Empire Exhibition

I found Mike Alfred's article about Jonathan and Geoff Klass absolutely fascinating as I have known Collectors Treasury and the Klass Brothers from the time they started up in business at what we now known as 44 Stanley Avenue (click here to read the article). Those were the days when for a young collector recently returned to Johannesburg there were wonderful book bargains and a great shared joy in finding good books. I have watched the business grow to the present vast emporium of books. I can never visit without being tempted by something  but oddly I can afford far fewer books now than I could in about 1974!

Collectors Treasury (The Heritage Portal)

I would like to comment though on Jonathan’s comment. I know it was made in the early 2000s and it is now 2020, but I cannot allow the comment that Wits has destroyed  the Wits Agricultural Society showground to stand without comment. Jonathan and I agree totally on the Tower of Light being a rare treasure of international significance; it is iconic in its architectural language, its expression of modernity for the time (the 1936 Empire exhibition) and in its functionality. That was when large scale exhibitions saw a tower as an integral part of the event. In 1938 there was another Empire Exhibition in Glasgow at Bellahouston, named the Tait Tower...

On the 14th of December 2019, Sydney, Australia, opened a new light-rail tram service between the CBD and Randwick which is to the south-east of the City. There is also another service to the south-west of the City which has been in operation for some years. The new service goes right past the famous Sydney Cricket Ground and the Royal Randwick Racecourse.

 I rode the full length of the new line recently and it is the trams themselves that I want to comment on.

These new trams, supplied by Alstom, are typical of the current world-wide trend in light-rail design where a set comprises 5-segments that are articulated with concertinas in-between each segment. Sydney Light-Rail operates two sets coupled together as a single unit which makes for a pretty long tram overall. As the new tram negotiated sharp curves in the City, going around corners and turn-outs, the vehicle groaned and squealed - voicing its discomfort!

The tram that we rode in (Carol Pivnic)

Coming off the tram after the full ride, I was mentally comparing this ride with the trams in Johannesburg, many years ago. The Johannesburg trams that I was comparing the Sydney lot with, are those 50 all-steel, streamlined trams that were built in the UK by Metro-Cammell in Birmingham in 1936 for the British Empire Exhibition. They ran between the City...

Johannesburg celebrated its 50th Golden Jubilee in 1936, a worthy year to recall as this year, 2016, is the 130th anniversary year. Johannesburg was called the Wonder City, the City of Achievement, the Golden City. The pride pulsates in the tourist and promotional literature. The Empire exhibition at the Milner Park showgrounds of the Witwatersrand Agricultural society was an enormous and ambitious celebratory event. The Tower of Light, designed by The Wits Professor of Architecture, Geoffrey Eastcott Pearse, confidently showed off the wonders of Pretoria Portland Cement and electrical power with search lights that lit the summer Highveld Sky (the Tower of Light was visible across Johannesburg).

A more recent photo of the Tower of Light (The Heritage Portal)

The Empire exhibition was a national effort in collaboration with the City of Johannesburg. It ran from September 1936 to February 1937 and attracted the then enormous total of over 2 million people. The mining city had come of age. 1936 was the year for souvenirs, mementoes, jubilee publications and official guides. The mayors of Johannesburg in 1936 to 37 were Edmund Maldwyn Edmund (1935-36) and Donald Mackay (1936-37). A golden mayoral chain was worn for ceremonial occasions and every year another gold medallion and stretch of chain was added to include the badge of office of each new mayor.

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