Eiffel Tower

We are honoured to post this wonderful article on the Hillbrow Tower written by journalist and passionate Joburger, Lucille Davie. It was originally published in the Saturday Star on the 4 January 2014. Click here to view more of Davie's writing. The Johannesburg Development Agency continues its work in the area and we're sure all South Africans can't wait until the Tower finally reopens.

Hillbrow Tower from the Yeoville Ridge (The Heritage Portal)

This is not something that I should be saying in public: I have an intimate relationship with the Hillbrow Tower. It teases me and I love it.

Sometimes it hides from me, especially on these misty summer mornings, when it disappears completely from the familiar ridge out my large east-facing windows. In the evenings its bright ring of blue light glows at me. You see, when I lie in bed at night I look straight out at it, and it looks spectacular. I can’t imagine not having this view.

I use it as my barometer of what the weather is going to do. If it’s misty right down to its base, it often means it will be a sunny day. Some days I don’t catch sight of it before I go to work, and I know it will probably rain. Other days...

When someone is asked who or what is the Iron Lady, the first thought that comes to mind is usually Margaret Thatcher, but long before she became Prime Minister of Britain there was another Iron Lady. Ask any Parisian and they will tell you that “La Dame de Fer” is the Eiffel Tower.

March 31st 2014 marked the 125th anniversary of the inauguration of the Eiffel Tower. It was completed in 1889 on the Champ de Mars on the left bank of the River Seine, Paris as the centrepiece to the “Exposition Universelle” which commemorated the centenary of the French Revolution.

The tower was named after the renowned French civil engineer, Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel who was a well known expert in wrought iron construction, having previously been responsible for several railway bridges and the framework supporting the Statue of Liberty. In 1886 he entered and won an architectural competition for the centrepiece to the Exposition. His aim was to construct the world’s tallest building, with a height of 300 metres (985 feet). The highest man made structure at the time was the Washington Monument in Washington D.C. a stone obelisk that was 554 feet high.

The actual building of the tower began on January 28th 1887 and work continued for a period of two years and two months, during which time it was resented, denounced and ridiculed as a “tragic lamppost”, “inverted torch holder” and even “Grand Suppositaire”. An influential group of writers including Alexandre Dumas labelled it “A dishonour to Paris and...