Page 140 - Bulletin 20 2016

137

At St. James and Kalk Bay (1903 - 1935)

With his inheritance Edward Marsh was able to spend much of his later life along the

seafront of St. James and Kalk Bay. He sold his home in Drake Street, Observatory, and in
1906 he bought Greystones, 18 Main Road, St. James from the deceased estate of John

Cornwell, who had built the home in 1903 to architect Edwin Cooke’s design. (Fig. 3.9.)
Marsh, however, suffered from respiratory problems and Greystones was in his words too

near to the sea breakers and he attributed his breathing problems to this. In 1920 he sold

Greystones and bought a large property in Kalk Bay which he called Roxton.

This property was owned in 1916 by a Mrs. Harriet Collier who was a widow of some sixty

years, having lost her husband Captain Collier at a young age. After her death in 1920, aged

eighty-two, the property was inherited in September 1920 by her nephew, Reverend
Coldstream Ernest Sampson, from whom Marsh bought the property. Marsh later entered into

a land exchange with the Cape Town City Council, in June 1923. He exchanged two lower
ground tracts of his property which ran along the Main Road for additional ground higher up

the mountain which he called Upper Roxton. The Council used the two lower tracts for

widening the Main Road and the removal of a sharp bend. (Fig. 3.10.)

When Marsh bought the property in October 1920 there was an empty thatched-roof house

(originally the home of Mrs. Collier) on site as well as an occupied fisherman’s cottage. On
19 December 1920 Marsh’s architects, Messrs. William Black and Fagg, wrote to the Town

Clerk, Mr J. R. Finch, for permission, under Section 16 of the Housing Act, to demolish the

empty house as it was on this site that Marsh wished to build his new home. This Council
agreed to. Marsh had chosen this site because it had maximum sunlight and because it was

further from the sea than his original home Greystones.

Mr. Adams and his family lived in the fisherman’s cottage. Marsh also applied to have this

cottage demolished as he wished to build a new cottage for his chauffeur on this site. Council

granted him permission to demolish provided he ensured that the Adams family had
alternative accommodation. This he did, and the Adams family moved to Manuel’s Cottage

in Kalk Bay. Thereafter the fisherman’s cottage was demolished.