
Royal Baking Powder factory, Jan van Riebeeck Drive, Paarl – (Gribble Collection, AG771)
The Royal Baking Powder company was founded in the USA by the brothers Cornelius and Joseph C Hoagland in 1866, who in 1888 registered the Royal Baking Powder trademark in South Africa. At the time Paarl was at the centre of the Cape’s wine industry, and was a natural choice to establish a company that required large quantities of cream of tartar. By the 1930s Royal Baking Powder was one of the four largest industries in Paarl. The building depicted on the photograph was completed in 1932 and was designed by the architects Robers & Small in Cape Town. Note the Cape Town – Paarl – Wellington railway line in the foreground. Continue reading