Marshall Street Barracks

The recent devastating fire at Brazil's National Museum (which gutted 20 million items) and last week’s tragic fire at the Bank of Lisbon Building in Johannesburg yet again highlights how political and official neglect and maintenance cut backs are placing lives – and South Africa’s valuable heritage – at risk. 

Bank of Lisbon Building (The Heritage Portal)

The Egoli Heritage Foundation has previously expressed concern about the state of the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) which is home to one of the continent’s most valuable collections.

“In 2017 we were informed that JAG does not meet fire safety requirements. In fact, neither structural engineers nor fire safety inspectors wanted to sign off on the building following the disastrous attempts by the Johannesburg Development Agency to “renovate” the building”, says Herbert Prins of the Egoli Heritage Foundation.

“City authorities are playing with fire and putting the lives of their employees and visitors at risk. If lives are lost the Mayor will have blood on his hands”, he says.

In fact, in October 2016, Mayor Herman Mashaba publicly committed to the restoration of JAG to the epicentre of Johannesburg culture. Two years later nothing has been done.

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This Heritage Month, the newly established Gauteng Heritage Action Group (GHAG) launched its 'Heritage Horror Stories' campaign. Sites that have been neglected for years have received 'black plaques' (the opposite of the prestigious blue plaque) with the aim of shaming owners into taking action. Many of these owners have made big promises over the years but have failed to deliver. 

A prestigious blue plaque (The Heritage Portal)

The black plaques have been installed on the properties for passers-by to see. Owners may remove these physical markers but they won't be able to remove the property from the official black plaque list until the site is brought back to life (click here to view the growing list).

Below are the inscriptions for the properties that have been added this Heritage Month. Click on the heading for background and updates. The sites are all based in Johannesburg with the GHAG planning to expand the campaign to other towns and cities across Gauteng in the weeks and months ahead.

CNA Building (owned by Urban Ocean)

"Bought by Urban Ocean in 2005 who promised to restore it and its neighbours. This significant Art Deco heritage building was left without security leaving it to be vandalised. All steel windows and any other metal was removed.

DEMOLITION BY DECAY is an utterly unacceptable practice, completely anti-social yet the authorities do nothing...

Since February this year members of the heritage lobby have been attending meetings with the Department of Public Works discussing the development of the Marshall Street Police Barracks and the site they call 85 Anderson Street. We were more than sceptical at the first meeting, became even more suspicious when no heritage architect was appointed, so only at the final meeting on 18th May did we accept their bona fides and really enjoy the discussions.  

Yasmin Mayat of Mayat Hart Architects has been appointed as the heritage architect. She laid down the law very firmly and we certainly intend supporting her whenever possible. So anyone who has photographs of the Marshall Street Police Barracks and the small buildings on the site before the fire please send them in and let us scan them.

Old images of the Marshall Street Barracks (FJ Henley)

Bhavid of Creative Axis architects presented the design for the two new office buildings, one of which will be entirely new in form in that area. No pretense or pastiche. They relate in some respects to the old, but with the freedom Norman Foster claimed for the Hearst Tower in New York these buildings will stand out in Marshallstown as unashamedly 21st Century. 

Space is created between the old and new recalling the parade ground which was the breathing space behind...

As we enter silly season I have been warned to be brief. No one has time to read long pages of diatribes against those who own wonderful old buildings and don’t maintain them. I am just back from a week in Cape Town, travelling there by train. The most disgusting views of Johannesburg came from the eastern section behind the Art Gallery where literally tons of filth are simply pushed over the side from what used to Union Grounds. This continues for some way. Clearly no one ever dreams of cleaning alongside the railway line, but any visitor would imagine they enter Joburg via a rubbish tip. The train goes fast enough to miss seeing the rats and smelling what must be a revolting mix of rotting refuse and urine. Leaving and approaching Cape Town is not like this.

The Johannesburg Art Gallery (The Heritage Portal)

The one rewarding part of the Johannesburg exit was seeing the Kensington Flats still standing. These provided accommodation to Milner’s teachers who were all Oxford graduates. Several went on to head Potchefstroom Boys High, Jeppe Boys High and Pretoria Boys High. One decided to follow Maria Montessori and set up her own primary school – St Katherine’s in Parktown.

Changing our name to Johannesburg has already involved us in other areas. The New...