Page 54 - Bulletin 15 2011

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Africa. The Findlay family owned the business for 126 of those years, and five generations of

the family were involved in the management of the company. It is sad to reflect that the only
structure that remains today of all the accommodation occupied by George Findlay & Co. Ltd.

over the years is the Adderley Street façade of the Electrical Department designed by Herbert
Baker and built in 1900.

For some years I was involved as a director of the Cape Town Partnership, the private sector /

public sector organization set up in 1999 to revive the rapidly declining central business

district of Cape Town. I also acted as chairman of the Cape Town City Improvement District
Board for two years. The CID represents the private sector property owners who provide the

funding through a top-up levy on their municipal rates accounts to finance additional security
and cleansing to regenerate the management of the city. Our efforts were successful; many

vacant office buildings were converted to apartments and the city centre is thriving again. The
spirit of George Findlay & Co. Ltd. lives on.

Although the company has ceased to exist, Captain George Findlay’s descendants’ association
with St. James with its unique atmosphere of sea, mountain and protected urban environment

has survived and flourished. Over the years various members of the Findlay family have

owned at least eleven different homes in St. James and, as George James Findlay first bought
property here in 1885, this means that the family has been part of the local community for the

last 127 years. Long may this relationship continue!

Acknowledgements

Dr Helen Robinson, David van den Heever, and Cmdr. Mac Bisset.

References

Brooke Simons, P. (1995) Old Mutual 1845 – 1995, Human & Rousseau, Cape Town.

Durham, E. Notes on the Durham Family (unpublished).

Findlay, J. (1954) The Findlay Letters, J. L. van Schaik, Pretoria.