 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Rand Club" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(May 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Rand Club | |
|---|---|
 Rand Club, 33 Loveday St, MarshalltownJohannesburg | |
 | |
| General information | |
| Status | Completed |
| Type | Business-use |
| Location | Johannesburg,South Africa |
| Completed | 1904 |
| Height | |
| Roof | 34 m (111 ft) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 5 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architects | Leck & Emley |
TheRand Club is aprivate members' club inJohannesburg,South Africa, founded in October 1887. The current (third) clubhouse was designed by architectsLeck & Emley in 1902 and its construction completed in 1904.Cecil John Rhodes helped to select the location.[1][2] Reconceived in 2016,[3] it changed policy to welcome members regardless of race or gender.
 | This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(July 2020) |
The club was founded only a year after the city ofJohannesburg itself was formed. The need for such an establishment was felt as, in the burgeoninggold rush tent town of the time, there was little infrastructure and no suitable locale for distinguished visitors or pioneers to call in or be received at. It is said thatCecil John Rhodes was walking along the newly laid-outMarshall's Township together with DrHans Sauer, the first District Surgeon of theTransvaal Republic; both of them stopped at the intersection of what is nowCommissioner and Loveday streets, with Rhodes proclaiming that "this place will do for a club.”
The first subscribers, who became the founding members, received two plots as a voluntary contribution and purchased two additional ones to ensure that the future building provided spacious facilities. The construction of the first clubhouse promptly began with the erection of a simple single-story structure, housing a bar, a billiards room, four conference rooms, and offices for the chairman and the secretary. This quickly proved inadequate and this structure was demolished to make way for a double-storyVictorian building, then deemed the finest in Johannesburg, with colonnaded verandas, trelliswork, French windows, andCorinthian pillars. By 1902, this too proved inadequate and was replaced with the current, third, clubhouse.
The club and its members have played important parts and have held notable positions inSouth African history. Miningmagnates such as Sir Jilius Jeppe, SirHermann Eckstein andSir Lionel Phillips were instrumental in turning theWitwatersrand into the largest goldfield in the world, as well as for sponsoring the construction of theJohannesburg Art Gallery and donating important pieces of art to it. Rhodes's associate, DrLeander Starr Jameson, together with his fellow plotters from the Transvaal Reform Committee plotted theoverthrow of the government of the Transvaal from the club's Main Bar. The club was one of the targets of the striking miners during theRand Rebellion of 1922 and was briefly barricaded during the disturbances.
The current clubhouse was completed in 1904 on the design of prominent architects William Leck and Frank Emley in theEdwardian neo-baroque style. It is said that Emley drew inspiration fromMichelangelo’s Church of the Sacred Heart in Florence and from theReform Club in London. The front façade of the building has arusticated ground floor and is adorned withporticoes andDoric pillars. A notable feature is the specific incorporation of two half-moon wooden benches flanking the front doors, as by 1904 it was already an established tradition for some members to sit at the front and observe passing street life.The six-story building houses the longest bar in Africa, at 31 metres (103 feet), a billiards room, a private theatre, a double-volume staircase illuminated by a mosaic dome, two libraries, a ballroom, an armory, six conference rooms of various volumes, office space, and three bedrooms. The top two floors are still under restoration following a fire in June 2005 that destroyed the top two floors of the building.
The club's most prominent artwork, aPietro Annigoni ofQueen Elizabeth II, was destroyed by the fire in June 2005. The club interiors are adorned by sculptures and paintings from some of the most prominent South African artists, past and current.
The main Buckland Library houses in excess of 10,000 volumes, some of which are of historic and scholarly interest. The club is acknowledged as one of the notable private collections of Africa, with some volumes dating back to the 19th century. Apart from books on Africa, the club is a veritable depository in the fields ofJohannesburg history and biographies. With a number of its members being published authors in their own right, the library has a separate section of works by Sir Lionel Phillips and Anthony Akerman, among others.
The club is unique in that it was used not once, but twice, as an official residence by members of theBritish royal family on their official visits to South Africa in the 1920s and 1930s.
The governance of the club vests with the members in general meeting. Anannual general meeting is traditionally held on 20 November, with additional meetings as the need arises. Members traditionally elect a General Committee to perform the oversight over daily functions and management.
Rand Club has various clubs within itself, of which the most notable are the Hunting, Shooting & Fishing Club, the Business Club, the Historical Association, the Theatre & Cinema Club, and the Young Members’ Think Tank. Each of these clubs-within-the club hosts its own regular events, dinners, and celebrations.
26°12′22″S28°02′29″E / 26.206063°S 28.041309°E /-26.206063; 28.041309
