Second Nature

Peter and Diane Rich’s Parktown garden is a bold reinvention of a century-old design

Words Tess Paterson Photographs Christoph Hoffmann

There’s a magical street in Parktown where the steep rocky ridge commands some of Joburg’s most spectacular views. In the early 70s, renowned architect Peter Rich and his wife Diane bought a property here – a 1918 cottage with a precipitous terraced garden, its stone walls hewn from the neighbouring quarry. ‘What we bought was an Arts and Crafts spec house,’ explains Rich, ‘and we grafted on a whole new wing.’