil servants, John Barrow (later Sir John), Aichison Maxwell and Edward Buckley. From them it passed into the hands of Francis Venables, who sold it to William Duckitt, the farming pioneer, in 1805. It was Sir David Baird who, by bringing pressure to bear on Duckitt to exchange the house and the greater part of the property for Witteboom, reassembled the old lands in 1806. Perhaps the best known of the English governors is Lord Charles Somerset (1813-26), who attempted the addition of an upper storey. The walls of unbaked brick collapsed in the winter gales of 1819. A low- pitched roof of Georgian style replaced the old thatch, curved ends were added to the front rooms, and a veranda (the first to be built in South Africa) was also added
When Somerset resigned, cries of extravagance were raised and in 1828 the property was sold, coming eventually, in 1859, into the possession of Dr Jonas Hiddingh, who put the house and estate once more into perfect order and filled the rooms with fine pictures, statuary and furniture. He entailed the property, but the first heir, taking very little interest in it, let it to the British government, so that it once more became a country residence for the governors. Many famous men occupied it - Sir Henry Loch, Sir Hercules Robinson, Sir Alfred Milner and Sir Walter Hely-Hutchinson. Since the entail prevented the purchase of the Newlands estate, Westbrooke was bought in 1911 for Viscount Gladstone, first Governor-General of the Union of South Africa (1910-14). For years the house stood unoccupied until, in 1919, the painter R Gwelo GOODMAN rented it for ten years and entertained many famous visitors. Finally the entail was broken and in 1938 C Newton Thompson, a judge of the Supreme Court, bought the house together with 3ha. The rest of the estate was sold in building lots. [After Joyce Newton Thompson in SESA].
In 1981 Newlands House was to be turned into a restaurant when an electrical short caused it to burn out. It was transferred to the government to be restored and used as a minister's residence. Red tape caused several years' delay, and neglect caused the walls, which had been left standing, to disintegrate. It was nevertheless decided to rebuild the house, which today cannot be regarded as more than a good replica of a house with a fascinating cultural and architectural history. (Fransen 2004:112).
Books that reference Newlands House |
