Bertram House Museum was built in 1839 by an English immigrant and notary, John Barker, who named it in memory of his first wife, Ann Bertram Findlay. It is the only surviving example of an English Georgian-style face brick house, once common at the Cape. In 1976 it was transferred to the South African Cultural History Museum under which it was extensively restored. It opened as house museum in 1984. It depicts the home of a prosperous early 19th century English family. Its emergence as a museum was in large part due to the efforts and generosity of the benefactor, Mrs. Winifred Ann Lidderdale. It is now part of Iziko Museums. Photograph: MARTHINUS VAN BART
By IZIKO MUSEUMS
It is mentioned on the old National Monuments Council plaque outside the front door of Bertram House that, “This early nineteenth century Georgian brick house is the only remaining example in Cape Town of a type once common here.” It is indeed one of only a handful of remaining late-Georgian buildings in Cape Town. It is not surprising, therefore, that in the late 1970s the house was earmarked by the collector and benefactor, Winifred Ann Lidderdale, for her dream to create a memorial to remind English-speaking South Africans of their heritage.
Bertram Place, as it was first known, was built in c.1839, by English immigrant and notary John Barker, and he named it in memory of his first wife Ann Bertram Findlay, who had died in 1838.
Subsequent owners and tenants of the house included mariner and shipowner Augustus Frederick Carrew, Captain Robert Granger (merchant and owner of 5 ships, after whom Granger Bay is named) and the first Jewish professional photographer at the Cape, Tiberias Benjamin Kisch.
In 1903 the South African College, which was situated on an adjoining site, extended its grounds by buying the property on which Bertram House stands. However in 1930, shortly after the transfer of the South African College to the University of Cape Town, the Bertram House property was transferred into the ownership of the Government of the Union of South Africa for use by the Department of Health.
But the uniqueness of the house’s architecture was soon recognized. By 1962 the house was declared a national monument, and in 1976 was transferred to the South African Cultural History Museum, due largely to the efforts of Mrs Lidderdale. After extensive restoration it was officially opened as a museum on 12 May 1984 by Elize Botha, wife of National Party Prime Minister PW Botha. Although Mrs Lidderdale did not live to see the realisation of her dream, it was her collections that formed the nucleus of the furnishings and household objects. Furnished as a home of a prosperous Cape English family of the first part of the 19th century, Bertram House became the fifth “satellite” museum of the SACHM, joining its other museums described at that time as house museums, viz. Koopmans-de Wet House, Groot Constantia, Bo-Kaap Museum and Stempastorie.
With its own Curator and associated Friends Society, Bertram House became an active hub of cultural activity for a specialized audience interested in aspects of domestic life and history. The standard of the historic interiors on display compared well with period house museums in the United Kingdom. Later there was a frequent turnover of small temporary exhibitions upstairs to augment the permanent displays in the rest of the house.
The museum concentrated on displaying objects of quality and connoisseurship. It did not set out to bring alive the persons who once were residents of the house or whose collections were on display, nor the historical context of the Cape at this time. As with so many house museums of this style world-wide, a steady decline in visitor numbers became evident over the years.
The original terms of Mrs Lidderdale’s will which stipulated that the collection should be kept together and be permanently on exhibition constrained the work of exhibition-making in the house and its ability to reach out to new audiences. It is also apparent that the Museum’s imaginative repositioning in the changed cultural and political landscape of an apartheid-free and democratic South Africa was lacking.
All of this was paired with a shortage of curatorial capacity in the newly-established Southern Flagship/Iziko Museums of Cape Town, which in 1999 absorbed the South African Cultural History Museum. Bertram House was eventually opened for only two days of the week, recording ever fewer visitors.
In 2007 and again in 2009 the Department of Public Works undertook to repair the roof and other refurbishments, and today the life of Bertram House as a museum is being quietly resumed with new ideas for the long-term future being given focused attention in the light of the very recent and important changes to the Lidderdale will.
The new terms of the will have given Iziko greater flexibility as we embark on a new programme of exhibitions. We are grateful to the Executors of the Lidderdale Estate for their far-sightedness and understanding in making these important and very-needed changes. At the same time we are very much aware of our duty to ensure that Mrs Lidderdale’s collection and contribution must be partly visible at all times in an Iziko museum. The stage has now been set to rethink the nature of the displays at Bertram House and many ideas for using the House are on the boil. This is an exciting moment in the history of the house and we note that this beadwork and philately display is a harbinger of things to come.
* Wieke van Delen is curator of Bertram House Museum, as well as curator of the Groot Constantia Historical Neucleus and Koopmans de Wet Museum. This article was delivered by the CEO of Iziko Museums, Ms Rooksana Omar, on Wednesday 8 December 2010 at the re-opening of Bertram House Museum as a full time museum.
