Expiry: 
Wednesday, November 30, 2016 - 00:00
 

Johannesburg: Egoli to some, Jozi to others. Once a mining town, now the most important commercial city in Africa. It’s been home to renegades and rogues, colonialists and capitalists, the dispossessed and the newly enriched. Today it’s populated by those who call themselves Africans or Afrikaners, by blacks, whites and every shade inbetween, and by immigrants from all over. There are suburbs where the daily rituals of Jewish culture rival New York’s; elsewhere, the tone is more Lagos than laid-back. Remnants of the colonial era stand alongside contemporary steel and glass. In a town that prides itself on the pursuit of fortune, it’s a challenge to preserve heritage, and it is against this background that Hidden Johannesburg offers a snapshot of 28 notable buildings.

From the stately mansions of the Randlords to their downtown headquarters, the clubs where they socialised and the churches where they worshipped, the architecture of early Johannesburg lives on in sandstone, granite, marble and slate. But this is a city that constantly reinvents itself, and where the old is all-too-readily demolished to make way for the next ‘big thing’. Some buildings will survive, others will be consigned to memory . Hidden Johannesburg reveals fragments of the history of this vibrant city but, perhaps, the book also tells us something about our future, for if we allow our heritage to be swept away in the name of progress, are we advancing at all?

The Author: Paul Duncan’s books include Hidden Cape Town, South African Artists at Home and Style Icons for Struik Lifestyle, the Cape Town Louis Vuitton City Guide, and Perfect Hideaways in South Africa. A former editor of Condé Nast ‘House & Garden’ (South Africa), he is now an independent media consultant.

The Photographer: Alain Proust, one of South Africa’s leading photographers, has worked on books such as Hidden Cape Town; South African Artists at Home; Colonial Houses of South Africa; A Portrait of Cape Town; Groote Schuur: great granary to stately home; and Nederburg: the fi rst two hundred years.

The Buildings: Anglo American (44 Main Street), Anstey’s Building, Bedford Court (St Andrew’s School for Girls), Cathedral of Christ the King, City Hall, Corner House, Freemason’s Hall, Gleneagles, Glenshiel, Greek Orthodox Church, House Edoardo Villa, Lion’s Shul, L. Ron Hubbard House, Nelson Mandela House (Vilakazi Street), Nizamiye Masjid, Northwards, Park Station, Radium Beer Hall, Rand Club, Satyagraha House (Gandhi House), St Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, St George’s Anglican Church, St John’s College, St Michael and All Angels, The Old Fort, The View, Villa Arcadia, Whitehall Court.

Click here for more information on the book and where to buy it.

 
Category: 
Objects Artefacts Books
 
Created
Wednesday, July 27, 2016 - 20:44
 
 

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