THE RAND STEAM LAUNDRIES, CLEANING AND DYEING WORKS
REMAINS OF THE RAND STEAM LAUNDRIES, CLEANING AND DYEING WORKS - RICHMOND JOHANNESBURG
On the corner of Napier Road and Barry Hertzog Avenue in Richmond, Jozi, is an overgrown rubbish-strewn piece of open ground. Not many people speeding down the busy Barry Hertzog knows that this used to be where the Rand Steam Laundries, Cleaning and Dyeing works operated from 1902 for more than half a century. Three years ago the Imperial Group controversially demolished the buildings ignoring the fact that they were protected by the National Heritage Resources Act.
At that time Flo Bird of the Parktown and Westcliff Heritage Trust brought it to Imperial’s attention that the structures were protected but the company went ahead with the demolition anyway.
In Flo’s words, who witnessed the destruction - “There was a mechanical grab smashing the buildings to smithereens. Several large laundry buildings, two of the oldest on the site, already lay in small pieces. The grab hauled the masonry smashed it to the ground and then drove back and forwards crushing it. Any metal piece that survived that treatment was lifted in the air and crashed down until it crumpled. It was horrifying. Clearly the instruction was to destroy the buildings completely.”
The grab pulled over the walls then drove back and forth across the rubble crushing the bricks, splintering the Oregon pine and twisting any metal in its path. Whatever survived was lifted and dashed down repeatedly until it too was crumpled and useless.
Well done Imperial.
The group’s original intention was to erect a car dealership. This never happened, due to the down-turn in motor-sales I suppose. Serve them right. I drive home along Napier Road often and noticed activity on the site recently. It transpired that Imperial is turning it into a parking lot for Lancet Laboratories. Goodness greatness. Imperial seems to have again “forgotten” that they can’t do this without applying for rezoning.
Great stuff guys, this is really adding insult to injury.
I’ve been in Jozi for the last ten years and have fond memories of the quaint old buildings that used to live here. The original laundry closed in 1962 and since then it has been utilized by various craftsmen as workshops, offices and storerooms. There was even an antique shop, “The Mixer”, and an art gallery on the site.
Salim ran his upholstery business from here - he restored and upholstered chairs for our house. Henri, who restores antique furniture, also had his workshop at the Laundry. He altered a huge old shop counter into a kitchen unit for me. I loved visiting the place rummaging through old furniture trying to find something of value. “Die Ossewa” the well-known antique dealers in Melville, also had a warehouse at there that I went to on a number of occasions, especially when they unpacked a new consignment of furniture and artecrafts from South America or Europe.
The Laundry was a hive of activity - corrugated iron and brick structures supported by thick beautiful Oregon pine beams with a rich lustrous patina that only comes with time. There were also water towers and a row of cottages and a huge complex of buildings on the Park Road side that used to be either a residential hotel or a residence for employees. All these buildings were was used as workshops in later years.
I said to ♥ Girl at that time that the old complex had so much character, with existing with artists and artisans already using the space, that it can easily be turned into a vibey precinct, similar to 44 Stanley Avenue. It was long before the Maboneng Precinct, Arts on Main and Main Street Life, on the other side of the city was developed.
But Imperial had other plans; the Laundry was demolished almost overnight and is now earmarked as a “temporary” parking lot according to Thando Sishuba, the head of Imperial Properties. But Houston, we have a problem.
“The first issue is that Imperial will have to have the site rezoned for business before any work is done. At present it is zoned residential, obtained by the previous owners who had permission to erect a 17-storey block of flats. It would be illegal for Imperial to use the site for business without it first being rezoned” according to Flo Bird.
In the long term Imperial will be required to re-instate the buildings it demolished which is a condition of the rezoning.
Sishuba says that “for the future re-development of the site, which will be mixed use, he is ideally looking at finding an anchor office tenant, with retail tenants along Napier Road, he explains.
“We would consider a major retailer as well as a combination of smaller businesses like coffee shops, bookshops or dry cleaners - anyone who would lend credibility and credence to the area. We want a 24-hour city feel, a bit of a vibe.”
He stresses that Imperial is keen to undo any distress its 2008 demolition caused. “We are working hard to reverse whatever damage was done. We want the entire city of Johannesburg to be proud of what we do. We are doing everything acceptable to abide by the normal statutory processes.”
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Flo Bird states on the Johannesburg City’s website that “She is not insisting that Imperial replace the original Oregon pine, which would be difficult and expensive to obtain” I have the greatest respect for Flo and the work the Parktown and Westcliff Heritage Trust but as far as I am concerned I don’t give a sorry shit - Imperial allowed the original beams to be willfully destroyed by driving over them with heavy earthmoving equipment. You break ‘em you replace ‘em - whatever the cost.
Neil Fraser wrote about the amazing history of the laundry in his CitiChat Column in January 2008 quoting in turn from Charles van Onselen’s Studies in the Social and Economic History of the Witwatersrand 1886-1914 - ‘New Nineveh’
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“The South African transition to capitalism - like that elsewhere - was fraught with contradictions and conflicts and its cities were thus capable of opening as well as closing economic avenues, and there certainly was always more than one route into or out of the working class”.
One chapter that exemplifies this statement and provides amazing detail of this transition is that on the ‘AmaWasha’ - the Zulu washermen’s guild of the Witwatersrand.
The AmaWasha emerged in the early 1870s in Natal through the lowly washermen’s caste of ‘Dhobis’ who had emigrated to Natal and started practicing their traditional profession - “the commercial washing of clothes”. Local Zulus were quick to recognise the chance to also earn an income from such work and seized on the opportunity that the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand presented and service’s needs.
By 1890 there were already a couple of hundred AmaWasha, who had even adopted the ‘Dhobi’ turban, at work in the Braamfontein Spruit to the north of the mining camp. By 1896 there were over 1 200 washermen located at eight or more sites, the bulk of which appeared to have been concentrated in the Richmond area which was “by far the best developed of the sites….the owners provided eight wood and iron structures to accommodate some of the washermen and a small building in which the laundry could be safely stored overnight.”
In October 1895, the washing sites were closed by health inspectors following a drought in that year that basically resulted in contamination of the work places
The Auckland Park Steam Laundry Company was floated in June 1896 “with a registered capital of 12 500” (pounds Sterling). This was situated on the Richmond Estate, the centre of former AmaWasha activities.
Rand Steam Laundries and Cleaning and Dyeing Works came into existence in July 1902 on the site and became the biggest laundry operation in South Africa. The Union Castle shipping line sent its laundry to them every week by rail. The laundry closed in 1962 and since then, the property has been used by a number of light industrial companies.
Frasers commented as follows about Imperial’s demolition of the buildings on this historical site
“It seems to me that a seemingly deliberate and premeditated breaking of the law needs the whole book thrown at it. The previous heritage structures must be rebuilt and the story of AmaWasha and the mining town they serviced must be told and portrayed so that “it may be bequeathed to future generations” - the cottages can once again house the craft shops and the site should be turned into an active place for the community. The story of the perfidy of Imperial and the punishment meted out to them in terms of legislation should also be encapsulated so that everyone becomes aware of the law and the consequences of arrogance in disregarding it. Anything less would be a travesty.”
And pigs can fly, the last time I looked. Whatever happens, the historical feel of time and place is lost forever due to the callous disregard of the Imperial Group for the law and irresponsible corporate governance.
All that now remains, for the foreseeable future, is a temporary parking lot.
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