Nigel Mandy

The Colosseum was an iconic Art Deco Building designed by the architect Percy Rogers Cook and developed by the entertainment mogul I.W. Schlesinger. It occupied an entire city block on Commissioner Street and formed part of the ‘Great White Way’ along with His Majesty’s, Shakespeare House, the CNA Building and others. The theatre could seat over 2 500 people and its ceiling gave the illusion of a star filled night sky above walls built to resemble fairy castles. Over the decades the theatre hosted hundreds of famous productions, actors and musicians. It was also one of the few establishments to hold a multiracial permit during apartheid (this area needs further research as there are differing accounts of the Theatre’s access policy).

In 1983, five years after the historic Markhams Building was saved from demolition, contractors circled the Colosseum waiting for the go ahead to begin work. Below is a summary of the three year battle to save the building based on the work of Nigel Mandy (ex chairman of the CBD Association and manager of the Carlton Centre during its heyday).

Colosseum Theatre at Night (Seventy Golden Years)

The number of large theatres located in the city centre declined during the 1970s and by 1981 only The Colosseum remained. It was too large to be used as a cinema and...

The original conversion of part of the Newtown Market Buildings to create the Market Theatre complex in the mid 1970s is one of the great adaptive reuse success stories in South Africa. The complex is one of Joburg's cultural icons and a huge asset to the reviving Newtown Precinct. In the article below Nigel Mandy describes the fight, vision and generosity that it took to get the initial project going.

The Newtown area went into decline when the municipal market was moved to City Deep south-east of the City. Empty stood the magnificent main market hall, 206 metres long by 37 metres wide, with its spectacular lofty steel arches. Empty too stood the annex with its impressive dome in which the Indian fruit market had operated. Deserted were the market master's offices with their elaborate Victorian facades. The probability was that these buildings would be demolished to clear space for another motorway.

Market Theatre (The Heritage Portal)

Outside these buildings the once animated Mary Fitzgerald Square - named after rebellious Pickhandle Mary, who had risen to become deputy Mayor - had become a little-used parking lot covered with tarmac. Many buildings in the vicinity were derelict or falling into disrepair.

Suggestions that a new theatre complex could be created here were at first dismissed being uneconomical and visionary. Then Maurice Norton...

A visit to the bustling Oriental Plaza today hides the dark history of its apartheid origins. Opening in 1971, it was the result of a compromise between the Johannesburg City Council and the Department of Community Development over the future of Indian Traders in Pageview. In the article below Nigel Mandy highlights the many tragedies of the flawed ideology behind the relocation of traders to the Plaza.

Fourteenth Street was a highly successful trading area with a unique atmosphere. The shopkeepers desperately wished to stay there. Admittedly it was run down physically; but that was only to be expected because the owners had no security of title and they were continually being threatened with eviction. Furthermore Pageview had been "Frozen" so that people were actually prevented from repairing or improving their properties.

The Fourteenth Street precinct could easily have been upgraded into a superbly individualistic and profitable shopping centre at no cost to the taxpayer. Fourteenth Street itself could have been reserved for pedestrian use with deliveries being made at off-peak hours and from the rear. An unobtrusive multi-storey parking garage could have been erected nearby as a self-financing proposition. Entrepreneurs would have mobilised private capital for adaptive re-use and for new construction. The energies of the very able Indian population would have been chanelled into productive activities to the benefit of all. Thereby the city as a whole would have been strengthened and relations between the races would not have been damaged. Property taxation revenue from this area would have...