Various AuthorsHidden Cape Town, Pretoria or Karroo (Hardback)

About

Hidden Cape Town

A unique look ‘inside’ 30 of Cape Town’s most notable buildings. If you have ever wondered what lies behind an interesting façade, or wished you could peek behind a closed door, Hidden Cape Town is the book for you. The author and photographer have collaborated to reveal the artworks and architectural secrets that lie behind the doors of some well-known, and lesser known, landmark buildings in and around the ‘Mother City’. These buildings are part of our collective heritage, reflecting the myriad cultural influences that have shaped our country. 

These ‘hidden’ interiors include the Sendinggestig Museum, South African National Library, City Hall, Palm Tree Mosque, Welgelegen, the Royal Observatory, Bertram House, the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of St George, Groote Schuur, the Old Synagogue, Irma Stern Museum and the officer’s mess of the Cape Town Rifles (‘The Dukes’).

Hidden Pretoria

Despite being South Africa’s capital city, Pretoria has often played a supporting role to bold and brash Johannesburg and Cape Town’s cosmopolitan charms. However, when it comes to architectural heritage, the Jacaranda City is well-endowed. From the skyline-dominating Union Buildings and Voortrekker Monument to the imposing edifices of its administrative precincts, Pretoria might be deserving of a second moniker: the city of sandstone, brick and granite. But when you look beyond the impressive façades, soaring columns and linear planes of buildings that were intended to convey power and authority, you’ll find light-filled interiors embellished with decorative touches that are only hinted at from the outside. 

Murals, mosaics, domes, galleries, stained-glass windows, gleaming brass and impressive woodwork are often hidden from view behind doors that are closed to the public. And even those museums, buildings and places of worship that are open to all have architectural and design features that are easily overlooked. The history of the city, and of the country, has been played out in many of the buildings featured in Hidden Pretoria. 

This book captures remnants of our diverse heritage so that a new generation might recognise the need to embrace the past in order to build our shared future.

Hidden Karoo

The Karoo is big sky country; a land of vast plains punctuated by flat-topped mountains, conical hills and secluded valleys, a land of scrubby bushes and hardy trees, where pioneers carved roads out of rock to set down roots in an unforgiving environment.

Here dreams are born, legends are made, and outcasts find sanctuary. It is also an ancient place, whose story is revealed through geology, fossils and artefacts, and whose human lineage predates any written history. Today, the people who inhabit it must manifest the same fortitude that sustained those who left their footprints in the primieval mud.

In Hidden Karoo you will find all this, and more. Through a series of superb photo-essays, this majestic place is revealed as a land where conservation and neglect are seldom far apart, where one town boasts splendidly restored buildings, while along a dusty road lie forgotten villages waiting for... something. Could it be a renewal, or a slow death? There’s nothing novel about the movement of people from country to city, and the Karoo mimics other parts of the world where rural areas become derelict as they are depopulated.

Hidden Karoo presents a snapshot of the region, offering a glimpse into towns and villages, farms and churches, public buildings and private homes, all against a backdrop of awe-inspiring landscapes. Through words and pictures, it prompts us to consider what was, what is and, perhaps, what might be. One constant about the Karoo is change. A book can do no more than capture a moment in time or depict fragments of a place, but in doing so, it bears witness to the past and offers the hope that there may yet be a future for this unparalleled part of our country.

Product Specifications 

Hidden Cape Town

• Dimensions: 268 x 257 x 25mm (L x W x T)
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 232
• Author: Paul Duncan
• Photographer: Alain Proust

Hidden Pretoria

• Dimensions: 259 x 249 x 28mm (L x W x T)
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 240
• Author: Johan Swart
• Photographer: Alain Proust

Hidden Karoo

• Dimensions: 270 x 260 x 40mm (L x W x T)
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 304
• Author: Patricia Kramer
• Photographer: Alain Proust