A little yarn over Durban's wool exchange
Mark Levin
In last week’s Then & Now, reference was made to the old Wool Exchange at 31 Victoria Embankment. This was built in 1923 in the heart of the wool district which was centered along that part of the Esplanade.
During the wool season (April to October), Mona, Jonsson, Mills and Kitchener roads were jammed with wool deliveries to the warehouses. Prior to 1923, the wool brokers held auctions at their own premises. With the growth of the industry, a decision was made to centralise wool auctions in one building.
The exchange was the first of its kind in South Africa. Wool sales were held in Durban on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays during the season. The wool came mainly from Natal, East Griqualand, the Free State and the then Transvaal.
Sales took place at the exchange’s double storey building with two sales rooms, one which seated about 100 people, the other about 50. The larger room also had a visitors’ gallery where farmers could observe the sales.
A feature of the exchange was its cool central atrium around which were the offices, lounges, and both sales rooms. Adjunct to the exchange was a post office branch where postal and cable business could immediately be transacted: it was not unusual for a farmer to rail his wool to Durban, receive his cheque by post and learn that his wool was already being shipped out, all within a week.
Durban’s Wool Exchange was soon rivalled by that in East London, which had been the epicentre of the wool trade in the Cape since 1890. Noting the success of Durban’s exchange, the East London Wool and Mohair Buyers Association decided to build their own. Opened in 1930, the East London exchange remained in use until 1981 when wool buying moved to Port Elizabeth. Fortunately Rhodes university purchased the redundant exchange for their new East London campus in 1982. It was restored and later declared a national monument.
Durban’s exchange was less fortunate.
It is unclear when it ceased to operate, but smaller and less grand than East London’s , the building was not preserved and has been demolished. In many ways it was a victim of the changing nature of the wool trade after World War II.
Today the Wool Exchange of South Africa is centred in Port Elizabeth.
Today, John Ross House occupies the whole site where the exchange and its neighbouring buildings once stood between Jonnson Lane and Cato Square.