Pretoria - It’s not just a place to lay your head - when you spend a night at the Victoria Hotel you become a part of the hotel’s rich history.
Much of the city scape around it has changed; the hotel seems to change with the times, sharing Pretoria’s highs and lows and was officially given the title of Pretoria’s oldest hotel in November 1997.
Conveniently situated opposite Pretoria Station, the white walls with the turret room and two gables are still recognisable even with shops taking up space on the ground floor.
The Victoria Hotel has stood on the corner of Paul Kruger and Scheiding streets since about 1884 when Jacob Joffe apparently built it.
Originally called the Station Hotel, because of its proximity to the Sir Herbert Baker-designed Pretoria Railway Station, in 1884 its name was changed to the Hollandia Hotel after the Dutch workers who built the railway line that connected the Transvaal with the sea.
It received its current name in 1901 during the British occupation of Pretoria in the Anglo-Boer War.
It has had several make-overs down the decades.
In the 1980s, Rohan Vos, owner and proprietor of Rovos Rail, spent hundreds of thousands of rand restoring it to its former glory and it served as the departure lounge for passengers taking one of Rovos’s luxury steam train journeys.
But times changed and Vos moved his operation to the Capital Park station.
The hotel was sold and it is now in the hands of Joa Deubru.
One can still catch glimpses of its old furnishings scattered around the hotel which take one back in time.
The old Victorian finishes like the mosaic tiled foyer, moulded ceilings, wooden staircase and stained-glass window on the half landing point to the hotel’s glory days.
Instead of numbers and letters to identify the rooms they still maintained the plaque given to the rooms such as Jeppe, Graskop, Kruger and Heidelberg.
Over the years the hotel, or rather its ghostly inhabitants, have gained a reputation and is popular with those hoping for a paranormal encounter such as horseshoes being placed at entrances to the hotel.
Mary Setiatia, an employer at the hotel, said that over the years they had had numerous guests staying in their hotel stating that they had seen a female figure on one the balcony of one of the rooms.
She said although she did not personally believe in ghosts she could not dismiss the apparent sightings by different guests.
“Some of the guests kept saying that they constantly see a woman standing on the balcony overlooking the city,” she said.
“Others said that they hear voices of a man and woman running, laughing out loudly, or have met the woman walking down the stairs still wearing a beautiful crown,” said Setiatia.
She said that after having a few specialists come into the hotel it was confirmed that there were energies that often roamed the hotel at night from 10pm, but they were not aggressive towards the people staying in the hotel.
Setiatia said the specialists came to the hotel at night with machines that would flicker a green light if any spirits were in the room.
“They sat in the room with the lights turned off for a very long time and when they eventually came back down they told us that the guests sightings had indeed been true,” she said.
“Some of the cleaners have also said they feel a man tapping them on the shoulder asking to pass while cleaning the passage ways,” she said.
According to Setiatia, a woman committed suicide by jumping from the stairs at the entrance of the hotel and it is apparently her ghost the visitors see. The reason for her suicide is not known nor who the lady in question was.
Setiatia said plans were being discussed to restore the hotel which had lost a lot of its sparkle over the years.
“We want to have tourists and people come back to see the hotel and feel the old gem in its former glory. There’s so much here for people to learn and experience - it’s not just an ordinary old building,” she said.
Goitsemang Tlhabye, Pretoria News