THE NEW UNION GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS, 

 PRETORIA. 



By William Lucas, F.R.G.S., F.R.V.I.A. 



As an introduction to the setting of the new Union Government 

 buildings, at Pretoria, one cannot do better than take his stand at 

 one of the windows of a lofty building in the centre of the city 

 and note the extensive crescent of sky line. Beginning with the 

 gilded figure that crowns the dome of the Houses of Parliament, 

 (which also house the Governor-General's staff and officialdom 

 generally) the varied view terminates in a disused fort on a hill- 

 summit. Overlooking much of the city proper, at this spring-tide 

 intensely foliage-clad, the eye rests upon a stretch of gently undu- 

 lating country, sparsely dotted with structures, beyond which 

 several tops of mountain peaks are visible. To the left this relative 

 plain terminates in a double-breasted eminence, which, from every 

 view-point, constitutes the conspicuous feature in the city's land- 

 scape ; and in return, its summit after little more than an easy 

 half-hour's walk from the centre of the city, offers an extensive 

 panorama in every direction of charming interest. Truly, as a 

 writer has said, "it is an ideal Acropolis for a capital city" ; and 

 it is upon the southern slope of this height of Meintjes Kop that 

 there is now arising the new buildings for the administration of 

 the Union of South Africa. 



To the vision of the seer, having some knowledge of sites 

 which had appealed to the great artists of the past, and which more- 

 over had gone so fully towards the making of classic master-pieces, 

 it could only be too evident that there hovered over Meintjes 

 Kop the spell of destiny ; and that the southern slope, in so close 

 proximity to the city, worthily ranked as ideal for an imposing 

 pile. To such an one possessed of the subject, on reaching that 

 summit, there would flash before him the primary points of vantage. 

 If of Gothic tendency, the mind-diagram would project an irregular 

 mass in harmony with the contour of the site, to be dominated by 

 twin features grouping with the breasted heights. And if the 

 field of competition had been open, and a Gothicist had proved 

 successful, I think I may say without hesitation the product would 

 have been a phase of architecture worthily rivalling Liverpool's 

 vast cathedral now in progress. But to one of classic tendency, 

 the boldly defined axial line extending from Onderstepoort and 

 Doornpoort northwards over the saddle of the kop, and southwards 

 through Groenkloef and the Fountains Valley, would so sway his 

 mind-diagram, that whatever was planned the centre and aspect 

 were immutably determined. 



Co-operating with that main axial line were the transverse 

 points bearing towards sunrise and sunset and respectively dying 

 away into the horizon amid distant hills. But while fully conscious 

 of the demand of the ideal, as a matter of practical reckoning there 

 loomed a great depression, which had been (as it were deliberately) 

 placed to mar the otherwise naturally fine site for a 

 national structure. 



