Thesis (MTech (Architectural Technology))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2014. / The growth of Cape Town's northern suburbs during the first few decades of the twentieth
century is closely related to the socio-economic history of local Afrikaners who, during this
time, left the farms to seek employment in Cape Town's industrial areas. Most of them
settled in or near these industrial areas, causing the expansion of the northern suburbs.
The first railway line in Cape Town, which was inaugurated in 1862, passed through
Bellville on its way from Cape Town station to its terminal point in Eersterivier. The first
official station at Bellville was only built in 1882, however, and a stop in Parow only
followed in 1903The first Bellville town council was established as recently as 1922
(Bergh, 2009: 5-6). This is an indication of how sparsely populated this area was at the
time.
The Dutch Reformed Church has traditionally played a central role in the cultural and
spiritual life of Afrikaners, and consequently the establishment of Dutch Reformed
churches in the northern suburbs stands in clear correlation to the growth of Afrikaner
populations in these suburbs (see below). Because of the low population of the Parow and
Bellville areas, Dutch Reformed Church members living there were initially part of the
Cape Town congregation, and, from 1832 onward, part of the newly established
Durbanville congregation. It is only in April 1900 when, in the Bellville area, numbers had
increased considerably, that monthly services were held in a school building. By 1920
membership had grown so much that weekly services had to be held. In 1922 a church
hall with 300 seats was inaugurated (Bergh, 2009: 7-8). Local services in Parow were only
instituted in 1905, with the first church building, a Neo-Gothic structure, following in 1907.
In 1917 a separate congregation was established in Parow (i.e. separate from the
Durbanville mother congregation), with Bellville following suit in 1934. Goodwood
congregation became independent in 1926, having separated from Parow (Van Lill, 1992:
6-9; Bergh, 2009: 8). In subsequent years, as numbers increased, numerous other
congregations were established after separating from these three mother congregations,
most of which built Modernist churches. The first Dutch Reformed church built in the Goodwood-Parow-Bellville area was the old
Parow church. This building no longer exists, but it was built in the Neo-Gothic style
which had been current throughout the 19th century, and which was still, at the beginning
of the 20th century, the accepted traditional style (see Le Raux, 2008: 21). The Rondebosch Dutch Reformed church, for example, was built in this style during the last
decade of the 19th century. (The southern suburbs, which include Rondebosch, had
developed gradually over the previous three centuries, and by the early 20th century were
well established, leaving relatively few prospects for working class Afrikaners to settle
there).
At the beginning of the 20th century, with the emergence of a nationalistic consciousness
in the wake of the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), there was a fervent search for a 'true'
Afrikaans church architecture. This search was lead and directed by Gerhard Moerdijk
(1890-1958) and Wynand Louw (1883-1967). They emphatically rejected the Gothic style
for various reasons. Firstly, because it was designed around the Roman Catholic liturgy
and was therefore unsuitable for Protestant worship, and secondly, because it is
historically identified with the growth and expansion of the Catholic Church and therefore
also with the persecution of Protestants, including that of the Huguenots who fled to the
Cape to become ancestors of many Afrikaners (Le Roux, 2008: 22).
However, if this style was indeed so offensive to Huguenots because of its Catholic
associations, it would possibly not have become so popular during the 19th and zo=
centuries. These Neo-Gothic churches are, in fact, unmistakably Protestant in the
austerity of their interiors which could not be mistaken for a Catholic Gothic church interior
with its abundantly rich ornamentation and sacred imagery. Likewise, the exteriors of
these Neo-Gothic churches are distinctly Protestant in their reserved use of
ornamentation.
Nevertheless, Gothic churches were originally designed around the Catholic liturgy and
consequently their layout does not serve the Protestant liturgy well. Here Moerdijk makes
a very valid point, and one which would be taken up by subsequent architects as well as
writers (see Chapter Seven below).
Moerdijk, in his published writings, upholds Classicism and the Renaissance as examples
worthy of following (Le Roux, 2008: 22). The resulting new style which he and Louw
pursued from the 1920s onwards, and which became enormously popular, is generally
referred to as sentraalbou (due to its centralised floor plan) (see Le Roux, 2008: 25-28).
Later writers on Afrikaner Protestant church design tend to stress the supposed Byzantine
ancestry of this type of church (see below).
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:cput/oai:localhost:20.500.11838/2608 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Liebenberg, Deon |
| Contributors | van Graan, André |
| Publisher | Cape Peninsula University of Technology |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/za/ |
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