In the article below, Frank R Bradlow looks at the architectural and historical significance of the Old Synagogue in Cape Town. The piece first appeared in the 1980 edition of Restorica, the journal of the Simon van der Stel Foundation (today the Heritage Association of South Africa). Thank you to the University of Pretoria for giving us permission to publish.
In 1866, three years after the consecration of the St. John's Street Synagogue in the Gardens, Cape Town in September 1863, an album of twelve lithographic prints by Thomas Bowler, known as The Pictorial Album of Cape Town, was published. This album had an introduction and text with a written description of each print by William Roger Thomson. Thomson, who was born at Balfour in the Eastern Cape in 1832, was the son of Rev. William Ritchie Thomson, one of the Scottish Presbyterian Church clergymen brought out by Lord Charles Somerset to minister to members of the Dutch Reformed Church. Young Thomson received much of his education in Scotland and became a clergyman in the Dutch Reformed Church. On his return to South Africa, however, he preferred journalism, and was at one time editor of Die Volksvriend. When he resigned from this position, he was appointed by Juta's, the publishers, to edit The Pictorial Album of Cape Town and to write the text.
In his commentary on Plate No. 7 "The Roman Catholic Church", he says:
Not far from the Cathedral, in a quiet corner, almost hid among the trees of...
