While Bloemfontein has lost most of its old buildings thanks to development, Batho has retained many of the charming English cottage style houses of the previous era. From the 1920’s onwards, varieties of two-, three-, four- and five-roomed houses were built in Batho.
An urban renewal project, conducted by Bloemfontein town planners Bopa Lesedi, set about studying the architecture of the area’s old houses in order to plan the preservation — and in some cases restoration — of these old-world cottages.
According to Bopa Lesedi’s June 2011 Review of the Batho Urban Renewal Project (also known as Operation Hlasesla) Batho’s heritage houses “are characterized by the use of raw bricks, arched brick lintels and zinc roofs with a classical door-and-two-windows front design.”
The Review describes these homes as “quite beautiful and worthy of preservation” despite advanced age and “dire conditions”, and emphasizes typical “L-shape, U-shape or H-shape” floor designs. While the historical value of these homes is obvious, tough decisions had to be made deciding which dilapidated homes should be rescued rather than razed.
Bopa Lesedi, in consultation with SC Consulting Engineers, went house-to-house in Batho in search of certainty. They discovered that the typical Batho house measures 45-65 square metres, and found that a second informal dwelling is commonly found adjacent to the original house.
One worrying aspect was that due to forcible relocations from Waaihoek in 1918, few Waaihoek residents were able to transfer the title to their newly occupied site (properties were lost in Waaihoek due to the development of a large power station).
Of the 380 residential properties surveyed by Bopa Lesedi, only 215 (56.7%) were formally owned and registered with deeds to private individuals. Almost 20% have no record of title at all, with the balance belonging to the Mangaung Local Municipality.
Bopa Lesedi has recommended that the municipality embark on a “determined process” to register current occupants as recognized owners. In cases where houses have been certified as unfit for habitation, these have recently been demolished and replaced with a 60 square metre “Hlasela House” (approved by the Heritage Council).
Over the past two years 300 brand new Hlasela Houses have been built as part of a community upliftment project. A successful permutation of this project are the employment opportunities that have filtered down to community level. Bopa Lesedi employed and trained 100 Hlasela as fulltime, permanent workers who were specifically recruited from the poorest areas.
Bopa Lesedi’s poverty alleviating strategy has borne fruit in one way above all, that has improved the prospects of the average Batho resident. Thanks to the upgrades (streets, squares, services), property values for plots have skyrocketed from an intrinsic value of around R30 000 — R40 000 to around R300 000 currently.
Within this context Bopa Lesedi launched a “Don’t sell campaign”, where residents were convinced that by holding onto their properties, their asset values could only increase. And as some of the broken buildings and eyesores have been rubbed out, and old beauties restored and polished, the desirability and snob value of the Batho area has increased.
At the same time, the crime rate has shown a noticeable decline. With road systems constantly improving in and around these cottages, modern technology has been able to reach more and more private residences. A number of houses in Batho now sport solar powered geysers, another cost-saving and environmentally friendly feature likely to make the neighbors in Bloemfontein a little green with envy.
Renewal in Batho comes with the promise of many exciting opportunities, among them township tourism. Batho is considered safe to visit, although it is advisable to travel in groups. This can be done by following The Batho Heritage Route.
Charming impressions of “old Bloemfontein” and another long forgotten way of life are likely to sneak up on visitors in a way that will refresh and surprise.
Note: Batho Heritage Route brochures are available at the National Museum, or contact contacting Derek du Bruyn at 051 4479609 or [email protected]
This article originally appeared in the Mail & Guardian newspaper as an advertorial supplement