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The Randlord Mansions: Palaces of the Mining Elite

The move to Parktown began in the 1890s, led by the likes of Sir Lionel Phillips and his wife, Lady Florence Phillips. They sought a location that was close enough to the gold mines for business but high enough to catch the clean breezes of the Highveld. The result was a neighborhood of architectural opulence that had no equal in the Southern Hemisphere. These were not mere houses; they were sprawling estates designed by the most famous architects of the British Empire, including Sir Herbert Baker, who brought a “Cape Dutch-meets-Arts-and-Crafts” aesthetic to the rocky ridges of Johannesburg.