The reawakening of the Rand Club
Historic Joburg institution is working hard to keep up with necessary changes
The women’s toilet at the Rand Club is pretty and pink — with framed prints of birds and flowers playing off shades of rose. The loo is not extraordinary, but it is significant. After all, a women’s toilet is a very late addition to the 130-year-old Joburg icon. For more than 100 years the Rand Club was men-only, whites-only, members-only and haunted by ghosts of anti-Semitism. Add to this the spectre of Cecil John Rhodes, the man who is the reason the club exists but who has left it a damningly problematic legacy. It’s general maintenance, but also trying to reverse damage from a 2005 fire. Despite renovations and repairs at the time, McKechnie says the club never quite got back into its stride. Things got so dire that in 2015 the Rand Club closed and looked doomed to be sold off. "We’ve tried to use the décor and design to upgrade the look and feel in a more contemporary way while telling the changing story of the club," says McKechnie. Change has meant a portrait of a young Queen...
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