48 Goud Street

This building, known only as 48 Goud Street lies in down-town Johannesburg. The walls are merely a shell - the roof and the interior are gone, Looking through the windows reveals only rubble. Perhaps a place where vagrants, the homeless manage to find some shelter. 

The fact that the exterior walls remain, suggests that this may be a protected building. A quick Internet search revealed nothing, so I would welcome any information that visitors may have on the building and its history. 

The building is different and unusual. Johannesburg has a poor record of protecting its heritage. There have been other earlier cases where is have been deemed necessary to protect only the façade. Perhaps this is one of those?

The Ghost House - Erasmus Castle, Pretoria

The Erasmus Castle is commonly known as The Ghost House or Die Spookhuis was completed in 1903. It was the inspiration of Jochemus and Johanna Erasmus. The castle - which would feel quite at home in Transylvania - was designed by Dutch architect Van Der Benn. The Italian builder, Monte Bello used mostly imported materials to complete the house.

Jochemus had made some money from the gold rush at the end of the nineteenth century, and the family lived a flambuoyant lifestyle, hosting extravagent concerts and dances. The family's fortuned changed during the Great Depression and the castle fell into disrepair. Looking eerie in its dillapidated condition, the castle was used in the 1950 film Hier's Ons Weer.
Armscor later purchased and restored the house, but the original family are said to still be in residence in rather ghostly form.