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		Cheminais Furniture Factory - Gabriel House Plumstead, Cape Town, Western Cape Brian George Lewis MANSERGH: Architect

Date: 1935 Client: B Cheminais (Pty) Type: Retail Status: Adaptive re-use   Click to view map Coordinates: 34°01'21.61" S 18°28'02.91" E Alt: 30m

(SAB Aug 1936:48) (Pryce-Lewis list 16 113, 16 165) Originally built as a factory, store, flat and showroom for B Cheminais known as the Cheminais Furniture Factory. Today known as Gabriel House. Printed caption for 1936 photo: Something New in Period Design – Beauty in Local Industry The word factory has far too long been connected in people's minds with what is always strictly utilitarian and often very ugly. Here, as a change, is a factory of period design which is both attractive and unusual. It stands on a main road near Cape Town and is deliberately "period". It also constitutes a development in the architecture of South Africa which may, and certainly should, suggest other means of beautifying our industrial areas. All truncated references not fully cited below are those of Joanna Walker's original text and cited in full in the 'Bibliography' entry of the Lexicon.