ABSTRACT
The University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa’s oldest university, traces its genesis back to 1829 as the South African College, although it did not achieve university status until 1918. A decade later it moved to its new permanent home at Groote Schuur, on land bequeathed to the nation by the controversial former prime minister of the Cape, Cecil Rhodes. The site must surely rank amongst academia’s most spectacular. Set on the lower slopes of Devil’s Peak, buttressing Table Mountain, the Groote Schuur farm boasted a covetable natural backdrop. To ensure that the new university could enjoy an impressive built environment to match, its administration approached two of the era’s leading architects, Herbert Baker and Edwin Lutyens, about planning it. However, both being engrossed with the construction of the new Indian capital, New Delhi, the commission instead went to Baker’s young protégé Joseph Solomon (1886-1920) with Lutyens acting as adviser when in Cape Town.
