ART DECO HERITAGE PLAQUES JOHANNESBURG.
DORCHESTER MANSIONS
This block of flats with shops on the ground floor was designed in 1931 by
J.C. Cook & Cowen. The elaborate decoration on the facade, combined with
the name of the fashionably grand hotel being built at the same time in
London, were used to attract wealthy tenants. The decorative plasterwork
resembles the striking linear forms used in jewellery of the period, culminating
in the diadem which crowns the central bay.
S.A. PERM
Designed in 1937 by Stucke, Harrison & Smail for the South African
Permanent Mutual Building Society, the large span structure necessitated a
heavy perforated beam above the grand space of the banking hall. This
carried the massive weight of the eleven levels above. The curvilinear
corners, emphasised by the horizontal bands of green and pink terrazzo, are
reminiscent of the German architect, Mendelsohn. It was the first building in
the city centre to have underground parking. The original double volume
brass and glass entrance screen on the corner and doorway gave a sense of
lightness and welcome to clients, without detracting from the gravitas
conveyed by the polished black granite.
S.A. MUTUAL BUILDINGS.
This fine office block was designed in 1935 by Stucke, Harrison & Smail for
the South African Mutual Life Assurance Society (now Old Mutual) and served
as its Johannesburg headquarters for over fifty years. The fine bronze lamps,
and the brass fittings for doors and lifts were made in Johannesburg by
Frederick Sage and Co. and adorned the impressive banking hall on the
ground floor. They are worthy echoes of the Rockefeller Centre in New York.
A special Act of Parliament exempted the Mutual Assurance from taxation
levied on banks and building societies.
STANHOPE MANSIONS
Designed in 1934 by J.C. Cook & Cowen .this block of relatively modest flats and
uses stylised patterns depicting plants, sunburst designs, rondels and radials in bas
relief to embellish what would otherwise be a rather plain exterior.
UNION CASTLE BUILDINGS.
This was designed in 1938 by J.A. Moffatt & T.N. Duncan as the
Johannesburg office of the Union Castle Mail Steamship Company Limited,
founded in by Donald Currie whose name is associated with competitions in
cricket and rugby. Until 197 the Union Castle line had regular passenger and
freight services between South Africa and England which also carried the mail
NATIONAL UNION OF MINEWORKERS
Formerly HUDACO HOUSE
Built in 1934 for Hubert Davies and Company which imported, manufactured
and installed engineering equipment and machinery for industry and the
mines throughout Southern Africa. Founded in 1894 by J Hubert Davies a
consulting engineer from Scotland who had come to the Rand in1889, the
company’s first big projects were the electrification of various mines. The
strong vertical lines of the building build up to the dramatically sculpted corner
tower with the simple straight lines of the beamed entrance to an Egyptian
temple. Perhaps appropriately this structure holds the lift motor rooms, the
machinery which empowers workers to rise to the top.