BETWEEN MEMORY AND HISTORY:
THE RESTORATION OF TULBAGH AS CULTURAL SIGNIFIER
A 60-credit dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the Degree of Master of Philosophy in the Conservation of the Built Environment.
- Jayson Augustyn-Clark (CLRJAS001)
- University of Cape Town / June 2017
Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment: School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics
The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or noncommercial research purposes only.
Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author.
‘A measure of civilization’
Let us always remember that our historical buildings are not only big tourist
attractions… more than just tradition…these buildings are a visible, tangible history.
These buildings are an important indication of our level of civilisation and a convincing proof for a judgmental critical world - that for more than 300 years a structured and proper Western civilisation has flourished and exist here at the southern point of Africa. The visible tracks of our cultural heritage are our historic buildings…they are undoubtedly the deeds to the land we love and which God in his mercy gave to us. 1 2
Fig.1. Front cover – The reconstructed splendour of Church Street boasts seven gabled houses in a row along its western side. The author’s house (House 24, Tulbagh Country Guest House) is behind the tree (photo by Norman Collins).
1 Church Street inaugural speech by Prime Minister Vorster on the 16th March 1974. Fagan and Fagan. Church Street in het
Land van Waveren (Cape Town: Printpak, 1974)175.
2 Translated from the original Afrikaans to English by Jacolette Kloppers (Media 24) and edited by author thereafter. Afrikaans
original text: ‘Laat ons dit altyd onthou, dat ons geskiedkundige geboue nie slegs daar is as groot toeriste-aantreklikhede nie. Hulle is selfs meer as luisterryke tradisie: hulle is sigbare, tasbare geskiedenis. Hulle is ‘n vername maatstaf van ons beskawingspeil en ‘n oortuigende bewys aan ‘n bevoordeelde, kritiese wêreld, dat vir meer as 300 jaar reeds daar ‘n
ordelike Westerse beskawing hier op die Suiderpunt van Afrika bestaan en floreer. Elke beskaafde land is trots op die spore wat hy gestap het op sy ontwikkelingspad – en die sigbare spore van ons kultuurerfenis is ons historiese geboue. Laat ons hulle dus sorgsaam bewaar en liefderyk in pand hou vir die nageslag, want hulle is inderdaad die transportaktes van die land wat ons liefhet en wat God in sy genade aan ons gegee het’.
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Statement of Interest
I was born in Cape Town in 1973 and moved to Tulbagh in 2007 to establish a heritage hotel business in Church Street, suitably named Cape Dutch Quarters. Over the last decade I have volunteered, instigated and become deeply involved in local heritage matters. In 2008 I co-initiated the Tulbagh Valley Heritage Foundation which was registered as a local conservation body by Heritage Western Cape in 2013. As the current Chairman of the Foundation, I have worked towards the establishment of a heritage area to include both Church Street and the core of the old village. I am also a longstanding member of the town’s Oudekerk Museum board of trustees and the affiliated Friends of the Museum Association. I am also an executive committee member of the Heritage Association of South Africa, the renamed once powerful Simon van der Stel Foundation.
- Student Name
- Jayson Augustyn-Clark
Student Number Course Convenor
CLRJAS001 Associate Professor S.S. Townsend School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics University of Cape Town
- Supervisors
- Associate Professor Alta Steenkamp
Associate Professor André van Graan
- Editorial assistance
- Dr Patricia Davison (Museologist, cultural anthropologist)
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Plagiarism Declaration
I declare that Between Memory and History: The Restoration of Tulbagh as a Cultural Signifier is my own
work and has not been submitted for any other degree and any other university
I know that plagiarism is wrong. Plagiarism is to use another’s work and pretend that it is one’s own.
I have used the Chicago convention for citation and referencing. Each contribution to, and quotation in this dissertation from the works of others has been correctly attributed, carefully cited and properly referenced.
I have not allowed, and will not allow, anyone to copy my work with the intention of passing it off as his or her own work.
Signature
Jayson Augustyn-Clark
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Dedication
This study is dedicated to six remarkable people who represent over a century of Tulbagh conservation. They are three early Tulbagh residents and three heritage specialists who have become synonymous with the conservation and restoration of Tulbagh:
Sir Meiring and Lady Mary Beck Dr Mary Cook
(1855 – 1919) (1865 – 1929) (1902 – 1981)
- Dr Hans Fransen
- (Born 1931)
- Dr Gwen and Gawie Fagan
- (Born 1924 and 1925)
Fig. 2. Gwen and Gawie Fagan at the inauguration of the restored Drostdy (Cape Times, 8 October 1974).
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Acknowledgements
First and foremost my thanks go to my mother who instilled my appreciation for architecture, history, antiques, art, travel and things of beauty in general. She was born in 1947 in Dorchester, UK, as Joan Mary Harris (Ginny); in 1969 she moved to Cape Town, married WB Clark (Brian) in 1971 and died in 2016 in Tulbagh.
I would like to thank my amazing husband Marcel Augustyn-Clark for his unwavering support for my heritage passions and the last three years of my studies. In particular I would like to acknowledge his
seemingly endless translations of long detailed 1969 ‘high’ Afrikaans newspaper articles and National
Monuments Council minutes in particular. My thanks go to Associate Professor Steve Townsend for inspiring me to undertake this Masters Degree, for challenging me throughout and putting up with my enthusiasm for so long.
My primary (external) supervisor Professor André van Graan has been my Gibraltar. He is as patient as he is knowledgeable while his thought-provoking comments and insight reassured and guided me through the year and brought a calming and stable influence to the research project.
My secondary (internal) supervisor Alta Steenkamp has strategically moved my research and I have found her input and architectural perspectives very motivating.
My thanks to Wendy Upcott and Graeme Hurst, both friends and talented copy writers, who have selflessly over the years proofed my assignments and many versions of this thesis to remove all traces of my terrible spelling, poor punctuation, and bad grammar. I am also grateful to Doctor Patricia Davison, my neighbour in Church Street, for her detailed editorial assistance.
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Abstract
This dissertation examines heritage as a social construct by way of critically accessing the precursors, proponents and processes of the Tulbagh restoration. This research is focused on understanding the
reasons why and how, after the earthquake of 1969, Church Street was reinstated to its ‘historic’ 18/19th
century appearance. This reconstructive restoration is unpacked within its South African socio-political, 20th-century situation to examine the motivations of the proponents behind the restoration as well as their conservation philosophies that underpinned the stylistic reconstruction of Tulbagh back to what was
regarded as its Cape Dutch ‘best’.
The study comprises of an examination of both the theoretical development and practical application of reconstructions. Research traces the development of conservation in South Africa, first under the Union government and then under the Afrikaner Nationalist government to understand how Afrikaner
Nationalism was superseded by the creation of a white South African identity. Pierre Nora’s theories
around memory and identity are explored and applied in order to contextualise the Tulbagh case study in a theoretical framework to highlight similarities and differences.
The proponents of the Tulbagh restoration consisted of a wide and varied selection of the South African conservation fraternity and included the National Society, the Cape Institute of Architects, historian Dr Mary Cook, the Simon van der Stel Foundation, Anton Rupert and his Historic Homes Company, Gawie and Gwen Fagan and Dr Hans Fransen, as well as the National Monuments Commission/Council. These same role players came together in the decade before the earthquake to formalise their association, conservation resolve and philosophies. The findings of the study suggest that although united with a common vision, philosophy and determination, these conservation advocates all had their own agenda
and differing motivations for their involvement in Tulbagh’s restoration. Motivations ranged from
straightforward conservation concern and a response to the threat of cultural devastation on one hand to ideological nation-building ideals and Afrikaner nationalism on the other. Although politics impacted early on and all three levels of government funded the bulk of the restoration costs, the diversity of the proponents suggests that this project was more complex than being motivated primarily by nationalism.
Keywords: conservation, restoration, reconstruction, heritage, memory, identity, nation-building, Fagan, Tulbagh
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Table of contents
Statement of interest.................................................................................................................................. ii Plagiarism declaration................................................................................................................................iii Dedication..................................................................................................................................................iv Acknowledgements.................................................................................................................................... v Abstract......................................................................................................................................................vi Glossary of terms and definitions ..............................................................................................................xii 1 : INTRODUCTION, METHODOLOGY AND STRUCTURE ................................................................................ - 1 -
2 : PROLOGUE - THE TROPE OF CAPE DUTCH ARCHITECTURE AND ITS ICONIC GABLE 1750 - 1890.............. - 9 - 3 : THEORY, DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF RECONSTRUCTIVE RESTORATION .................................. - 13 - 4 : DEVELOPEMENT OF 'TO-BEST' PHILOSOPHY IN COLONIAL/UNION SOUTH AFRICA 5 : CONTINUED DOMINANCE OF THE 'TO-BEST' IN NATIONALIST SOUTH AFRICA 6 : AN ARCHITECTURAL AND CONSERVATION HISTORY OF TULBAGH
1892 - 1947............ - 28 - 1948 - 1969............ - 44 - 1700 - 1969............ - 60 - 1969 - 1974............ - 77 -
7 : THE POST-EARTHQUAKE SITUATION AND RESTORATION OF TULBAGH
8 : FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................ - 121 - 9 : CONCLUSIONS............................................................................................................................... - 137 - 10 : EPILOGUE – REMEMBERING THE FORGOTTEN.................................................................................. - 141 -
REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................... - 147 -
APPENDIX A THE ‘TULBAGH’ BLUEPRINT AND ITS 1970/80S CONSERVATION CONTEXT .............................. - 157 -
APPENDIX B SYNOPSIS OF PROPONENTS............................................................................................... - 171 -
APPENDIX C FAGANS INITIAL INSPECTION AND TABLES OF SUBSEQUENT INTERVENTION............................ - 186 - APPENDIX D RESPONSE LETTERS TO THE NMC PROVISIONAL PROCLAMATION .......................................... - 230 -
APPENDIX E SIGNIFICANT DECISIONS IN LATER TRC MEETINGS (1970 – 1974).......................................... - 232 -
APPENDIX F REMEMBERING ‘RECENTLY’ LOST FARM HOUSES AND CHURCHES OF THE TULBAGH VALLEY……..251
APPENDIX G ARCHIVAL SOURCES AND INTERVIEWS................................................................................ - 238 -
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Table of figures
Fig.1. The reconstructed splendour of Church Street................................................................................ i Fig.2. Gwen and Gawie Fagan at the inauguration of the restored Drostdy..............................................iv Fig.3. Aerial photograph of the older northern half of a Cape Dutch Church Street ..................................xi
Fig.4. The shattered remains of Thibault’s badge amidst the ruins of the portico of the old Drostdy ....- 8 -
Fig.5. Montpellier in Tulbagh................................................................................................................- 9 - Fig.6. Boschendal in Franschoek.......................................................................................................- 12 - Fig.7. Central Warsaw after Nazi bombing and then after reconstruction...........................................- 20 - Fig.8. Reconstructed Palace of the Grand Duke of Lithuania.............................................................- 21 - Fig.9. Berlin City Palace, ...................................................................................................................- 22 - Fig.10. Colonial facades of Williamsburg ...........................................................................................- 23 -
Fig.11. View of the reconstructed façade of Louisbourg’s main road in Nova Scotia, Canada............- 24 -
Fig.12. Palace Royal, Quebec City, Canada ......................................................................................- 24 - Fig.13. Groote Schuur before and after Rhodes pioneering remodelling ............................................- 29 - Fig.14. Alice Trotters first drawing of the old church of Tulbagh around 1900 ....................................- 30 - Fig.15. The old Tulbagh Drostdy as reconstructed after the fire of 1935 ...........................................- 32 - Fig.16. Tulbagh School......................................................................................................................- 34 -
Fig.17.Reconstruction Cape Town’s Old Supreme Court in Tongaat ................................................- 35 -
Fig.18. Pierneef's ‘Drostdy’ ................................................................................................................- 36 - Fig.19. Groot Constantia....................................................................................................................- 37 -
Fig.20. Swellendam’s Drostdy Museum was ‘de-Victorianised’ in the 1940s .....................................- 40 -
Fig.21. Reinet House .........................................................................................................................- 41 - Fig.22. The Voortrekker monument at its 1948 inauguration ..............................................................- 43 - Fig.23. Jan Van Riebeeck 300 Celebrations on the Grand parade.....................................................- 45 - Fig.24. The Burger House in Stellenbosch.........................................................................................- 47 - Fig.25. The Schreuder Cottage in Stellenbosch.................................................................................- 49 - Fig.26. La Dauphine...........................................................................................................................- 50 - Fig.27. Tuinhuys ...............................................................................................................................- 52 - Fig.28. The cover of Immelman and Quinn’s book .............................................................................- 53 - Fig.29. Restored Stretch Court in Graaff-Reinett................................................................................- 55 - Fig. 30. The Castle of Good Hope......................................................................................................- 56 - Fig. 31. The ‘ambagswerf’ of Swellendam museum ...........................................................................- 58 - Fig. 32. The John Rupert Gallery and the thatched Rupert House residence of Graaff-Reinet...........- 59 -
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Fig. 33. Tented camps arise in the aftermath of the earthquake.........................................................- 59 - Fig. 34. Map of existent pre-1914 Tulbagh buildings..........................................................................- 60 - Fig. 35. Roodezandt Church Settlement and its land grants to 1794..................................................- 61 - Fig. 36. First plots and houses in Church Street in about 1800 ..........................................................- 62 - Fig. 37. Church Street views, North and South by W.J. Burchell, 1811 ..............................................- 63 - Fig. 38. The very early 1861 panoramic photograph ..........................................................................- 64 - Fig. 39. Detail of 1861 photograph.....................................................................................................- 65 - Fig. 40. Last plots in ‘Achterstraat’ and Church Street........................................................................- 66 - Fig. 41. Oudekerk in Tulbagh around 1900 ........................................................................................- 68 - Fig. 42. The ‘Old Bakery’....................................................................................................................- 69 - Fig. 43. Ballotina................................................................................................................................- 70 - Fig. 44. Monbijou ..............................................................................................................................- 71 - Fig. 45. The Tulbagh parsonage .......................................................................................................- 72 - Fig. 46. Victorianised Tulbagh............................................................................................................- 75 - Fig. 47. Pierneef ‘Northern Church Street’..........................................................................................- 76 - Fig. 48. Collage of newspaper headlines after the earthquake...........................................................- 77 - Fig. 49. Fagan’s degrees of conservation intervention .......................................................................- 78 - Fig. 50. Demolition underway in Tulbagh's main road ........................................................................- 81 -
