File talk:William Porter Reformatory.jpg
In 1879 local philanthropists, impressed by the progress of the child-saving movement in England, persuaded the colonial government to pass the Reformatory Institutions Act, in terms of which a juvenile reformatory named after the Attorney General of the Cape Colony, William Porter, was established in Cape Town: the Porter Reformatory. The reformatory has been used continuously as a corrective governmental institution for 100 years. In 1878 William Porter bequeathed £20 000 ‘for the establishment and maintenance, at the Cape, of one or more reformatories’. It was his ideal to work in a more progressive way with young offenders. In 1890, a new complex of buildings, designed by Sir Herbert Baker was erected.
The original convict block was incorporated into this larger reformatory facility which became known as the ‘Old Orpen House. The first schoolmaster lived in the Manor House. Over the next decades a number of significant structural changes were made to the reformatory. The aesthetic setting of the reformatory coupled with its unique associations with corrective education, have the potential to provide unique experiences. The graffiti on some of the walls establishes an experiential link to the past. The degradedness, degree of disrepair and complete lack of interpretive material detract from the reformatory’s experiential significance. There are significant historical connections to the Porter reformatory: William Porter donated the capital for its establishment and Sir Herbert Baker was responsible for the design of the first large block of buildings.
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