Melrose House

The house was built in 1886 by businessman George Heys, who had made his fortune running the post-coach service between Pretoria and Lourenço Marques (now Maputo). Heys spared no expense: stained-glass windows from Brussels, encaustic tiles from England, Italian marble, hand-painted ceilings and a layout that broke with the symmetrical Victorian conventions of the time. It was, briefly, the most fashionable house in the South African Republic.

During the South African War the British army requisitioned Melrose House as the headquarters of Lord Roberts and later Lord Kitchener. After two years of guerrilla warfare and the controversial concentration-camp system that killed tens of thousands of Boer and African civilians, peace talks were finally convened in the dining room. The treaty itself was signed on the round dining table — still in the room today — ending the war on British terms but with concessions that paved the way for a unified, self-governing South Africa.

The house remained in the Heys family until 1968, when it was donated to the city of Pretoria as a museum. Almost all of the original furniture, paintings, china and personal effects survived, making it one of the best-preserved Victorian interiors in the country. Rooms are arranged exactly as they were in the early 1900s, including the dining room with the treaty table.

The Victorian garden has been carefully restored to its original layout and is a small oasis in the surrounding city centre. A coffee shop in the conservatory serves tea and cake on the original verandah, and the museum hosts rotating temporary exhibitions on Pretoria history in the carriage house.

Practical info: Melrose House is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 17:00. Entry is around R30 per adult and R20 per child. The house is a five-minute walk from Church Square and is included on our Pretoria Day Tour for visitors interested in the Anglo-Boer War period and the build-up to the Union of South Africa.