History

In 1903, barely a year after the Anglo-Boer War came to an end, Brooklyn was established on the outskirts of Pretoria.  In 1928 Mr. W. Stretton became the owner of Erf 264.  He commissioned one of South Africa’s pre-eminent architects at the time, namely Gordon Leith, to design a house for him and his family.  The original house was built in 1929.

The double-storey house had three bedrooms and a comfortable lounge and dining room.  Between the house and the double garage was a conservatory.  At the back of the house was a stable for four horses.  Mrs. Stretton was a keen horse rider and she went riding on the nearby Brooklyn common – the area between Lynwood Road and Charles Street, to the east of Brooklyn Road – which was an open field at the time.

Unfortunately the Stretton’s could enjoy the pleasure of their elegant house for only a few years.  In 1931 it was acquired by the Cohen’s who stayed for more than 30 years.  In 1963 it was acquired by Horace Dainty who sold the house, in 1967, to Judge and Mrs. Moll.  In 1988 Herman and Nellie Massyn bought the house.

The present owners acquired the house in 1995, and housed it in a family trust which they aptly named Stretton Stables Trust.

The original house that Gordon Leith designed for Walter Stretton remains intact, although the functionality of some of the rooms have changed over time.  The stables were turned into a one-bedroom flat, the conservatory was turned into a stoep, the original garage into a study and the kitchen into a living room.  A new garage and kitchen was added.  Pretoria architect Alex Walker was responsible for most of the redesign of the dwelling and the additions, which were done in 1997.  These changes were done with care and preserved the elegance of the original Gordon Leith design.  It is a tribute to the six owners to date that so much of the detail of the original design (e.g. the fireplace, Oregon pine beams, wooden doors, windows, and wooden staircase) has been preserved.

Gordon Leith

George Esslement Gordon Leith was born in South Africa in 1886, and died in Pretoria at the ripe old age of eighty years.

The British architect Thomas Tyrwhitt, who worked for the Public Works Department in Pretoria from 1904 to 1907, recognised the talent of the young Gordon Leith and upon his insistence Leith was sent to England in 1905.  When Leith returned he worked as an architect with Sir Herbert Baker on the Union Buildings before being admitted as the first Herbert Baker Student at the British School in Rome, in 1911.  He subsequently was admitted to the British School at Athens in 1912.  He was assistant architect to the Imperial War Graves Commission in England from 1918 to 1920 before returning to South Africa where he set up his practice.  His works include the Calais Southern War Cemetery, France (1918 -1920), the Central Railway Station, Johannesburg (1927 – 1932), the Town Hall, Bloemfontein (1920 – 1940), and the SA Reserve Bank, Johannesburg (1938), all in a stripped Neo-Classical style derived from Scandinavia.

In his publication History of Architecture, Sir Banister Fletcher gives recognition to a small number of architects who practised in Africa during the period up to the independence of the African States.  He recognises Sir Herbert Baker as the leading force, with landmark building in a number of African states.  He also pays tribute to Gordon Leith, which he describes as a follower of Baker who studied in Europe and an architect whose work reflects the influence of contemporary Swedish neo-classicism.