I first visited Lindfield House in early 2011, a few months after I moved to Joburg. I blogged about it then, but after visiting for a second time two weeks ago I now realize that my original post was inadequate. I can’t say enough about how amazing this place is, and the Jozi blogosphere needs a reminder.
Lindfield House, at 72 Richmond Avenue in Auckland Park. The house was built around 1910, when Auckland Park was still a distant suburb of Johannesburg.
Lindfield House is part museum, part tea room, part events venue, part educational facility. It’s also a private home where a modern-day Victorian lady lives.
Katharine Love — the sole owner, operator, curator, chef, housekeeper, and resident of Lindfield House. She conducts all of her tours in a Victorian housekeeper’s uniform.
A Tour of Lindfield House
Every inch of every room in Lindfield House, from the drawing room to the kitchen to the bathroom to the pantry, is decorated to look like a late-19th-century/early-20th-century home in an English colony. The house is filled with thousands of antiques, collected over a lifetime. Katharine and her parents moved here when Katharine was a young girl, and she and her late mother have been collecting Victorian antiques ever since.
Perhaps more remarkable than the thousands of antiques themselves, at least for me, is the fact that Katharine cleans and dusts every single one of them herself. She doesn’t trust anyone else to clean so many priceless relics, and I can’t blame her.
Katharine shows Fiver and me old photos of nineteenth-century drawing rooms. It was quite common for Victorian drawing rooms to be filled to the brim with stuff, as this one is.
The impeccably decorated dining room table.
The master bedroom, where Katharine sleeps.
A replica of a Victorian teenage girl’s room. “A girl living in a room like this would be ‘coming out’ soon,” Katharine explained. “She would travel back to Europe for her coming out, and hopefully return home engaged.”
The library.
I know what you might be thinking: This is Africa, not England. Why would I visit a Victorian museum in Johannesburg? I’ll tell you why: Because you won’t find a house like this, or a person like Katharine, anywhere else in the world. Katharine’s encyclopedic knowledge of Victorian culture and society, and her unusual manner of imparting that knowledge, are one-of-a-kind.
Katharine is formal, almost stiff — probably much like a real Victorian housekeeper would be — upon first meeting. But she warms as the tour goes on, and is so patient and kind when answering questions. Katharine’s manners are impeccable, of course. And I can’t imagine that there is anyone else on earth who knows more than Katharine about the way that colonial Victorian houses were run. She could easily be a curator at the British Museum or the Smithsonian, but instead she has devoted her life to curating this modest house in suburban Johannesburg.
The Life of a Victorian Lady
I’ve done the Lindfield tour twice now, and both times I’ve been most fascinated by Katharine’s description of women’s roles in upper-class Victorian homes. There was so much complexity, so many strictures and unspoken rules, to the way that women were expected to behave and interact both within their homes and in the outside world. Women were limited in the topics of conversation they were allowed to make. They were forbidden to talk to men about business or politics, or really about anything more significant than the weather. Women rarely left their own homes except to make social calls to other ladies in the neighborhood; these social calls took place only between three and five p.m., and were meant to last no longer than the time it took to drink a shallow cup of tea.
The lady of the house was not supposed to visit her own kitchen, ever, as that was the domain of her servants.
Katharine in her kitchen. The whole kitchen is Victorian — note the massive iron stove on the left — with the exception of a small gas stove (still extremely old) in the corner that she uses for cooking.
These women were expected to exert as little energy as possible; they had servants to help them with literally everything, assuming their husbands could afford it. There were kitchen maids to do the dishes and house maids to dust the furniture. There were parlour maids to help the lady dress and brush her hair, and footmen to help her alight from her carriage. The fashion of the time encouraged repose: Women wore suffocatingly tight corsets and huge hoop skirts that prevented them from walking faster than a slow stroll.
I could go on forever — I haven’t even touched upon the lives of the men or the servants or the children — but you really must take Katharine’s tour and hear it all from her.
There were three particular highlights of my recent Lindfield tour. First was the wedding dress exhibit.
A Victorian wedding dress. Note the tiny waist.
Katharine doesn’t always have her wedding dresses on display. But she recently hosted a wedding at Lindfield House and displayed her dress collection for the occasion, and hadn’t taken it down yet on the day we visited. The house’s conservatory (music room) was filled with wedding dresses representing various historical eras from the 1890s through the 1950s.
Reflections of a wedding dress mannequin. I can’t remember which decade this dress is from — probably the 1930s or 40s.
The 1950s dress is my favorite.
The second highlight was the doll’s house. I saw it on my previous visit but had forgotten how utterly spectacular it is.
A look at the doll’s house with its front doors open. The house itself is huge by doll’s house standards. As you can see, there are eight rooms in the front half of the house and an equal number of rooms in the back half, which also opens out.
The doll’s house drawing room. Note the two-tiered platter of afternoon tea cakes. Every tiny detail of every room in the doll’s house is 100% Victorian and 100% perfect. Katharine inherited the house and much of the furniture as a child, but she has also built many of the installations herself.
A tiny doll’s writing alcove.
The third highlight was the high tea, or — as Katharine politely corrected me — the afternoon tea. (High tea and afternoon tea are actually two different things. Read more here.) Upon request, Katharine serves a delicious afternoon tea (all homemade, of course) at less than half the cost of the fancy afternoon teas served in many upscale Joburg hotels.
Lindfield’s afternoon tea, served on the sunny front porch.
My first plate of freshly baked scones, with clotted cream and strawberry jam, which I quickly smashed and refilled.
Lindfield House is a one-women operation, run on a shoestring budget. Go support Katharine, as Lindfield House is a legit historical treasure and these tours are Katharine’s only form of income. (The tour plus afternoon tea costs R120 — less than $10. Cheaper tours are also available without the afternoon tea. Advance booking is essential.) You’ll have fun, learn a lot, and leave with a full stomach.
To book a tour of Lindfield House, contact Katharine at 011 726 2932 or lindfieldhousemuseum@outlook.com.
Terrific story and pics, Heather! You do justice to one of Joburg’s most eccentric and enthralling attractions.
Thanks a lot, Gus. I must say, it is a very hard place to describe.
Afternoon tea! Why, oh, why do I read your posts on an empty stomach?
It looks fantastic. I don’t know how Katharine has time to run the house and bake tea. That’s impressive.
If I were doing historical research, I’d start at Lindfield House. With tea. Strictly for research, of course.
I honestly don’t know how she has time, either. I feel like I would have to work 24 hours a day just to keep up with the dusting.
You really must come to Joburg someday. We would have so much fun.
This is so unique – had no idea this existed in Johannesburg, definitely want to visit when I’m there again!
That library and that doll house! Wow!
OMG, you’d love it. It’s so weird and awesome.
Would love to go check this house out. The tales those walls would tell if only they could speak…….
You should go!
I have been Katharine’s neighbour and friend for 30 years – she is a true lady and a wonderful person! She receives no help at all – no rates rebate, no city funding, no lottery donation, no national museum or heritage support: her contribution to the cultural life of the city and the country is immense – she has been commended by the National Trust in the UK, the Victorian Society in London, and is the recipient of awards for excellence by Tripadvisor worldwide! It is a truism but valid nevertheless that no hero is valued by his own people or in his own country – BRAVO miss Love!
So remarkable. It must be cool to be Katharine’s neighbor!
This is amazing; can’t believe it exists so close to Melville! What is the contact number to book? Can’t seem to find it online
Hey there, sorry I should make the contact details more clear – will update my post now. Katharine’s phone number is 011 726 2932 and her email is lindfieldhousemuseum@outlook.com. There’s a contact page here: http://lindfield.wix.com/museum#!contact/c1izt
Utterly amazing. This is a product of someone’s passion in action, no doubt. A little creepy, too. I think this is because she’s so Victorian – she doesn’t even smile! If I ever need to research Victorian times, I’ll know who to go to. I don’t suppose she has Internet? 😛
Haha, you nailed it. Katharine really does seem to have walked right out of a time machine. (She is much warmer in real life than she comes across in pictures, although I guess that is probably also a Victorian quality.)
She does have email on her phone — I put the email address at the bottom of the post. No computer though. But I’m sure she would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have 🙂
What an experience. With so much detail and knowledge. Well done miss Love
She’s just the best.
H E L P ….
Lindfield Victorian House Museum
22 Okt. om 14:58 ·
Friends and supporters of Lindfield Victorian House Museum – the devastating results of the Covid-19 pandemic on our beloved museum.
As a result of six months of near-total lockdown and the consequent complete loss of ANY income, Lindfield Museum is in an extremely precarious financial position. The Joburg City Council has not agreed to a rates or services moratorium and the museum now owes the City of Johannesburg in excess of R80,000 (4,900USD or 4,100EUR). This amount is being escalated each month and at present, with the fall-off in visitor numbers, there is no possibility of lessening the arrears.
We are making a desperate appeal for donations (however small) to decrease the risk of an immediate services cut-off and the eventual closure of the museum.
Donations may be made directly via on-line banking into the museum’s City of Johannesburg account by adding a new beneficiary from your bank’s pre-loaded company beneficiary list with the title: City of Johannesburg. Then use the museum’s nine digit municipal account number as the reference. The number is: 402768963. Alternatively, here is our banking details for an EFT donation: K. E. Love, ABSA Savings Account No: 9636203244, Branch Code: 632005.
International as well as local friends of the museum can also make a donation by scanning the QR code (pictured) with any Masterpass enabled banking or payment app. If you can donate any amount, however small, we will be so grateful. Thank you.
Thanks for posting this. I donated and have been spreading the word. Hoping for the best!
THANK you so much, maybe I can see you on Sunday the 6th December 🙂 Marc Vogels ,
Hi Marc, what’s happening on 6 December?
Good Morning ,I hope you are well, I’m organizing a Christmas Market @ the Museum. I hope to raise enough funds for paying the Municipal Bill. The Market will be on the 6th December from 9.00-18.00. There will be only a handful stands with exquisite products in Christmas & Victorian style. There will be fresh Flowers-Hand Crafts- Silverware and Antiques. The Vendors are promising to pay up to 15% and 20% of their sales to the museum.Their will also be a raffle and much more ( I hope ) <3 . Thanks for posting, enjoy your Day, warm regards, Marc Vogels .
Thanks!
Hi Heather , I Really hope to meet you there ….. the more souls, the more joy.
Marking my calendar right now!