SOUTH AFRICA  -  JOHANNESBURG 

 WORLD TOUR 1892-1895 of GEORGE BULLOUGH 

Researched and written by George W. Randall 

co-founder in July 1996 and former 

Vice Chairman Kinloch Castle Friends' Association.

Article 26 of 28  

Published in the Accrington Gazette on the 28^th of November 1896.

Images of Johannesburg from George W. Randall Research and Photographic Archive.

Time of visit: September 1893.

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GENERAL VIEW OF JOHANNESBURG

Album IX  *  Image 29  *  Detail from original size 6½ x 4 inches. 

The Witwatersand gold reef was discovered on Vogelstruisfontein Farm 

in June 1884 by forty-four year old explorer/prospector Jan Gerritse Bantjes. 

Within two years, the Witwatersand Gold Rush as it became known, 

created Johannesburg, a rough and tumble place made up of miners 

and fortune seekers 

from all over the world that within ten years had a population of 100,000.

The city lies at 5,735 feet above sea level, the mean annual temperature 

being 61° Fahrenheit. 

The population within its metropolitan area today being six million.

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BACKGROUND INTRODUCTION

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PLEASE READ NOTES AT END OF THIS POST.

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GENERAL VIEW OF JOHANNESBURG
Album IX  *  Image 29  *  Detail from original size 6½ x 4 inches. 

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Article twenty-six continues the recollections of the 1892-1895 world tour 

made by George Bullough, (later Sir George, Baronet, Kinloch Castle, 

Isle of Rum, Scotland)and his travelling companion, Robert Mitchell, 

in a series of twenty-eight articles by Mitchell published 

in the local Lancashire newspaper the Accrington Gazette in 1896.

Explanatory notes written from first-hand research by George W. Randall.

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THEATRE ROYAL OF JOHANNESBURG

Album X  *  Image - one of six on page 8  *  Size 3¾ x  2¼ inches. 

Woodcut print.

Below the Theatre Royal sign reads: Proprietor Lusc. Searelle.

The first Theatre Royal, a portable and demountable structure, gave its first performance

in Market Street, Johannesburg, on the 15^th of June 1887.

The second Theatre Royal, pictured above and below, a fixed corrugated iron building on the

corner of Commissioner Street and Eloff Street was built in December 1888.

The proprietor, whose name appears over the door was leading impresario, Luscombe Searelle.

The first season opened with the ballad opera “The Bohemian Girl” by Irish composer
Michael William Balfe, 1808-1870; and the three act opera“Maritana” 
by Irish composer and musician, William Vincent Wallace, 1812-1865.

THEATRE ROYAL
Image from: Theatres in Early Johannesburg - Suburb by suburb. Published 1912.

Proprietor Lusc. Searelle

William Luscombe Searelle, son of Thomas, a miller, and his wife, Harriet, (nee Pullman) daughter of a sea captain, was born at Chudleigh Knighton, South Devon, England on the 13^th of September 1853. Harriett Searelle is described as a “highly disciplined, well-educated somewhat proper woman in the Victorian model.”

By the 1860’s the economy of rural England was in serious decline. The industrial revolution driven by steam power was decimating cottage industries; factories as centres of employment were being built, spelling a better more secure future for their employees in towns and cities. Rural Devon was geographically isolated; the local millers’ future was bleak. Thomas and Harriet Searelle wishing to maintain their financial independence decided to emigrate. On the 15^th of March 1865, with their six children, Harriet, and Thomas taking the tools of his trade including two mill-stones, boarded ship at Gravesend, England bound for Christchurch, New Zealand, arriving Lyttleton on the 18^th of June, 1865.

Despite being a child prodigy at the piano, thirteen year old Luscombe ran away to sea. Later, on his return to Christchurch, he used his talents as a pianist, and composer to direct theatrical productions.

After writing several unsuccessful operas, his “Estrella” became a smash hit world-wide with performances in London, New York’s Standard Theatre and, in October 1883, Philadelphia followed by Australia in 1884 by the Montague-Turner Opera Company. In May 1885, after fifty performances in Sydney, Australia, his comic opera, “Bobadil” opened in Melbourne. Other acclaimed operas followed including, “Wreck of the Pinafore”.

Despite enormous success and favourable reviews - “Mr. Searelle is a sworn foe of dullness and a warm friend of variety” - by 1886 Searelle was bankrupt.

1886 was the year gold was discovered in South Africa, and so it was to the Witwatersand gold fields which Luscombe Searelle turned his attention.

In 1889 he landed at Durban, and with several heavily laden ox-wagons set off for the rapidly burgeoning “gold town” of Johannesburg. His trek ended on the corner of Commissioner and Eloff Streets where his wagons were unloaded, their corrugated iron loads being quickly hammered together to build the Theatre Royal, which immediately became the leading venue for stage and musical entertainment.

Completed, the theatre had a stage, dressing rooms and costumes for the stars. For the audience there were the usual stalls, a gallery, comfortable boxes, plus a bar, which also conveniently faced the main street, with beers by Phillips & Campbell.

It indeed seems strange that in this raw, rough and dusty three year old mining town, where apparently there was a bar for every five men, the first performances were the operas, “Maritana”, a three act opera by William Vincent Wallace, and “The Bohemian Girl”, a ballad opera by William Michael Balfe, which includes the ever popular aria, “I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls.”

Searelle it seems, had both energy and genius to deal with the often excessive exuberance of his audiences, who were not averse to shooting-up bars and flinging chairs around if management failed to play the National Anthem.

Despite the Wild West atmosphere of Johannesburg and its first citizens, as an impresario Searelle was highly successful at securing the appearances of innumerable theatre celebrities, the most famous of the time being the soprano/actress Genevieve Ward who arrived in 1891 and performed in sixteen plays, including six by William Shakespeare.

Despite his successes, Searelle, described in the Australian weekly magazine, Table Talk, as “a veritable musical genius”, made a number of bad business decisions; consequently he was hounded all his life with litigation and debt.

His last opera, “Mizpah”, was produced in San Francisco c.1905.

Luscombe Searelle died of cancer in England on the 18^th of December 1907, he was fifty-four years old. 

Note: A number of sources incorrectly claim William Luscombe Searelle was born Isaac Israel and later changed his name to Luscombe, apparently after a small town in Queensland, Australia; Searelle being, and I quote, “an imperfect anagram of Israel.” 
Records held at St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Papanui, New Zealand, record he was the son of Thomas and Harriet Searelle, formerly of Chudleigh Knighton, Devon, England.

The date of departure for New Zealand also varies, some reports stating it was in 1862.

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FIRE STATION  -  JOHANNESBURG

(Very much enlarged.)

Album X  *  Image - one of six miniatures on page 8 – 

Original size of image 1¼ x 1 inch.  Woodcut.

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FIRST (STOCK) EXCHANGE, COMMISSIONER STREET, JOHANNESBURG

Album X  * Image one of six wood-cut miniatures on Page 8 * Size 3¾ x  2¼ inches.

The First Stock Exchange, was located on the corner of Commissioner Street and 

Symmonds Street to a design by architect Fred Holman and completed in 1887, 

a year after the founding of Johannesburg. 

Six years later, September 1893, the time of George Bullough and Robert Mitchell's visit, the First Exchange had been replaced at a cost of £125,000 

by the second further along Commissioner Street, with an impressive 

Neo-Classic façade and much more spacious 

trading hall completed in 1890 to a design by Lennox Canning and Goad.  

A third Stock Exchange was built in 1904 and demolished in 1958 to make way for 

Johannesburg's fourth Exchange which finally rose from the rubble in 1961.

A fifth Exchange opened in 1979 

to be replaced by the current building at Exchange Square in 2000. 

                                                                    Reference: The Heritage Portal - James Ball 2017

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10 SEPTEMBER 2024