Rudd House: (5 Loch Road, Belgravia)
5 Loch Road, Belgravia, Kimberley was built on Plot 931, following a relatively simple design, during the late 1880’s. Known as ‘The Bungalow’, it originally had only four rooms. Today it is simple known as Rudd House.
In 1888 the property was occupied by William Henry Solomon (1852-1930 - He would go on to be a judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal from 1910 to 1929 and Chief Justice of South Africa from 1927 to 1929). It transferred to Charles Dunnel Rudd in 1896 who lived there for two years.
Henry Percy Rudd who became owner of ‘The Bungalow’ in 1898, and whose association with the house was the longest, had married Mabel Blythe in 1893. Their son, Bevil Gordon D’Urban Rudd, was born the following year. Bevil Rudd was a Rhodes Scholar from St. Andrew’s, Grahamstown, and in 1920, at the age of 26, won the 400m sprint for South Africa at the Antwerp Olympics. He married Ursula Knight and the two of them lived at ‘The Bungalow’ until 1930. Their son, Bevil John Blyth Rudd, the eldest of four children, was born in the night nursery in 1927. Bevil senior died in the same room in 1948. The house had grown with the Rudd’s, and from its original four-roomed format, it was variously extended, as family needs arose, to its present labyrinthian proportions. Henry Percy Rudd lived on in ‘The Bungalow’ until 1954, when he moved to St. James in Cape Town. In 1933 he had remarried, this time to Emilie ‘Mizi’ Stephanie Poole, of Evilly, France – the former companion to Mrs. Mabel Rudd.
On his death in 1961, HP Rudd left the house to his widow, Emilie, who returned there and stayed until her death in 1963. She in turn left ‘The Bungalow’ to her sister and brother in France, who auctioned off the furniture and other contents, but were unable to sell the house, which stood empty until 1968. It was then that Dr. Richard Liversidge, director of the McGregor Museum at the time, approached De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd with the proposal that they purchase the house and donate it to the museum.
De Beers agreed and the property was transferred to the McGregor Museum on condition that the museum restores the dwelling house and furnishes it appropriately. Surviving fittings, decorative paintwork and wallpapers of ‘The Bungalow’s’ heyday in the 1920’s made Art Deco the obvious choice.
(Text by Open Africa and McGregor Museum. Viewing Rudd House can be arranged through the McGregor Museum)
In 1888 the property was occupied by William Henry Solomon (1852-1930 - He would go on to be a judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal from 1910 to 1929 and Chief Justice of South Africa from 1927 to 1929). It transferred to Charles Dunnel Rudd in 1896 who lived there for two years.
Henry Percy Rudd who became owner of ‘The Bungalow’ in 1898, and whose association with the house was the longest, had married Mabel Blythe in 1893. Their son, Bevil Gordon D’Urban Rudd, was born the following year. Bevil Rudd was a Rhodes Scholar from St. Andrew’s, Grahamstown, and in 1920, at the age of 26, won the 400m sprint for South Africa at the Antwerp Olympics. He married Ursula Knight and the two of them lived at ‘The Bungalow’ until 1930. Their son, Bevil John Blyth Rudd, the eldest of four children, was born in the night nursery in 1927. Bevil senior died in the same room in 1948. The house had grown with the Rudd’s, and from its original four-roomed format, it was variously extended, as family needs arose, to its present labyrinthian proportions. Henry Percy Rudd lived on in ‘The Bungalow’ until 1954, when he moved to St. James in Cape Town. In 1933 he had remarried, this time to Emilie ‘Mizi’ Stephanie Poole, of Evilly, France – the former companion to Mrs. Mabel Rudd.
On his death in 1961, HP Rudd left the house to his widow, Emilie, who returned there and stayed until her death in 1963. She in turn left ‘The Bungalow’ to her sister and brother in France, who auctioned off the furniture and other contents, but were unable to sell the house, which stood empty until 1968. It was then that Dr. Richard Liversidge, director of the McGregor Museum at the time, approached De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd with the proposal that they purchase the house and donate it to the museum.
De Beers agreed and the property was transferred to the McGregor Museum on condition that the museum restores the dwelling house and furnishes it appropriately. Surviving fittings, decorative paintwork and wallpapers of ‘The Bungalow’s’ heyday in the 1920’s made Art Deco the obvious choice.
(Text by Open Africa and McGregor Museum. Viewing Rudd House can be arranged through the McGregor Museum)
