THE FIRST CARLTON HOTEL IN JOHANNESBURG

Mining magnate Barney BARNATO conceived plans for a Carlton Hotel in Johannesburg in 1895. Six stands between Eloff and Commissioner Streets were purchased for £40,000. Barney died on 14 June 1897, while on a ship to England. His nephew, Solomon Barnato JOEL, took over as JCI chairman. He continued with the hotel plans. Excavations started in 1898. The project was interrupted by the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). Construction resumed in 1903.

The Carlton Company was formed on 22 August 1902. The hotel was modelled on the London Carlton Hotel in London, England. It was designed by T.H. SMITH (Waring & Gillow, London) and William LECK (Johannesburg). The building’s 6-story steel frame structure was erected by Swedish millionaire and match king Ivan KREUGER. It occupied nearly the entire Eloff-Commissioner-Market-Joubert Street block. The construction involved 600,000 tonnes of imported marble, iron, and woodwork. To expedite the deliveries, the hotel company chartered a Union Castle Liner, the Cluney Castle. With the furnishings came the entire staff, comprising 128 men and 58 women. The head chef was from the Hyde Park Hotel. At the time, it was the most expensive building in South Africa.

The Carlton opened on 16 February 1906 under the management of Mr. Morelli, two days after the introduction of electric trams in Johannesburg. Hotel porters would meet and drop off out-of-town guests at the station, first in a horse-drawn carriage and later in a petrol-driven charabanc adorned with the hotel’s logo. The hotel had 400 rooms, a grand marble staircase, a ballroom, dining rooms, and the Palm Court, which was the place for the fashionable ladies and socialites to meet for afternoon tea. The hotel had a basement of three storeys. It had its own waterborne sewerage, a bakery, a butchery, a Turkish bath, an electricity plant, lifts, a steam heating system, a borehole, air conditioning, and a central vacuum cleaning plant. The furniture and decor were supplied by Waring & Gillow of Oxford Street. Each room featured its own bathroom and telephone.

In 1907, Johannesburg received the Prince Royal of Portugal, Luis Filipe (21 Mar 1887–1 Feb 1908), at the Carlton Hotel for a special luncheon. The Prince was on an official visit to the Portuguese colonies in Africa, the first member of the royal family to do so. The young prince was assassinated in Lisbon not long after and thus never became king. Around the time of his assassination, negotiations for marriage to Princess Patricia of Connaught were underway. Princess Patricia was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria and the daughter of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn. In 1910, Arthur travelled to South Africa to open the first parliament of the newly formed Union of South Africa. In Johannesburg on 30 November, he laid a commemorative stone at the Rand Regiments Memorial, dedicated to the British soldiers who died during the Anglo-Boer War.

The Carlton’s second manager, ETTELIN, introduced the Carlton Orchestra, which would play in the Palm Court during meals. Orchestras and military bands played at special functions and cabaret suppers in the ballroom. Christmas Eve and Old Year’s Eve were major attractions. The chorus girls emerging from giant eggs with feathers in their hair were the highlight of the New Year’s Eve parties. A dance floor was installed for Friday and Saturday dances.

The ground floor of the Carlton Hotel was occupied by fashionable retail shops, including a jewellery shop and Sieradzki’s, which sold ostrich plumes and material. In 1910, the Carlton Cinema took the place of several smaller shops on the Market Street side.

In March 1922 the hotel was sold for £235,000 to Samuel THOMPSON on behalf of a syndicate, the principals of which were the same as the previous owners, Solly JOEL and his partners. As the company had to pay taxes in both South Africa and England, it was decided to close the England side. The hotel was purchased in the name of a new company—Carlton Hotel (South Africa) Limited.
Isidore William SCHLESINGER, an American businessman, was a permanent resident of the hotel since 1908. He bought a 51% share of the hotel in 1925 for £230,000. He modernised the hotel’s power plants, entrances, and kitchens. He optimised staff costs, service levels, and pricing. In 1936, three more floors were added, and the Carlton Cinema closed down. This took the hotel to nine storeys. He brought in a shop called Publix, designed to be a chain modelled on an American drugstore, but it didn’t do well in 1940s Johannesburg, and after his death in 1949, his son John put it into liquidation after taking over his father’s empire.

The Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII, stayed at the Carlton when he visited the country in 1925. His brother, Prince George, Duke of Kent, stayed there in 1934. During the 1936 Empire Exhibition, the Carlton hosted various functions that were attended by the Earl and Countess of Clarendon, Prime Minister HERTZOG, and General Jan SMUTS. In the 1930s, another permanent resident was Dr. Hans MERENSKY, the geologist who discovered the platinum fields in the Transvaal. During World War II, King George of Greece, who was given asylum in South Africa, stayed at the Carlton, as did the Shah of Persia, who came out following a revolt in his country. During the Royal tour of 1947, King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, and their two daughters, the late Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret, stayed at the Carlton. They occupied the whole fifth floor, which was refurbished for the visit. Other prominent guests included Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands during his visit to South Africa in the 1950s, President TOMAZ of Portugal, Danny KAYE, Joan CRAWFORD, Margot FONTEYN, Sir Thomas BEECHAM, Yehudi MENUHIN, and Norman ROCKEFELLER.

The Carlton continued to the early 1960s, but profitability fell, while real estate in central Johannesburg rose steeply. It was decided that December 1963 was to be the closing month. Dorothy SUSSKIND hosted the last ball, a Spring Ball in aid of Hope Home for Crippled Children. On 27 December 1963, a newspaper ad announced the auction of the hotel’s contents set for 6-18 January 1964 and handled by Boysie Levin Auctions. After the hotel was emptied out, the demolishers came in. It took them until November 1964 to complete the work because the building was so solid. In 1972, a new 600-room Carlton Hotel was built on Commissioner Street. It closed down in 1997 due to the high crime rate in the Johannesburg downtown area.