Page 187 - Bulletin 19 2015

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numbers 1 – 15 correlate with the 15 transactions that took place between 1937 and 1940
resulting in the consolidation of 15 erven into one very big – 4 acre, piece of land under one

ownership. The complications caused by the original road layout are clear to see. Portions of

the planned Upper Kimberley Road were sold, as were portions of the unnamed road shown
on the drawing.

The person who drove this private development must have been remarkably determined and
very wealthy. She was Josephine Claiborne Clegg (born Faust) an American born in Virginia

in about 1897. Very little is known about her, unfortunately, except that she divorced her first

husband (Hopkins) and married Royal Navy Captain John Harry Kay Clegg in Simon’s Town
on 5 October 1932, when she was about 35 and he was 48. Josephine had a very clear idea –

and that was to build a magnificent home specifically for entertaining. Where better to build
than high above Kalk Bay with views across to Simon’s Town? In 1937 she started to buy up

the land she had her eye on. Starting with Minnie Molteno’s erven she bought 8 in total that

year. The other 7 were bought from the City of Cape Town and Anderson descendants
between 1938 and 1940. The resulting plot, (erf 88712) was 4 acres or just over 16,000

square meters – an enormous piece of mountainside land.

She had applied to Council in 1938 and at a special meeting on 22 December they agreed to

sell her ‘certain unmade roads’ at a cost of 6d per square foot. There were numerous

conditions attached to this agreement the most visible of which was that she provide steps
and a handrail up the side of the property from Upper Quarterdeck Road to Boyes Drive.

These steps known commonly today as Petrava Steps were built by the Council in 1938.
Although there was some debate about who should pay for the hand rail in the end Josephine

Clegg paid £200 for the steps and rail and the work was completed.

Early in 1938 she had commissioned the architects Walgate and Elsworth to draw the plans
for this grand house. Elsworth was of course a neighbour and this architectural firm was

renowned for the grand houses they designed for the great and good of Cape Town.