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CATALOGUE NO: 500, 501
Doornfontein
HERITAGE RESOURCES SURVEYING FORM
The National Estate comprises all places and objects of cultural significance, otherwise known as heritage
resources. In terms of section 2 of the National Heritage Resources Act, 1999, a place could be a site, area or
region, an open space, including a public square, street or park, an individual building or other structure, or
group of buildings or structures, made by people and which are fixed to land. The immediate surroundings of a
place of cultural significance are equally pertinent to the protection and management of such a place.
GREATER ELLIS PARK DEVELOPMENT
DATE RECORDED: 2005
Compiled and recorded by: William Martinson; Henry Paine; Johann Bruwer; Catharina Bruwer; Jonathan Manning.
Stand No. 500: 10 Nind Street
The original factory and brick work detail.
henry paine
+
barry gould
Heritage Resources Management
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NAME AND LOCATION:
Stand number/s
Township
Street address
GIS reference
Previous stand number/s
Name of place
Previous/alternative name/s
500, 501
Doornfontein
10, 12 Nind
GROSS VINEGAR FACTORY
ARCHITECT
Paynter, William
DATE OF COMPLETION
20 April 1923
ESTIMATED COST
£4700
BUILDER
BUILDING STYLE
Utilitarian small scale factory and warehouse.
BUILDING TYPE
Light industrial factory and warehouse.
TITLE DEED INFORMATION
Original owner: Elias Gross
Period
NOTABLE SITE FEATURES:
None.
ENVIRONMENT:
Buildings surrounding it are of similar scale but much higher scale across Nind Street to the west.
INSCRIPTION:
None.
CONDITION:
Fair.
OCCUPIED
VACANT
DESCRIPTION OF PLACE:
Plan/s for closets and drainage to Stand Nos. 500, 525 and 526 were approved during 1918; these
were retained when the vinegar store were built.
Stand No. 500: Double storey building (load bearing walls) with basement; reinforced concrete
beams over basement; concrete floor to Basement and Ground Floor; suspended wood floor to First
Floor; winder staircase; door flaps on Ground Floor to Basement; Empirical trusses and corrugated
iron roof. This building was designed as store for vinegar and a laboratory was included on the
Ground Floor; no drainage included on the original plan. A raised platform with two doors and one
sliding door is situated on the north elevation.
Double storey face brick warehouse with double pitched corrugated iron roof, gable to street façade.
New (1960’s) additional factory building to the north (Stand No. 501).
ALTERATIONS:
Alterations: plans approved – 24 July 1947; estimated cost - £15; architects - Kling & Trope.
Alterations and additions: plans approved – 23 January 1948; estimated cost - £645; completed –
18 August 1948; additional value - £450; architects – Kling & Trope.
Drainage: plans approved –30 April 1952; estimated cost - £50; architects - Kling & Trope.
2003: Is this building in the process of being illegally stripped as all the corrugated iron sheets
from the original factory roof are removed.
INTEGRITY:
ZONING:
Current use/s
Light industrial.
OCCUPANCY HISTORY:
Date
Owner/s
1954
Address
10, 12 Nind
Previous use/s
Occupancy
Gross Vinegar Factory
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SITE HISTORY:
Stand No. 500
Stand No. 501
Note on Application for Approval of Plans “Allow £60-0-0 for old Wood and Iron
building removed” (2.). See Block Plan for the position of this structure. The
existing earth closets for “Native and European” were retained.
An open shed was erected during 1929 at a cost of ₤500.
GENERAL NOTES:
Date on plans
: 26 January 1922
Estimated cost of building
: £4700
Approval of plans
:
Valuation at completion
: £1150
Completion date
: 20 April 1923
“PAYNTER, William 1871 - Jul 1943, An architect practising in Johannesburg in 1915 until his
retirement in 1943, Paynter was born in Simon's Town and came to the Witwatersrand as a
youngster when gold was discovered. He had originally been apprenticed as a master craftsman in
woodwork and does not appear to have had any formal architectural training. Much of his
architectural work was of a small domestic nature; among his few recorded works are the Boksburg
North Synagogue and Parktown Mansions (see also PEARSE, GE). ISAA 1927. (ISAA mem list;
Norwich 1985, 1987; UTD 1915)”. (1.)
Gross Vinegar is currently manufactured by S.A.D. Foods Limited, 11 Main Road, Wellington, 7655.
The residential address of the original owner Elias Gross was 73 Eight Street, Orange Grove,
Johannesburg.
1952: value of Stand Nos. 500, 501 - £1750.
2005: The weathered painted sign indicating “Vinegar Factory” is a reminder of the original
purpose of the building.
PROTECTION STATUS (under the National Heritage Resources Act, 1999):
Section 34(1) structure(*60 Year Rule*)
Provisional protection
Provincial heritage site
Protected area
National heritage site
Heritage area
Provincial heritage resources register, including places of local importance
Remarks:
CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE OF PLACE:
Assessment criteria as set out in Section 3(3)
of the National Heritage Resources Act, 1999
Importance in the community, or pattern of SA
history.
Possession of uncommon, rare or endangered aspect
of SA’s natural or cultural heritage.
Potential to yield information that will contribute to
an understanding of SA’s natural or cultural
heritage.
Importance
in
demonstrating
the
principle
characteristics of a particular class of SA’s natural or
cultural places.
Importance in exhibiting particular aesthetic
characteristics valued by the community or cultural
group.
Importance in demonstrating a high degree of
creative or technical achievement at a particular
period.
Strong or special association with a particular
community or cultural group for social, cultural or
spiritual reasons.
Strong or special association with the life or work of
a person, group or organisation of importance in the
history of SA.
Site of significance relating to the history of slavery
in SA.
Contextual significance (not part of Section 3(3)
criteria of the National Heritage Resources Act,
1999).
Explanatory notes
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STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE:
This light industrial building dates from 1923. Its original use was as a warehouse for the storage
of vinegar. The original owner Elias Gross played an important role as a local entrepreneur in the
development of Doornfontein. The building contributes in an important way to the small scale grain
and texture of Doornfontein. It is a relatively intact example of a light industrial building of its age
and represents an example of the transition and layered development of light industries in the
suburb of Doornfontein. This building makes a group of similar buildings with its neighbour to the
north as well as the group of face brick, gabled industrial building further north on Nind Street. A
special effort should be made to retain the weathered painted sign “Vinegar Factory” appearing on
the gable of the section of the building on Stand 500, as this is interrelated to the historic use of the
property and the intrinsic significance of the building.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
Urgent action
Protection status of place
Should the place be formally
protected under the National
Heritage Resources Act, 1999?
Presentation of place
Measures to be taken with regard
to the erection of explanatory
plaques etc., in order to suitably
indicate the heritage value of the
place.
Future management of place
as a heritage resource
Measures to be taken in order to
ensure
the
sustainable
conservation of the place.
Specific recommendations, if any, and remarks
Specific recommendations, if any, and remarks
Specific recommendations, if any, and remarks
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Below: extracted from the original 1923 plans.
6
Below: extracted from the original 1923 plans.
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Below: extracted from the original 1923 plans.
SOURCES:
Preliminary heritage survey of Greater Ellis Park Development area (unpublished report), HJC Paine et
al, December 2003.
The Rand-Pretoria Directory 1954 (Comprising Complete Alphabetical And Trades Directories of
Johannesburg, Pretoria And Reef Towns), Cape Times Limited, Cape Town, 1954.
1.
Architects In South Africa 1780 – 1940; Draft manuscript, J Walker & G M van der Waal, 1992,
HSRC, Pretoria.
2.
Plans record: 500, 501 Doornfontein (Archives, Building Control, Development Management,
City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality).