An unusually grand Victorian villa, built in 1886 for George Heys, who made a fortune running the stagecoach lines that served the Transvaal before the railway arrived. The house is a mix of English Victorian and Cape Dutch styles, lavishly decorated with stained glass, Carrara marble fireplaces and original William Morris wallpapers. During the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902) it was requisitioned as the residence of the British commanders-in-chief Lord Roberts and then Lord Kitchener, and on 31 May 1902 the Treaty of Vereeniging — which ended the war and led, eight years later, to the creation of the Union of South Africa — was signed in the dining room. The house is preserved as a museum almost exactly as it was when the treaty was signed, and has rooms full of original furniture and period pieces.
Melrose House
Victorian villa where the Treaty of Vereeniging ending the Boer War was signed
| Address | 275 Jeff Masemola Street, Pretoria Central |
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