The Egyptian Building is the home of
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...
's
Michaelis School of Fine Art
The Michaelis School of Fine Art was founded in 1925, and is the Fine Arts department of the University of Cape Town. The school's current director is Associate Professor Kurt Campbell.
There are three research institutions associated with the sch ...
on that school's campus on Orange Street in
Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
.
After its foundation on October 1, 1829, the South African Athenaeum (also known as the South African College and the forerunner of the UCT as well as the
South African College Schools
The South African College Schools (colloquially often known as “SACS”) is a public English medium primary and high education institution situated in Newlands - part of the Southern Suburbs region of Cape Town in the Western Cape province of ...
secondary and primary institutions) was for a while housed in an orphanage 'Weeshuis' at the end of
Long Street. This unsatisfactory situation continued until the late 1830s, when Governor Sir
Benjamin D'Urban
Lieutenant General Sir Benjamin D'Urban (16 February 1777 – 25 May 1849) was a British general and colonial administrator, who is best known for his frontier policy when he was the Governor in the Cape Colony (now in South Africa).
Ear ...
granted a plot of land to the school that had once housed a zoo at the end of Government Avenue in
Company's Garden
The Company's Garden is the oldest garden in South Africa, a park and heritage site located in central Cape Town. The garden was originally created in the 1650s by the region's first European settlers and provided fertile ground to grow fres ...
for use while a new building was constructed. The land could be accessed from Government Avenue through Leeuepoort, built by
Louis Michel Thibault
Louis Michel Thibault (28 September 1750 – 15 November 1815), was a French-born South African architect and engineer who designed numerous buildings in the Cape Colony. He was South Africa's first trained architect and brought with him a ...
and
.
The college English professor, James Constantine Adamson, made a rough sketch of the building in the then-popular
Egyptian Revival architecture
Egyptian Revival is an architectural style that uses the motifs and imagery of ancient Egypt. It is attributed generally to the public awareness of ancient Egyptian monuments generated by Napoleon's conquest of Egypt and Admiral Nelson's defeat o ...
style. Col. G.G. Lewis of the
Royal Engineers
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...
adopted the proposal and expanded on it once finished with the old military hospital. When construction began on the new building, the site was still surrounded by the abandoned cages that once held animals for Capetonians' entertainment. It had apparently broken down by the time Prof. Adamson opened the college on April 13, 1841. The construction cost £3,000, but the new building was a major improvement on the cramped conditions on Long Street.
The history of the building is well described in the Cape Town History Site.
Bibliography
* (nl)
Dreyer, Rev. Andries. 1910. ''Historisch Album van de Nederduitsche Gereformeerde Kerk in Suid-Afrika''. Cape Town: Cape Times Beperkt.
* (af)
Hopkins, Dr. H.C. 1965. ''Die Moeder van ons Almal. Geskiedenis van die Gemeente Kaapstad, 1665–1965''. Cape Town/Pretoria: N.G. Kerk-Uitgewers en -Boekhandel.
* Picton-Seymour, Désirée. 1989. ''Historical buildings in South Africa''. Cape Town: Struikhof Publishers.
* Whiteford, R. in Peacock, M.A. 1972. ''Some famous South African Schools, vol. I: English-medium boys' high schools''. Cape Town: Longman Southern Africa.
References
External links
*
Buildings and structures in Cape Town
University of Cape Town
{{SouthAfrica-struct-stub