Page 75 - Bulletin 23- 2020

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£150, gave him a piece of vacant land above his home Schoonzicht on the Main Road, and
offered to rename Essex Road, Ladan Road. This offer was accepted and Louis had his name

permanently in the history of Kalk Bay.

Making and naming Ladan Road

Ladan Road was ‘made up’ (paved) in 1925 much to relief of all now living there. The cost to the
City of Cape Town was £780 9s 1d.

As a matter of interest there is a letter from Louis Ladan to Council saying how the road had
come to be named Essex Road. James Harris had put a road sign up on the Main Road which

said Essex Road, named for his Essex Cottage. Someone had moved the sign and planted it at the

bottom of what was to be Ladan Road. Thus on official maps it simply became Essex Road. This
is how things were done in those long-ago informal days.

The six houses he built between 1919 and 1922 were all to the same basic design. There was no

architect involved – Ladan drew the plans himself and built the houses.

The right hand side of Ladan Road

Turning to the right hand side of the road and working up the hill we look now at two of the

houses on this layout – St Blaize and Naaldwyk.

St. Blaize is on erf 167671 (previously erf 89955) at 2 Ladan Road. (Fig. 3.6). Elements of the
typical arched front can be seen in the now much altered house. The erf was originally carved off

the huge erf of the Wicht estate (89922). It passed through several speculators’ hands before
being bought by William Frederick Auret in 1902. With his insolvency it went back on the

market and was bought by James Harris two months before his death in 1912. Louis Ladan

bought it in 1920, built the house, and sold it to Norman Fraser in 1922.

The Frasers were to have a very long association with Kalk Bay. Norman Fraser was a senior

manager with the Post Office. During the war years it was a designated ‘secure’ house which