Today in Kimberley's History
November 21st
37 days since beginning of the Siege of Kimberley, 1899
Extract from "The Diary of a Doctor's Wife – During the Siege of Kimberley October 1899 to February 1900" by Winifred Heberden.
Cattle guard shelled at Kenilworth. Nobody hurt.
Kimberley Club - New Ladies' Lounge - 1962
By mid-1962, most of this work had been completed, although the most important part of the scheme — the new Ladies’ Lounge — took longer. The conversion of the former billiard room was finally approved in May 1962. Designed internally by Johannesburg decorator Pam Fordyce, the new lounge was deliberately elegant and contemporary. Chandeliers, jade-and-gold curtains, pale-gold upholstery, a softly illuminated display cabinet and deep carpeting created a room very different from the heavier Victorian interiors elsewhere in the Club.
Most significantly, the new Ladies’ Lounge had its own entrance directly from Du Toitspan Road. For the first time, women using the Club's designated facilities could enter directly from the principal street frontage rather than through the rear garden from Currey Street. The new lounge was officially opened on 21 November 1962 with a buffet supper for members and their families. The 1937 Ladies’ Annexe at the rear was consequently converted into a luxury suite for married visitors with an additional wood-panelled dining room on the ground floor.