The city of Kimberley has, over its 140-year history, become synonymous with all aspects of South Africa’s mining and industrial heritage – it was the birthplace of dia- mondiferous kimberlite mining and subsequently became the birthplace of modern indus- trial South Africa, and was also the birthplace of one of the world’s greatest mining companies, De Beers Consoli- dated Mines.

While these connections may give the city’s reputation a somewhat hardened industrial edge, Kimberley is also renowned for being home to one of South Africa’s most sophisticated and exclusive members-only clubs, the Kimberly Club.

The Kimberley Club is characteristic of the members-only clubs that dot the colonial outposts of the former British Empire, having been established as an exclusive social sanctuary for the upper echelons of society.

The club was established in August 1881, coinciding with the advent of company mining on the diamond mines, the concentration of wealth in a select few hands and the subsequent rise of the mining magnates.

The rationale for the establishment of a sophisticated club in such a remote and dusty outpost can be best explained thus: with the concentration of wealth in a few hands (wealth extracted from the diamond-rich kimber- lite pipes) came the desire for an exclusive and dignified gentlemen’s club on the lines of the London prototypes where the rising young magnates could enjoy a drink, good food and the company of their peers in comfort – away from the dust and dryness of the diamond diggings.

Not surprisingly, Cecil John Rhodes, the greatest of British colonialists and the most promi- nent among the young mining magnates, was the prime mover in the founding of the club.The other founding members of the club included Rhodes’ business partner, Charles Rudd, and his good friend, Dr Leander Starr Jameson, as well as mining magnates Lionel Phillips and Joseph B Robinson.

The club was founded at a time when company promotions were highly fashionable, and the founding members opted to launch the new venture as a joint-stock company. The first meeting of the Kimberley Club Company was held in May 1881, during which 74 well-known and wealthy citizens duly pledged themselves to take one debenture share of £100 in the proposed Kimberley Club.

While the club was officially established in August of that year, it was not until August 1882 that the building was finally completed.

The double-storey building, which cost in the region of £6 000 to build, was somewhat symbolically located on Dutoitspan road, the main thoroughfare between the Dutoitspan and Kimberley mines.

Once completed, the club exceeded members’ expectations. Neville Pickering, the newly appointed secretary of De Beers Mining Company and a great friend of Rhodes, remarked: “It beats anything of the kind I was ever in. We have our dinners and dances – one finds oneself in evening dress every night. It’s ruination to health and pocket. And then our club is such perfection. Electric bells wherever you like to touch. Velvet pile and Turkey carpets to walk upon and then one loses oneself in a luxurious lounge.”

Interestingly, some of the early club rules included these: no women in the club, no dogs on the premises and no smoking in the dining room, but the last rule was later amended to ‘No smoking until one hour after the commencement of the meal’ owing to the fact that Rhodes and Jameson were inveterate smokers.

Sadly, the original building burned to the ground on November 1, 1886. The fire started while members were at dinner when an oil lamp chandelier fell in the upstairs billiard room. The building, which included a great deal of wood in its construction, burned fiercely and Kimberley’s inadequate water supply could not extinguish the blaze. All that remained were two side walls.

However, the members had become accus- tomed to the luxuries the club offered and it was rebuilt a mere eight months later.

The Kimberley Club was one of the first buildings to be electrified – electricity, generated by a plant, was installed at the beginning of 1888 and, some two years later, De Beers, many of whose directors were club members, agreed to supply the club with electricity from the Kimberley mine in 1890.

The club’s bad luck with fire continued. The second building was destroyed by fire just nine years later, in October 1895. Nearly everything was destroyed except the stores in the wine cellar and papers and documents rescued from the secretary’s safe. The kitchen remained unscathed and, three days later, meals were again being served in a house nearby.

The third Kimberley Club building, which still occupies its stand in Dutoitspan road, was completed in mid-1896.

* To be continued.

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