Booktowns rejuvenate villages worldwide

As the rejuvenation of one of the world’s oldest landscapes – the Karoo – gathers momentum, so too does ever-increasing interest in Karoo property, a factor which in turn is stimulating the economy of many of its small towns and villages.

Pam Golding Properties (PGP) is introducing fine Karoo character homes and properties to a responsive market, which is helping businesses in many of these towns.

Andrew Golding, CE of the PGP group, says the awareness created about the Karoo lifestyle has resulted in this being a popular choice when it comes to property. In many towns the agents and clients of our extensive Karoo network, together with the Nama Karoo Foundation, are pioneering a way of life long forgotten and dreamed of. In turn, this is helping stimulate leisure and commercial investment in the towns.”

About halfway between Cape Town and Johannesburg in the heart of the Great Karoo Desert in the Northern Cape the tiny village of Richmond is buzzing. Once a popular health resort for European aristocrats in the 1800s and quaintly known for its ‘stoepsitters’ Richmond was overlooked by tourists en route to the Cape. That is until recently, when Richmond, which is also a showcase for fine Karoo architecture, became Africa’s Booktown and now holds an annual book fair to celebrate this milestone achievement.

Wayne Rubidge, PGP’s Karoo area manager, says a Booktown is a small town or village with a concentration of booksellers, mainly second-hand and antiquarian bookshops often twinned with coffee shops, internet cafes, antique shops and art galleries or with artisan enterprises such as paper production, calligraphy, book design, book illustration and the dwindling art of bookbinding. Many of these bookshops also sell arts and crafts.”

The aim of a Booktown is to resurrect the flagging economies of small towns, to revitalise a region by developing a local book-based economy with a tourist dimension. Most Booktowns develop around villages of historic significance or scenic beauty. Richmond in the Karoo is fast attaining the status of one of the most romantic destinations in South Africa, with its vast open spaces and starry skies offering the perfect antidote for stressed city dwellers.

Rubidge says: “As a result of Booktowns, many of the older buildings, forlornly bereft of human activity for decades, come to life again as thriving bookshops. In this way Booktowns also contribute to the conservation of the cultural and architectural heritage of a village. In Richmond PGP recently sold the shell of the Old Mill for R95 000, a classic Karoo Cottage for R75 000 and a grand Cape Dutch home resplendent in yellowwood for R450 000.”

He says the spin-off effect of a Booktown is that it attracts discerning visitors with high spending potential. These bibliophiles prefer to stay in guesthouses and B&Bs. They pound the streets in search of that special treasure to show their friends as proof of having visited a ‘magical’ place. They patronise the local cafes, restaurants and sometimes even become residents of these towns after a visit to the local estate agent. This has been the case with many of Richmond’s citizens and with average house prices in the region of R350 000 there is excellent value to be found, says Rubidge.

The idea of a Booktown originated with the maverick Richard Booth in the 1960s. His dream was to create the largest second-hand book-selling centre in the world. Today, Hay-on-Wye in Wales attracts over three million tourists a year. If you imagine that Richmond, with its seven booksellers, cannot succeed it is worth noting that Booth started it all entirely by himself, with just one book shop. Slowly he began buying up the empty buildings in a town whose population was dwindling, and turned these buildings into book shops. He always maintained that a town full of book shops could be an international attraction.

A PGP client, Darryl Earl David lecturer of Afrikaans at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the dreamer behind the idea of a Booktown for Richmond, is adamant that such a project can work here in South Africa.

Today, Hay-on-Wye has 38 bookshops and Booktowns are found in over 25 countries around the world. With Richmond becoming a Booktown it means that a Booktown exists on every continent except Antarctica.

Richmond is attracting national interest from investors, such as Peter Baker, a Johannesburg veterinarian, sport collector John Donaldson and David, who have bought property in Richmond and made their properties available to authors for books, photographs and other related activities.

“Richmond is known for its classical Karoo architecture with particular emphasis on its verandas. PGP has two notable properties on offer priced at R250 000 and R350 000. A new trend is the purchase of modern, well built Karoo houses built from the 1950s to the 1970s and one of these available is a spacious house considered one of the best built houses in town.

“It stands on two separate erven with fruit trees and lucerne fields and is priced at R475 000. The property is irrigation from the town fountain (lei-water), which runs in open stone furrows through the town. The property has abundant fruit trees and the property includes a huge garage which can be used as a cellar.

“Another good example of a modern Karoo house is a property set on four erven, also with lei-water and including 50 olive trees, other fruit trees and pasture, and priced at R715 000. The most affordable house for sale is a small post office house priced at R188 000,” says Rubidge.

Recent sales by PGP include a historic house which is now one of the centre pieces for Booktown, accommodating many rooms of books, which sold for R450 000.

In addition to the Booktown project, PGP and the Nama Karoo Foundation have sponsored many initiatives in the Karoo’s finest towns, such as the Athol Fugard Festival in Nieu Bethesda and indigenous tree greening projects in towns such as Richmond and Graaff-Reinet, and a wool weaving project in Richmond and Hanover.

Call 048 8923495, email karoo@pamgolding.co.za or visit www.karooproperty.co.za or www.richmondnc.co.za.