Pretoria, South Africa - City and Town Halls on Waymarking.com

Since the middle of the 19th century, it was fashionable to build town halls to house the city administation. These buildings satisfied the need of mass meetings of a new democracy and also served to impress rate payers and visitors.

The specific architectural techniques used by many city councils are reflected by the Pretoria City Hall. The building is situated away from the street to make it seem bigger from a distance and has a simple rectangular shape of large proportions, resulting in a monumental effect.

Traditionally, verticle objects have suggested dominance and power and these are reflected in the City Hall's classical columns and especially in the heavy tower that crowns the tiled roof.

Pretoria's first town hall was built in 1905 in Pretorius Street, three years after a proper local authority was established. It was replaced by this City Hall, erected on a piece of vacant land indicated as 'Drooge Klip Bult' (Dry, rocky outcrop) on Pretoria's first map of 1859. The City Hall celebrates the status of 'city' obtained in 1931. The building resulted from an architectural competition, won by FG McIntosh in 1926. Due to economic depression, work could only start in 1931, by which time McIntosh had passed away and his assistant, John Lockwood Hall had taken over the resposibility.

When the building was inaugurated in December 1931, the public was entertained by John Connell's music on the organ, built by WW Kimball of Chicago. The carillion (Chimes), also from Chicago, was donated to the city by George Heys, the original owner of Melrose House.

The two statues in the park in front of the building depict Martinus Pretorius (1819 - 1901) and his father Andries Pretorius (1798 - 1853), after whom Pretoria was named.

Name: Pretoria City Hall Address: 432 Kruger Str Pretoria, Gauteng South Africa 0078 Date of Construction: December 1931 Architect: FG McIntosh and John Lockwood Hall Memorials/Commemorations/Dedications: Andries Pretorius statue Web Site for City/Town/Municipality: [Web Link]

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Date Logged Log User Rating   12/03/2018 MikiHamza visited it 10/31/2014 Casper&Aero visited it 09/28/2013 Queens Blessing visited it 10/06/2012 TeamDJ* visited it 10/06/2012 TechnoNut visited it 07/27/2011 Cherokee.za visited it 03/06/2011 the_brutons visited it

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