Tatham Art Gallery

60 Chief Albert Luthuli (Commercial) Rd, T033-342 2801, http://www.tatham.org.za. Mon-Fri 0800-1700, free.

Opposite the City Hall is a similarly imposing red-brick structure, completed in 1879 and used as a post office until 1906, when it became the site of the Supreme Court. Renovation work started during the late 1980s and, in 1990, it was inaugurated as the new home for the Tatham Art Gallery.

Inside is a fairly ramshackle selection of modern and Victorian art; the original collections are of French and British Victorian art, and although the landscapes are fairly pleasant there is nothing particularly striking about them. But the gallery does have some interesting and unusual works, including a Stanley Spencer landscape called Near Nareta, Bosnia, and paintings by Degas, Renoir, Braque and Picasso. There is a large, highly ornate ormolu late-Victorian clock at the top of the stairs on the first floor which is worth seeing. During chiming, a screen is raised to reveal a clockwork blacksmith and some bellringers moving in time with the chimes. The South African Gallery is perhaps the most interesting, with a collection of contemporary art including beadwork of Zulu and Xhosa origins. These eclectic works are a refreshing change from the worthy but somewhat staid collections of Victoriana. There is a tea room on the first floor, overlooking the gardens.