The Mutual Building ( af, Mutual Gebou), 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, was built as the headquarters of the
South African Mutual Life Assurance Society, now the "
Old Mutual
Old Mutual Limited is a pan-African investment, savings, insurance, and banking group. It is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, the Namibian Stock Exchange and the Botswana Stock Exchange. It was founded in S ...
" insurance and financial services company. It was opened in 1940, but before the end of the 1950s—less than 20 years later—business operations were already moving to another new office at Mutual Park in
Pinelands (north east of the city centre); since then Old Mutual has become an international business and their present head office is in
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
.
The building is a fine example of
art deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
architecture and design, and it has many interesting internal features such as the banking hall, assembly room, directors' board room; external features include a dramatic
ziggurat
A ziggurat (; Cuneiform: 𒅆𒂍𒉪, Akkadian: ', D-stem of ' 'to protrude, to build high', cognate with other Semitic languages like Hebrew ''zaqar'' (זָקַר) 'protrude') is a type of massive structure built in ancient Mesopotamia. It has ...
structure, prismoid (triangular) windows, and one of the longest carved stone
friezes
In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...
in the world. It has been said that it provides evidence of the colonial attitudes of the time, and the "''ideals of colonial government promulgated by Rhodes in the late nineteenth century''".
The Mutual Building is now converted to residential use, although some parts of the building are used commercially. For example, the Banking Hall (which is now an events venue) and the retail shops that operate outside on the ground level.
History
The business
The
Old Mutual
Old Mutual Limited is a pan-African investment, savings, insurance, and banking group. It is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, the Namibian Stock Exchange and the Botswana Stock Exchange. It was founded in S ...
business has a long history. In 1845 John Fairbairn (a Scot) founded "The Mutual Life Assurance Society of the Cape of Good Hope" 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 ...
. Over the next 100 years the business was to evolve significantly, changing its name in 1885 to the "South Africa Mutual Life Assurance Society", but becoming familiarly known simply as "The Old Mutual", so as to distinguish it from newer businesses of the same kind.
The company employed women as early as 1901, expanded into
Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
in 1920 and into
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...
(then
Rhodesia
Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...
) in 1927.
Old Mutual is now an international business with offices all over the world, and its portfolio of financial services continues to evolve to meet market needs.
It is now some years since the business "de-mutualised" in order to issue shares and fund its operations using conventional investment markets.
The "new" (1940) Head Office in Darling Street
In the 1930s it became clear that a new headquarters building was needed and very ambitious targets were set for the building: it was to be the
tallest building
This list of tallest buildings includes skyscrapers with continuously occupiable floors and a height of at least . Nonbuilding structure, Non-building structures, such as towers, are not included in this list (for these, see ''List of tallest ...
in
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 ...
(possibly in the whole continent of Africa, with the exception of the pyramids in Egypt), it was to have the fastest lifts, it was to have the largest windows. At the same time it was to epitomise the values of the business: "Strength, Security and Confidence in the Future"; this demanded a combination of traditional and contemporary design.
Although it is clearly identified on the exterior as the "Mutual Building" (or "Mutual Gebou" in Afrikaans) it is often familiarly referred to as "The Old Mutual Building". Here, in the body of this article, it will be referred to as the "Mutual Building", thereby acknowledging the nomenclature on the exterior of the building itself.
Search for inspiration
The figure here (adapted from www.skycrapers.com) compares the building with some of the other contemporaneous tall buildings in the world. Those involved in the design of the building travelled widely to study inspirational examples of corporate buildings elsewhere in the world. They learnt about the latest approaches to lighting, ventilation and fire protection in the USA, South America, England and Sweden.
In the USA, the
Eastern Columbia Building
The Eastern Columbia Building, also known as the Eastern Columbia Lofts, is a thirteen-story Art Deco building designed by Claud Beelman located at 849 S. Broadway in the Broadway Theater District of Downtown Los Angeles. It opened on September ...
in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
is one example of the genre of building design that captured their attention: this building was completed in 1930 and has also since been converted to residential occupation.
The
art deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
style was chosen. However, the building is embellished with features in other styles (such as
neo-classicist
Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism w ...
in the case of the banking hall) intended to reinforce the long-standing and traditional values of the Old Mutual business.
Completion
The building was completed in 1939 and opened early in 1940 with a great fanfare. The local paper provided a 16 page supplement,
[Cape Times (1940). "Old Mutual in New Home", The Cape Times (special supplement) (30 January)] and South African architects and dignitaries enthused about it. In his definitive examination of the design of the building, Federico Freschi summarises the status of the building thus:
:"''Ultimately, the consensus suggests that the Old Mutual Building is at once a worthy monument to modern design principles and the consolidation of an important corporate and public image.''"
The building is listed elsewhere as a notable building, and it is regarded as an important example of the social values of the time and of the economic state of the nation, but all as seen from a European or "colonial" perspective, as explained by Freschi.
Vacating and conversion
Within 20 years (in the late 1950s) the Old Mutual began to vacate the building, moving in stages to new offices at
Mutual Park in
Pinelands,
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 ...
. By the 1990s, only assorted tenants remained, the last of which departed in May 2003.
At this time, conversion to residential occupation began under the direction of Robert Silke at Louis Karol Architects. The name of the building was changed by the developers t
Mutual Heights a decision that did not find favour with all owners and residents involved in the new community. Despite scepticism about the name, it is generally agreed that the conversion was the first in a series of projects that re-invigorated the central business district of
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 ...
. The conversion has been the subject of a number of architecture and design awards.
In February 2012, the large "Old Mutual" sign on the east side of the building was removed, leaving little external evidence of the commercial origins of the building; in 2015 Old Mutual Properties finally disposed of the remaining portions of the interior that had not been sold previously, including the banking hall, the directors suite and the fresco room.
Structure of the building
The building is constructed using reinforced
concrete
Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...
, filled in internally with bricks and plaster, and clad on the outside with
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
. At first sight, the building is a striking example of the
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
style and many of its features epitomize this genre - however, some interior features deviate from true Art Deco and probably reflect the desire of the company to demonstrate solidity and traditional values at the same time as contemporaneous, forward-looking values.
It is high, as measured from the ground floor to the top of the tower,
but the building is often listed as being more than 90 metres high (even as high as 96.8 metres on the Old Mutual web site
); this probably takes account of the "spire" at the top.
Having only 10 levels ("
storey
A storey (British English) or story (American English) is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the word are ''storeys'' (UK) and ''stories'' (US).
T ...
s") above ground level in the main part of this tall building (excluding the three levels of basement car parking, and the additional levels in the tower), it is evident that the spacing between floors is generous — generally each floor is about above (or below) the next. In one of the meeting rooms on the eighth level (the Assembly Hall - see below), the curtains alone are more than six metres long. This generous spacing between floors was intended to achieve the greatest possible overall height for the building without exceeding the city planning limitation of 10 storeys, and it was allowed only in view of the "set back" design of the exterior structure.
Design elements
The original design of the building is attributed to Louw & Louw (Cape Town architects), working with Fred Glennie (best known at the time as a mentor to architectural students) – Mr Glennie is personally credited with most of the detailed work but
Ivan Mitford-Barberton
Ivan Mitford-Barberton (1896–1976) was a sculptor, writer and authority on heraldry.
Early life and education
Mitford-Barberton was born in Somerset East, in Cape Colony, in 1896. He was a descendant of several 1820 Settler families. His g ...
was also involved with some internal details as well as with the external granite decorations.
It is pleasing that the principal areas of the building have been so little changed over the years, especially the entrance, the banking hall, the assembly room, the directors' room, the atrium, and the windows. Even the original door handles (including the Old Mutual "logo") and the original banisters (on the staircases) are all still intact, and the atrium is largely unchanged although it is now protected from the weather by a translucent roof.
The original light fittings in the "public" areas are largely still intact, and in most parts of the building there are beautiful block-wood (parquet) floors.
Here is a selection of interior design details that exemplify the quality and attention to detail that was applied to this project by the architects, artists and designers.
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The paragraphs below now visit each of the significant areas and features of the building in turn.
Features of the building
The building incorporates a range of significant features.
The Entrance Hall
Black, gold-veined
onyx
Onyx primarily refers to the parallel banded variety of chalcedony, a silicate mineral. Agate and onyx are both varieties of layered chalcedony that differ only in the form of the bands: agate has curved bands and onyx has parallel bands. The c ...
is used in the Darling Street foyer, the ceiling of which is over 15 metres high and finished with
gold leaf
Gold leaf is gold that has been hammered into thin sheets (usually around 0.1 µm thick) by goldbeating and is often used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades. The most commonly used gold is 22-kara ...
, laid by Italian workmen. The view of the glass window over the door to the banking hall (above) shows the iconic
ziggurat
A ziggurat (; Cuneiform: 𒅆𒂍𒉪, Akkadian: ', D-stem of ' 'to protrude, to build high', cognate with other Semitic languages like Hebrew ''zaqar'' (זָקַר) 'protrude') is a type of massive structure built in ancient Mesopotamia. It has ...
shape of the building etched into the glass. Visitors must climb 17 steps to gain access to the banking hall, and towards the top they are met by the original "pill box" where security staff can observe who (and what) is entering and leaving the building. On either side of the pill box are the entrances to the main lifts – two on the left and two on the right (there are two "staff" lifts and one "service" lift elsewhere in the building).
Characteristic
stainless steel
Stainless steel is an alloy of iron that is resistant to rusting and corrosion. It contains at least 11% chromium and may contain elements such as carbon, other nonmetals and metals to obtain other desired properties. Stainless steel's corros ...
trim and light fittings, such as can be seen here, are used extensively throughout the building.
The Banking Hall
Given its tall marble-clad colonnades, the magnificent banking hall would be more properly described as an example of "neo-classicism" although the light fittings echo the art deco theme that prevails elsewhere in the building, and again we see that the glass over the doors (at the far end in the photograph below) are etched with the iconic
ziggurat
A ziggurat (; Cuneiform: 𒅆𒂍𒉪, Akkadian: ', D-stem of ' 'to protrude, to build high', cognate with other Semitic languages like Hebrew ''zaqar'' (זָקַר) 'protrude') is a type of massive structure built in ancient Mesopotamia. It has ...
form that is taken by the whole building.
The two service counters that can be seen in the banking hall look identical, but only the one on the right is original—the one on the left is a later, somewhat inferior, copy.
Between the columns of the banking hall the
coats of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its wh ...
are presented for each of the many provinces and countries within Southern Africa in which the South African Mutual Life Assurance Society had a presence.
Image:Mutual Building Cape Town 040.jpg,
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The banking hall is now owned privately and is available for hire as an events venue.
The lifts (elevators)
The main lifts in the building are fast ("the fastest in Africa" it was claimed when the building opened) and no expense was spared – even in the basement parking area, the lifts are trimmed with black marble. Each door has an etched representation of an indigenous bird or animal from South Africa, with significant plants as additional decoration, or in some cases the corporate logo of the time.
The individual etchings in detail (click on the images to see the full-size version):
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These designs are attributed to
Ivan Mitford-Barberton
Ivan Mitford-Barberton (1896–1976) was a sculptor, writer and authority on heraldry.
Early life and education
Mitford-Barberton was born in Somerset East, in Cape Colony, in 1896. He was a descendant of several 1820 Settler families. His g ...
.
The Assembly Room
Perhaps the best known feature of the building (in artistic circles at least) is the Assembly Room, sometimes referred to as the "Fresco Room"; Freschi indicates that this was originally intended as a facility for policy holders.
Here there are striking frescoes depicting some of the history of the nation of South Africa, undertaken by
Le Roux Smith Le Roux two years after the completion of the building.
Le Roux was supported in his early career by the famous British architect
Herbert Baker
Sir Herbert Baker (9 June 1862 – 4 February 1946) was an English architect remembered as the dominant force in South African architecture for two decades, and a major designer of some of New Delhi's most notable government structures. He wa ...
, who provided bursaries so that Le Roux could spend time in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
and elsewhere. In London he undertook a mural in
South Africa House
South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west.
Etymology
The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz ...
with
Eleanor Esmonde-White. An acquaintance (still living) of Le Roux and Esmonde-White recalls that Baker insisted that Eleanor Esmonde-White be awarded a bursary, despite gender-related objections from elsewhere; in the event she got to go to London with Le Roux, with the bursary. Following their years in London, Le Roux was awarded this commission to work on the Mutual Building and he therefore returned to Cape Town, but only after the main building work was done - it was not sensible to undertake this meticulous work while building operations were still in progress.
These frescoes are considered elsewhere as good examples of the genre—see for example "Decopix - the Art Deco Architecture Site" where the Mutual Building itself is well represented.
The five frescoes on the end walls and over the entrance depict more than 100 years of the history of the nation, including industrial development, the
Great Trek
The Great Trek ( af, Die Groot Trek; nl, De Grote Trek) was a Northward migration of Dutch-speaking settlers who travelled by wagon trains from the Cape Colony into the interior of modern South Africa from 1836 onwards, seeking to live beyon ...
, mining following the discovery of gold, the growth of industry and agriculture, and a hint of international travel and trade. Freschi considers that ".. in contemporary terms, Le Roux's work was seen to be distinctly progressive and very much in keeping with the ostensibly liberal party line of
Jan Smuts
Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, (24 May 1870 11 September 1950) was a South African statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various military and cabinet posts, he served as prime minister of the Union of South Af ...
' coalition government".
The panels are reproduced below, and selected portions from them are provided in the images that follow.
The five panels are presented left to right, in a clockwise direction when standing in the Assembly Room, back to the windows. The first and fifth are on the side walls, the second, third and fourth are on the long wall that includes the main entrance.
Image:Mutual Building Cape Town 211.jpg,
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The fifth image includes a representation of the Mutual Building itself, the tallest building in what is known as the "City Bowl", below the slopes of
Table Mountain
Table Mountain ( naq, Huriǂoaxa, lit= sea-emerging; af, Tafelberg) is a flat-topped mountain forming a prominent landmark overlooking the city of Cape Town in South Africa. It is a significant tourist attraction, with many visitors using the ...
. This did not remain true for long, it was only one year later that the General Post Office was built on the other (seaward side) of Darling Street, and a large number of larger more modern buildings have been built since (see the views from and of the building, shown further down this page).
Some details from the panels:
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In 2016 the Assembly room was purchased for private use, and with the adjoining sections of the building it is being re-finished as private accommodation.
The Directors' Rooms
On the fourth level, at the front of the building, is the Directors' Board Room. As well as the board room there are two side rooms, one of which was a sitting room for Directors.
In the board room there is a continuous carved
stinkwood frieze above the
dado rail
A dado rail, also known as a chair rail or surbase, is a type of moulding fixed horizontally to the wall around the perimeter of a room.
The dado rail is traditionally part of the dado or wainscot and, although the purpose of the dado is main ...
that incorporates animal and floral motifs (14 different species of birds and animals are represented).
Ivan Mitford-Barberton
Ivan Mitford-Barberton (1896–1976) was a sculptor, writer and authority on heraldry.
Early life and education
Mitford-Barberton was born in Somerset East, in Cape Colony, in 1896. He was a descendant of several 1820 Settler families. His g ...
is credited with this carving and it is probably the last work that he did in the building. Above the carved frieze is a mural designed and executed by
Joyce Ord-Brown using stain on pale sycamore panelling. It represents Cape Town as the "Tavern of the Seas" in a light hearted way.
The curtains are notable, being hand woven in a workshop in
Eswatini
Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...
(also known as
Swaziland
Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...
), by
Coral Stephens Handweaving, a company established in the 1940s.
[Email to Andy Bytheway from Murrae Stephens, Wed 2014/10/01 11:53 AM]
The selections below show some portions of the mural and the frieze, followed by some other details of the directors' rooms. The sea plane (second picture) is probably a
Martin M-130
The Martin M-130 was a commercial flying boat designed and built in 1935 by the Glenn L. Martin Company in Baltimore, Maryland, for Pan American Airways. Three were built: the ''China Clipper'', the ''Philippine Clipper'' and the ''Hawaii Clipp ...
, which is not recorded as having serviced South Africa (it worked the pacific routes). This is probably "artistic licence" on the part of Ord-Browne.
Image:Mutual Building Cape Town 078.jpg,
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It is of note that the etched ziggurat icon on the glass over the entrance to the board room (see the enlarged version of the first image above) is not the same as that which is used elsewhere.
The Directors' suite has great heritage value but in 2015 it was re-finished and it is now used as offices for a heritage-related project management business.
The atrium
The atrium extends from the roof of the banking hall to the very top of the main building. It was originally open to the weather, but it is now protected by a translucent roof, through which the tower can be seen extending even higher.
The circular windows visible here are incorporated into the apartments that now occupy the front of the building.
The windows
The rising nature of the ziggurat mass of the exterior of the building is reinforced by the prismoid (triangular) windows, which extend up and down the height of the building. These windows are of note because they set the Mutual Building apart from some of the buildings that inspired it, for example the
Eastern Columbia Building
The Eastern Columbia Building, also known as the Eastern Columbia Lofts, is a thirteen-story Art Deco building designed by Claud Beelman located at 849 S. Broadway in the Broadway Theater District of Downtown Los Angeles. It opened on September ...
in Los Angeles. They are also functional, because they allow light to enter the building more effectively than would otherwise be the case (using the reflective properties of the inside face of the glass), and by opening and closing blinds on the one side or the other it is possible on sunny days to manage the heat entering the building as the sun traverses the sky.
Water-cooled air conditioning was another innovative feature of the original building, that avoided the need for extensive natural ventilation and allowed more freedom for the design of the windows and granite spaces between; the same water-cooled air conditioning design is in use today.
As Freschi notes in his paper, the prismoid windows make for much more visual interest than the conventional windows in the General Post Office building. Here the image juxtaposes the Mutual building (foreground) with the General Post Office built the following year (behind).
Granite cladding
The granite cladding of the building was hewn from a single boulder on the
Paarl Mountain, north east of the city of Cape Town.
The cladding incorporates decorative baboon, elephant and tribal heads that project from the upper facades of the Darling Street elevation (the front of the building).
Image:Mutual Building Cape Town 114.jpg,
Image:Mutual Building Cape Town 108.jpg,
Image:Mutual Building Cape Town 109.jpg,
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The Tribal Figures
On the Parliament Street facade there are carved granite figures representing nine ethnic African groups (not just South African) labelled thus: "
Xosa", "
Pedi", "
Maasai Maasai may refer to:
* Maasai people
*Maasai language
* Maasai mythology
* MAASAI (band)
See also
* Masai (disambiguation)
* Massai
Massai (also known as: Masai, Massey, Massi, Mah–sii, Massa, Wasse, Wassil or by the nickname "Big Foot" Mas ...
", "
Matabele", "
Basuto
The Sotho () people, also known as the Basuto or Basotho (), are a Bantu nation native to southern Africa. They split into different ethnic groups over time, due to regional conflicts and colonialism, which resulted in the modern Basotho, who ...
", "
Barotse
Lozi people, or Barotse, are a southern African ethnic group who speak Lozi or Silozi, a Sotho–Tswana language. The Lozi people consist of more than 46 different ethnic groups and are primarily situated between Namibia, Angola, Botswana, Zimbab ...
", "
Kikuyu Kikuyu or Gikuyu (Gĩkũyũ) mostly refers to an ethnic group in Kenya or its associated language.
It may also refer to:
* Kikuyu people, a majority ethnic group in Kenya
*Kikuyu language, the language of Kikuyu people
*Kikuyu, Kenya, a town in Cent ...
", "
Zulu", and "
Bushman". Note that the identification of the tribes does not necessarily follow current practice.
The individual figures in detail (remember you can click on the images to see the full-size version):
Image:Mutual Building Cape Town 001.jpg,
Image:Mutual Building Cape Town 002.jpg,
Image:Mutual Building Cape Town 003.jpg,
Image:Mutual Building Cape Town 004.jpg,
Image:Mutual Building Cape Town 005.jpg,
Image:Mutual Building Cape Town 006.jpg,
Image:Mutual Building Cape Town 007.jpg,
Image:Mutual Building Cape Town 008.jpg,
Image:Mutual Building Cape Town 009.jpg,
Recently Sanford S. Shaman has written a critique of these figures, and other features of the building
[
] partly based on interviews with pedestrians walking around the building.
The frieze
Around the three sides of the building facing Darling Street, Parliament Street and Longmarket Street there is a 386 feet (118 metre) frieze depicting scenes from the colonial history of South Africa, reported at its completion to be the longest such frieze in the world.
It is of interest that, at the time, it was proclaimed that the building was built by South Africans, using South African materials; while the frieze was itself designed by South African, Ivan Mitford Barberton (born in
Somerset East
Somerset East ( af, Somerset-Oos) is a town in the Blue Crane Route Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It was founded by Lord Charles Somerset in 1825.
The Blue Crane Route follows the national road R63 from Pearston, via Som ...
, Eastern Cape, in 1896), the work was executed by a team of Italian immigrants led by Adolfo Lorenzi. It has recently come to light that, in the course of the work, Lorenzi's team of masons were incarcerated when the Second World War broke out in 1939, being Italian and therefore regarded as "the enemy" at that time. They were obliged to finish their work under an armed guard.
A composite view of the frieze can be seen at the right; unfortunately in this version some portions are missing or obscured by trees in leaf.
The sections of the frieze are as follows:
*The landing of
Jan van Riebeeck
Johan Anthoniszoon "Jan" van Riebeeck (21 April 1619 – 18 January 1677) was a Dutch navigator and colonial administrator of the Dutch East India Company.
Life
Early life
Jan van Riebeeck was born in Culemborg, as the son of a surgeon. He ...
*The arrival of the
1820 Settlers
The 1820 Settlers were several groups of British colonists from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, settled by the government of the United Kingdom and the Cape Colony authorities in the Eastern Cape of South Africa in 1820.
Origins
After th ...
*The "
Post Office Stone"
*The building of the
Castle of Good Hope
The Castle of Good Hope ( nl, Kasteel de Goede Hoop; af, Kasteel die Goeie Hoop) known locally as the Castle or Cape Town Castle is a bastion fort built in the 17th century in Cape Town, South Africa. Originally located on the coastline of ...
*The emancipation of the slaves
*Negotiations with Chaka (also known as "King
Shaka
Shaka kaSenzangakhona ( – 22 September 1828), also known as Shaka Zulu () and Sigidi kaSenzangakhona, was the king of the Zulu Kingdom from 1816 to 1828. One of the most influential monarchs of the Zulu, he ordered wide-reaching reforms that ...
)"
*The
Great Trek
The Great Trek ( af, Die Groot Trek; nl, De Grote Trek) was a Northward migration of Dutch-speaking settlers who travelled by wagon trains from the Cape Colony into the interior of modern South Africa from 1836 onwards, seeking to live beyon ...
*The dream of
Nongqawuse (other spellings are sometimes used)
*Discovery of diamonds at
Kimberley
*Erection of a cross by
Bartholomew Dias
Bartolomeu Dias ( 1450 – 29 May 1500) was a Portuguese mariner and explorer. In 1488, he became the first European navigator to round the southern tip of Africa and to demonstrate that the most effective southward route for ships lay in the o ...
*Rhodes negotiating with the
Matabele
*
David Livingstone
David Livingstone (; 19 March 1813 – 1 May 1873) was a Scottish physician, Congregationalist, and pioneer Christian missionary with the London Missionary Society, an explorer in Africa, and one of the most popular British heroes of t ...
preaching, healing and freeing slaves
*The opening up of
Tanganyika Territory
Tanganyika was a colonial territory in East Africa which was administered by the United Kingdom in various guises from 1916 to 1961. It was initially administered under a military occupation regime. From 20 July 1922, it was formalised into a L ...
*The defence of
Fort Jesus
Fort Jesus (Portuguese: ''Forte Jesus de Mombaça, Spanish: Fuerte de Jesús'') is a fort located on Mombasa Island. Designed by Italian Giovanni Battista Cairati, it was built between 1593 and 1596 by order of King Felipe II of Castille, ...
depicting Arab inhabitants
A second version of this collage of the complete frieze can be found elsewhere
[
]
Views of (and from) the building
References
The learned article by Federico Freschi is particularly recommended to all who are interested in this building and its context.
External links
Website for the Mutual Heights CommunityLouis Karol Architects websiteRandy Juster's art deco web siteDavid Thompson's art deco buildings web siteCity of Cape Town web siteStewart Harris' flikr photographs include some images of Fred Glennie and Le Roux Smith Le Roux at work on the building, and other interesting images of the buildingConfirmation of the Bloemfontein crest that defied identification for several years{{Cape Town, built
Art Deco skyscrapers
Buildings and structures in Cape Town
Skyscrapers in Cape Town
Residential skyscrapers in South Africa
Commercial buildings completed in 1940