Pub: Nicol Stassen, Protea Book House/Boekhuis, Pretoria, South Africa UK Book distributor: In South Africa, advance orders can be sent by email to: info@proteaboekhuis.co.za |
Kruger's PretoriaSecond EditionFully updated, corrected and re-set, this second edition documents those buildings that have disappeared since 1971 and the prospects for those that remain. It also gives short accounts of the people - Boers and British South Africans - who built the city, as well as some who visited and wrote about it.
From the preface...This book had it origins, which it betrays on every page, in daily journalism, a series of feature articles for The Pretoria News written between 1968 and 1970. Since then much has changed and that era now seems as remote as Kruger’s did in 1970. The original text is reprinted with only minimal editing. Pretoria today is, of course, a different place, not just politically but in the street scene. Though many of the buildings discussed in Kruger’s Pretoria survive in 2005, some of them have disappeared, such as the old Town Hall and the first Opera House. Writing in the 1960s I was able to interview many people who remembered the Pretoria of their childhood in the 1890s and early 1900s, including Louis Botha’s daughter, Helen de Waal. Also my Great-aunt Jessie, my great-grandfather George Jesse Heys’ youngest daughter. I also had access to papers and photographs in our family home, Melrose House, built by George Heys. He lived there with his wife and three daughters and my father spent part of his childhood there. It was home to me and my first husband, with our three children, from our arrival to live in Pretoria in 1966 until it was handed over to the museum authorities eighteen months or so later. |
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As well as updating some points, this second edition gives me the opportunity to replace material that was censored in the first edition by the publisher, Mr. Balkema. It was a story I found in the old Transvaal Republic Archives, then housed in the Union Buildings. In the records of debates in the Raad in the early 1890s I found the verbatim report of a grovelling apology made to the members by President Kruger.
Apparently his sons had been helping themselves to perquisites to which they were not entitled and feathering their nests at the expense of the burghers. The President assured the Raad that it would not happen again: his sons had all been ‘sent to the farm’ and would not be allowed back in Pretoria for a year. My manuscript was returned by Mr. Balkema with this passage crossed out in red ink and instructions to re-write the chapter without it. I appealed to Judge Marais, who had read the book in manuscript and written an Introduction. He was furious and told Mr. Balkema that it was all a long time ago and the story should now be told. Mr. Balkema was adamant. “We cannot show the idol had feet of clay,” he told me. “You and I are both immigrants and if we do something like this we could be thrown out of the country.” Judge Marais insisted that was nonsense but the censored passage was not printed but is now in this second edition. For the publication of which … my thanks to Nicol Stassen of Protea Books for making it possible and to my editor Hanli Deysel for her work on the book and dealing gently with an anxious author 6,000 miles away. Whilst many friends have helped me with updating photographs and facts, my particular thanks go to Hannes Meiring for permission to use his illustrations once again and for his enthusiastic backing for the project. |
Left: Postcard of Melrose House. Inscription reads: Lord Kitchener leaving for his afternoon ride. Headquarters, Pretoria 1901
Inscription reads: The President 'at home' (Kruger) C.E. Fripp - 1901 | |
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Vivien Allen |
Melrose House Sketch by Hannes Meiring |
