Rhodes Cottage Museum on Main Road Muizenberg is a fascinating place to visit. It was in the front room on the left of this photo that he died, on 26 March 1902 - almost exactly a hundred and ten years ago. Whatever the current political feeling, Cecil John Rhodes played a huge role in the shaping of the South African nation. Yet this little museum (housed in the cottage that Rhodes bought to tide him over till the big house adjacent to it, Rust en Vrede, was designed and built by Herbert Baker) is rather run down inside, and the displays look like they could do with an upgrade. In comparison with some of the classy museums in our city, this one is rather poor -and sadly in need of a lick of paint and some proper restoration. It seems to be looked after by volunteers from the Muizenberg Historical Conservation Society, relying on the odd donation that gets stuffed into a little wooden box at the door. I wonder why De Beers, the fantastically, fabulously wealthy mining company that Rhodes masterminded, can't spare a million or two to sort it out.
Several subdivisions later it was bought by the formidable Hester de Villiers, who was the owner when this photo was taken in the early twentieth century. The scar made by the stone quarry (opened in 1896) in the hill above can be seen even to this day. 
Today, a hundred years later. The blue arrow marks the spot of the naval mess, hidden behind the ugly beach buildings.
Cape Town Time
11 years ago
