Corner House, noun phrase

Origin:
The name given to the original corporate headquarters, see quotation 1973.
historical
The popular name for the Central Mining and Rand Mines group of companies; the leaders of this group. Also attributive.
[1902 Star 14 Aug.The pulling down of the ‘Corner House’, one of the most historic centres of finance associated with Johannesburg, has been proceeding rapidly.]
1921 W.C. Scully Harrow 7There are wheels within wheels. When one gets a hint from the ‘Corner House’, you know, it hardly does to stand out.
1944 C.R. Prance Under Blue Roof 169The prospector was always the original and only genuine discoverer of De Beers and the Rand, diddled out of his rights by minions in the pay of ‘Corner House’.
1967 E. Rosenthal Encycl. of Sn Afr. 126The Corner House group is one of the largest on the Rand, with over 100,000 employees and, besides gold, has important interests including coal, lime, cement, timber, diamonds, base metals, etc.
1973 S. Orpen in Std Encycl. of Sn Afr. IX. 241Rand Mines was an important component in the Central Mining-Anglo American sphere...Known in the early mining days as the ‘Corner House’ — because of the corner situation of its premises..— the group later moved four times, taking the ‘corner house’ tag with it.
1979 J. Gratus Jo’burgers 59Companies..were speedily becoming famous through-out the financial world. Corner House, Consolidated Gold Fields, Anglo-French, Lewis and Marks, General Mining, Barnato Brothers.
1982 S. Afr. Panorama Mar. 25Florence Philips, wife of Corner House (Rand Mines) company chairman Sir Lionel Philips, rode out of the dust and dirt of the mining camp of Johannesburg.
1986 Frontline June 20In the decade before Anglo-American, the Corner House was ‘the fifth province’ of the new Union, with a turnover in diamonds, gold and land greater than the budgets of the Free State or Natal and enormous political influence.
The popular name for the Central Mining and Rand Mines group of companies; the leaders of this group. Also attributive.
Entry Navigation

Visualise Quotations

Quotation summary

Senses

19021986

Browse Related Words

By Category

Architecture and Buildings
Economics and Commerce

By Usage

historical
core-hen, nounn.cornet, nounn.
Copyright © 2025 Dictionary Unit for South African English