Porter Reformatory Tokai
A short History
William Porter
1805-1880
An ex attorney-general of the Cape of Good Hope Left the sum of 20 000 pounds in his will to build a reform school in the Cape. The Reformatory was built in 1892 and house serious offenders that where still minors. The school was officially closed early 2000.
On arrival neglect is what you see immediately but as you start to walk around and you discover a hole bashed through the wall vandalism rears his ugly face once again.
Above is now the best way to enter into the reformatory it self. Once again a door bashed down and forced open
Once inside the convict are all round the perimeter with no way of moving round under cover via a passage way all movement was open to the elements.
A large steel structure with a congregated iron roof stands in the court yard is the only form of shelter which I can imagine was blistering hot to be beneath in the summer months especially if there was no breeze.
Their are two types of cells. Above you see into a communal cell with a single toilet and I can only assume would sleep 6 to 8 convicts unless they had double bunks which would double those numbers. The heavy bared windows and the heavy steel clad wooden door would make escape very difficult. Below you can see the solitary confinement cells. These cells must have broken many a hard case over the years as they are nothing short of horrific. The vent are high on the walls and only a small mesh window on the door. Their is no toilet or any sign of plumping neither.
the shear number of these isolation cells tells a story of the harsh discipline the convicts were exposed too.
The old graffiti etched into the wall make for some horrific reading from the inmates but a lot of it has been destroyed by the modern day vandals.
This must have been the mess hall which is the large wooden building you see in front from the road
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