Though I grew up in the inner city of Johannesburg, these days I largely visit it as Daily Maverick’s cities reporter, and often to count potholes or to see some or other disaster the city administration has visited on the beautiful city.  

So, it was a delight to be invited by the Rand Club chairman, Alicia Thompson — not ‘chairperson’, Thompson insists — to come and see the remake of the Randlords’ watering hole started by Anglo-Saxon mining barons who needed somewhere to chill and blow the fortunes they made in the gold rush. 

It is a classic of old Johannesburg architecture and has been made and remade many times since it was built in 1890; it is a staple on popular Johannesburg city tours. The club has been well maintained, unlike the heritage property the Rissik Street Post Office, which the Johannesburg Property Company has sent to junk mail since a fire ripped through it more than a decade ago. 

The stained glass windows, wooden fittings and furnishings at the Rand Club are maintained as they were planned; the library is a place you want to lose yourself in for days and the dining hall is a grand Johannesburg institution. 

Alicia Thompson. Image: Bram Lammers

Thompson is a home-girl, and her sister Faith Knight and I went to school together in Bosmont. She’s been telling me how her sister has recast the old classic in a story of decolonisation I think you’d appreciate. Thompson is a force of nature; she and her husband, John Clark, have lived in the inner city since 2009 and she runs her own business in the old Sophiatown. She has been a member of the Rand Club for years and this year was elected chairman. 

Over time, the club hit financial straits because many of its older members died or emigrated, or semigrated to the coasts, and because of the migration of inner city businesses to the northern suburbs and the Sandton CBD, but a few mining leaders still belong to the club, she says.

Still, it needed new money as the old money dried up. After a brief period of hibernation in 2016, the club reopened with a new business model, funded by members Rick Currie, Conrad Penny and Ramsay Brierley. Enter a young and optimistic general committee, comprised of Thompson and a team that includes club manager Phil Thurston and the architect and heritage consultant Brian McKechnie, who is an encyclopaedia of knowledge about Johannesburg’s heritage. Like Thompson, he still lives and works in the city. 

Other committee members include lawyers, an actuary, businessmen and accountants. This new team opened up the club to the people who live and work in the inner city, making it easier to eat, play and sleep there even if you don’t become a member. Without too many dining and gathering options, the Rand Club now buzzes with this new life. It retains its colonial history but has been reshaped for a new and modern African city. Membership comes with perks including food and hotel stay discounts, easy access to events (a recent talk by William Kentridge was sold out) and reciprocity at 190 clubs around the world. 

How better to refashion the old club than by hosting David Tlale, the designer-extraordinaire who has taken up a studio on the fourth floor? Outside, his exquisitely draped mannequins hold the fort. 

We go on a Saturday, so Tlale is not available, but a popular barber and clothes designer — ManMade Executive Wear — is. Other professionals have taken offices and you can rent boardrooms with all the doo-dahs and a view of the city for as long as you need. Attorney Mahlape Mohanoe says her practice at the club is thriving. 

Interior of the Rand Club. Image: Supplied by the Rand Club

From the fourth-floor windows, the old club is reflected in the glass of the building across the road. It’s an Instagrammer’s delight, says Thompson, showing us new membership photographs of young and diverse groups of visitors who live, play or work in the city — and sometimes all three. 

FirstRand has loaned a substantial part of its exquisite art collection to the Rand Club and the contemporary pieces update the old club with new realities and new talents. It’s a remarkable makeover. Because so much of Rand Club life happens at night (dinners, parties, wine-tasting, quizzes, jazz), the team renovated old accommodation rooms into a hotel, so you can stay overnight. 

Architects and designers retained the old core but put in new bathrooms and a pared-down style that lets the surrounding city be the main design. You look out of the rooms into the surrounding City Hall and the streets that hum on a Saturday morning. The club maintains good relationships with the city, so the surroundings are clean compared with the nearby High Court Precinct and the Park Station area where visitors are greeted by heaps of dirt. Parking is accessible and good security means it’s easy to visit Bridge Books in the precinct, an independent bookstore run by the visionary bookseller Griffin Shea. (His selection of book events will make you a regular.) 

The Rand Club. Image: Supplied by the Rand Club

On the morning we visited, Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon was reading from his book The Blinded City, with the award-winning narrative non-fiction writer Niren Tolsi as his discussant. The book is a must-read for anybody who loves the city, as it tracks the lives and communities of people who make their homes in condemned buildings. (See a webinar I did with him here.)  

James Findlay Collectable Books and Antique Maps is the treasure of treasures in the basement: the heritage maps and old posters can keep you browsing for hours and that’s before you get to the books. 

Afterwards, we go to lunch: Thompson and her husband recommended the calamari; it was a good call, crispy and fresh. Bookings are essential and the lamb rogan josh is also a favourite. 

We sat for so long that guests at nearby tables arrived for afternoon tea. The scones and sandwiches looked delectable and a friend who went recently said they are. 

Thompson also showed us the library which she runs with Agnes Nugent and the library committee. The updated selection and shining shelves told a story of deep care for an old archive, with the new shelves showing an interesting eye for new and often radical work. It’s a reshape I enjoyed, and a maquette of Rhodes, who bankrolled the club, in the library seemed more an act of reclamation or decolonisation than toppling him may have been. The old has been made to live comfortably with the new. DM/ML

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