The gabled veranda house: The everyday dwelling of colonial Durban by Michele Jacobs Introduction Over the years much has been written demolition.’1 It is these houses of the concerning the fate of the large colonial everyday that are the focus of this paper houses of Durban in both the local press in which the typical central passage plan and architectural journals. The publicity with the ‘Natal back’ is explained. The generated around these large, virtuoso characteristics and style of the front houses has contributed to their restora- elevation of the gabled veranda house tion and a change from domestic to is also analysed in terms of its principal various commercial functions that have components: the veranda, the gable and rescued them from demolition. fenestration. It is the small houses, many anony- Close scrutiny and analysis of the mously designed, what can be termed plans and elevations of a representa- the homes of the everyday, that are more tive number of gabled veranda houses susceptible to demolition and ruin. As in the Original Drawings Collection Oliver states: ‘as a result of a lack of (ODC)2 of the School of Architecture value placed upon small vernacular at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, buildings of domestic use’ many have shed light on this popular and neglected been lost ‘through accident, neglect, everyday house typology of the late decline of traditions or deliberate Victorian, Edwardian and early Union 39 Natalia 49 (2019) Copyright © Natal Society Foundation 2019 The gabled veranda house period in Durban. It is unfortunate that The ODC reveals that these character- many of these houses have disappeared istics can be recognised in the small, and those that survive are often hidden anonymously designed and ordinary behind high walls topped with razor everyday houses of Durban. Further- wire or electric fencing. more, the fact that a third of the draw- Others have become isolated by the ings in the collection were anonymously expansion of large developments such created adds credence to their value as as suburban shopping centres and hos- they provide important insight into the pitals. These are the nucleus of the sa- ordinary and everyday domestic archi- tellisation of which Baudrillard speaks,3 tecture of many of the European colo- in which these large developments nial settlers of the time. It could be said are the nucleus around which satellite that the preservation of the surviving businesses spring up. In the context of houses is important because they have these remaining houses, they become ‘collective and symbolic meaning’ even the ‘remnants and waste products’, the though they may not be ‘monumental’.6 detritus of the nucleus, isolated and un- suitable for domestic occupation; with The plan the only option a change of function to The ODC confirms that the plan of the adapt to this new built environment and gabled veranda house was a variation landscape around them. of the four-roomed house with a central corridor with the kitchen at the back The everyday separated from a bathroom and pantry Lefebvre says the everyday is ‘the by a veranda in the form of a ‘Natal most universal and the most unique back’. Several factors contributed to the condition, the most social and the most incorporation of the ‘Natal back’ under individuated, the most obvious and the an articulated veranda in the transition best hidden.’ So he asks ‘why wouldn’t from the first wattle and daub ‘Bundu the concept of everydayness reveal the style’ houses to the permanent dwell- extraordinary in the ordinary.’4 ings that followed.7 Although Berke says an architecture According to Norberg-Schulz ‘di- of the everyday resists strict definition, rected plans have been legion during she relates the following characteristics: the course of history’ where in smaller houses the direction is simply a matter it may be generic and anonymous, unostentatious, it may be regarded as of axial symmetry, whereas in the larger banal or common, it does not seek dis- ones it may be marked by a passage onto tinction by trying to be extraordinary, which rooms are added on either side. it may be quite ordinary, unselfcon- ‘The passage usually leads to a goal, scious, it may be crude but also sen- be it a major room or a veranda. Often sual, provoking sight, touch, hearing it runs across the main volume to con- and smell and it may also be vulgar nect its two sides.’8 Durban’s colonial by rejecting good taste, and visceral. houses conformed to this concept of the But more importantly architecture of directed plan form in axial asymmetry, the ‘everyday’ acknowledges domestic which is evident in the central passage life, is functional: a requirement to sat- houses in the drawings of gabled ve- isfy rather than a style to emulate, and architecture of the everyday is built.5 randa houses under discussion. 40 Natalia 49 (2019) CC-BY-NC cc Natal Society Foundation 2019 The gabled veranda house According to Radford, up until 1890 vided ‘a convenient set of functional cooking took place ‘in a small build- and private spaces beyond the more ing set apart for this purpose’. The genteel front.’11 detached kitchen was placed at a safe distance from the house. ‘It was almost always placed at the back of the main building, sufficiently far away not to be a fire hazard but not too far away to cause problems with cold food.’9 He describes the three primary factors that involved the separation of the kitchen from the main house. These were fire risk, the discomfort associated with cooking in hot climates, and social and racial segregation. This was evident in the earliest ‘Bundu style’ dwellings and persisted until technological changes facilitated the attachment of the kitchen to the back of the permanent dwellings that followed and continued well into the 1930s. The reason for this arrangement in the ‘Bundu style’ dwellings in colo- Typical central passage plan with nial Natal, and particularly in Durban, ‘Natal back’ was the fire hazard of materials such as thatch on the roof, heat and odours According to Radford the demise of the associated with the cooking process separate kitchen toward the end of the in a sub-tropical climate, and the need nineteenth century, was the ‘diminish- for ventilation caused by the use of an ment or virtual extinction of the fire open fire for cooking. Finally, and more hazard’ through use of fire-resistant ma- important, there was the separation of terials such as the corrugated iron roof, spaces of servant and master. and replacement of the open fire with Radford explains that this major the economical kitchen range. This ‘im- change occurred probably in the early proved method of cooking together with 1880s with ‘the addition on to the back better ventilation must have diminished of the house of a small, embryonic the other initial reason for distance that ‘Natal back’.10 Radford credits Kearney is heat and smell.’ When the kitchen, with this appropriate term and explains pantry and bathroom were attached to that it is ‘a deep veranda flanked on one the back of the colonial house in the side by a kitchen and on the other a form of the ‘Natal back’ from the 1890s pantry and in some cases a bathroom.’ on, a clear distinction between the front Various configurations of this standard and back of the house was evident and type are also confirmed in the ODC – a ‘it often retained a quasi-independence bedroom, a morning room or breakfast both on plan and in its structure.’12 With room were also included in the ‘Natal the provision of water-borne sewerage, back’ plan form. The ‘Natal back’ pro- the WC was also attached to the back of 41 Natalia 49 (2019) CC-BY-NC cc Natal Society Foundation 2019 The gabled veranda house the house, albeit under a separate lean-to roof. The ODC also confirms that the central passage running from the front door at the junction of the veranda and gable to the back veranda, usually separated the bedrooms from the parlour or drawing room and dining room. The principal bedroom would be positioned at the front to take advantage of the projecting bay window Front elevation of a gabled veranda house in the gable for light and ventilation. elevation, and more specifically in the According to Radford, these plans veranda, the gable and fenestration in can be seen as independent concep- the form of windows and doors. tual models in the context of ‘the largely unconscious, culturally-condi- The veranda tioned agreement among people as to Vellinga, Oliver and Bridge define the what constitutes an appropriate house veranda as ‘an open or partially walled, form.’13 It therefore became, over time roofed and often slightly raised living and with strong cross influences, com- area on the ground floor.’15 Kearney mon knowledge that the plan should uses Ward, Lock and Co’s 1888 Diction- be laid out in a certain way. These ary of the Leading Technical and Trade plans were therefore configurations of Terms definition for the veranda: a conceptual template. This confirms Winter’s statement that the common a covered way open at one side, language of construction was shared surrounding or partly surrounding a by architect, builder and craftsman and house, generally at the level of the that construction became codified and ground floor. The feature of the veran- da is a light roof projecting and sloping so well understood that the builder did 14 from the outside wall of a house of a not need details from the architect.