Archistori

Published: c.1959 Author: Eric Rosenthal Publisher: Howard Timmins for George Allen & Unwin, London It is estimated that the book was published in about 1959. The book is mostly about interesting mining characters who visited Eric's father's offices at Nos. 13-14 Permanent Building , Johannesburg. There was never a pair of offices like Nos. 13 and 14, Permanent Buildings, Johannesburg, and there never can be anything quite like them again. Both rooms, now engulfed in a larger and more modern suite, have disappeared with the age to which they belonged. The premises themselves have changed their name. Nos. 13 and 14 were the last stronghold of the Victorian and Edwardian treasure-seekers of South Africa and I am happy to think that I was allowed to see them in their prime.  The view from the windows was a web of drainpipes and the backyard of the Rand Club, haunt of Johannesburg’s millionaires. What an aura of excitement and daily romance dung to the two interleading offic...

Location: 32 Harrison St, Johannesburg Architect: WH Stucke Date: 1896 Status: Extant Housed:  MacNamara’s Exchange / MacNamara’s Rialto Permanent Buildings itself (amongst the oldest on the goldfields) belonged partly to the pioneer, R. S. Scott, who, with Emanuel Mendelssohn, started the earliest daily paper, the Diggers News (later the Standard and Diggers News) back in 1887. Map location Photos Photo from Shovel and Sieve. Unindentified photographer. n.d.   Google Maps image from 2017. Undated photo.( SAAR, 1948) View from south-west. (Stucke Harrison archive) Sources Shovel and Sieve. Rosenthal, E. c.1959. George Allen and Unwin: London. South African Architectural Record, Feb 1948.