Market Square

This wonderful album was published by Paul Schaefer and Company of Cape Town, a well-known compiler of souvenir books. The cover photograph in the oval inset shows the original Park Station which came to Johannesburg from the Netherlands in 1896. The station was designed by Jacob Klinkhammer. It was the point of arrival for visitors to Johannesburg in the early 20th century so this image is an appropriate entry portal to the town.

Panoramic view of the two faces of Johannesburg

The date of the album is somewhere during the early 20th century, probably post 1905 and pre-1910. The set of images opens with a foldout page showing panoramic views of the two faces of Johannesburg, the modern town with the focal point of Market Square and the second a view of the Simmer and Jack Mine in Germiston.

Panoramic view of Market Square

Then a view of the Market Square. The square was the economic centre of Johannesburg. This photo shows the wide expanse of the square and the intensity...

The article below, written by journalist and Joburg explorer Lucille Davie, looks at the layered history and significance of Johannesburg's markets over the years. It was originally published on the City of Johannesburg's website on 9 January 2004. Click here to view more of Davie's work.

Just 118 years ago the Johannesburg CBD was flat, patchy grassland, interspersed with rocky outcrops and an occasional stream and one or two farmhouses. Then gold was found in 1886 and a town was born, taking its shape from the largest square in the country, market square.

The old mining works at the site where the main reef was discovered (The Heritage Portal)

Six blocks in all, market square stretched from Rissik Street in the east to Sauer Street in the west, bordered by President and Market streets. According to Johannesburg – One Hundred Years (1986), “Depending on the weather, the square and streets were either unattended dustbowls or strips of churned-up mud dotted with pools. There were always wagon tracks and horse and ox droppings.”

The eastern portion of the square became a produce and general dealers’ market, while the western half was a cattle market.

By 1895 shops, offices, and banks appeared on its perimeter. In 1888...

The following history of Johannesburg's early markets formed part of a much larger piece on the Market Theatre which appeared in the 1976 edition of Restorica, the old journal of the Simon van der Stel Foundation (today the Heritage Association of South Africa). The name of the author does not appear which is a huge shame for such a well researched article. Thank you to the University of Pretoria (copyright holders) for giving us permission to publish.

In early Johannesburg, markets operated in a haphazard fashion in Ferreira's Camp and on the Square in Marshall's Camp where produce was sold out of hand from the back of Boer wagons. Paul Kruger could see that if this trading was organised on a proper basis it could produce an additional form of State income; he therefore promulgated regulations compelling all produce to be sold through a central market. The market was to be run by a Market Master who would receive a commission of 10% on the turnover. One does not need to be a financial wizard to appreciate that the job of Market Master in Johannesburg would be a particularly lucrative one, and a scramble for the job began. The then deputy Sheriff, lvlr Zulsdorff, was elected; however, by some sleight of hand he was replaced by Stefanus Papenfus before he had even thought of making a start. Stefanus Papenfus was one of Johannesburg's earlier shrewd operators, the brother of a local politician and a friend of Carl von Brandis. 

At 7.00 a.m...