Page 170 - Bulletin 21

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the late Audrey Lindsay, Clairvaux House itself was a maternity home during the war years

and this closed in 1946. In 1944 the van Blerk daughters entered into a mortgage arrangement
with Suliman Ahmed and Ismail Ebrahim Pohplonker enabling them to buy the whole

property for £3,500.

The 1939 Slum Clearance Plan clearly shows the size and number of buildings on the erf that

had just been bought. (Fig. 4.52.) It also shows a problem that reared its head in 1945 when

the Council moved to demolish a portion of the building on Harbour Road and the buildings
behind. The van Blerks had neglected to tell Ahmed and Pohplonker that they had signed an

agreement with Council permitting Council to demolish a portion of the shop building. Legal
letters went back and forth until the Council’s legal advisors said that an agreement had to be

reached whereby assurances of due care would be given that in the removal of a portion of

the building no further damage would be caused to the remaining building. There was also a
suggestion that the van Blerks could be legally liable for damages because of their non-

disclosure. An agreement was obviously reached and demolition went ahead.

By 1958 Ahmed and Pohplonker were insolvent and a sale in execution took place. The
property was described as:

‘A single storey dwelling under iron roof known as ‘Clairvaux’ 7 rooms, bathroom

toilet, kitchen, pantry and outside room and lavatory occupied by a European at
monthly rent £16. A pair of semidetached houses under iron roof ‘Vrede’ occupied by

a European at rental of £4 and ‘Arian’ (also called ‘Ruhe’) unoccupied.

A shop with room, kitchen and outside toilet occupied by an Indian at rental £7 10s.
An iron cottage of 2 rooms and kitchen occupied by a non – European at rental of £2.

The total municipal valuation was £5 505’

The entire complex was bought by Abraham Leopoldt Wolfsohn for £3,300. The erf was
subdivided in 1959 (erven 89931 and 89932). (Figs. 4.53 & 4.54.)