Historical landmark
Houses of Parliament
Nineteenth-century legislature scarred by a 2022 fire that revealed years of neglected safety systems.
0:00≈ 2 min
Location
0:00≈ 2 min
About this audio guide
This guide to the Houses of Parliament in Cape Town opens on 2 January 2022, when a fire broke out in the National Assembly wing while the building sat unwatched, and asks why the safeguards meant to catch it never worked. It reaches back to 1875, when architect Charles Freeman's flawed original plans and unexpected groundwater sent costs spiraling before the building finally opened in 1884. Freeman himself was fired for incompetence before construction was even finished.
This audio guide was created using AI.