Johannesburg

This is Number 12 Park Lane. This property lies between Clarendon Place and Park Lane. It is a property that abuts Hillbrow; it is the other side of the fence to the grand Reya Vaya rapid bus transport system. James Ball reported on the disgraceful state of the property in November 2017 (click here to view). Alas there has been no improvement. How very sad!

It was once a fine old heritage home and a premier Parktown address. It was a near neighbour of fine homes in Junction Avenue and Ridge Road. After it ceased to be a family home it usefully became the Dan Pienaar Memorial crèche. Dan Pienaar (1893 -1942) was a much admired South African military figure who fought in both world wars but is particularly remembered for his leadership in the North African campaigns. He was killed in a plane crash in 1942 on his way back to South Africa.

The current state of the property shows abuse, neglect, dereliction and decay. It is a ghostly abandoned mansion. The garden is wild and overgrown, the circular driveway sprouts weeds and cracked tar. There is no security presence... behind the gates stands a smashed guard house.

Abuse, neglect, dereliction and decay (Kathy Munro)

This once fine old home has a listing on The Heritage Register (click here to view). The architect was the firm of Aburrow...

It has been about four decades since the people of Johannesburg rallied to put pressure on the Johannesburg City Council and the Foschini Group to save the Markhams Building from demolition. The article below, written by J Campbell-Pitt representing the then Transvaal Institute of Arhitects, reveals the architectural and historical significance of the building. The piece was published in the August 1979 edition of Restorica, the journal of the Simon van der Stel Foundation. Thank you to the Heritage Association of South Africa and University of Pretoria (Restorica copyright holders) for giving us permission to publish.

Markham's is the second oldest retail business in Johannesburg still operating from the same premises. When it was bought by the Foschini group, the name was not changed. 

Early photo of the Markhams Building (Girders on the Veld)

Markham's Building was erected in 1896/7, and is one of the oldest surviving buildings of historical and architectural significance in the city. It was designed in the Second Empire Style (French Neo Baroque) and is the only surviving example of commercial architecture in that style. The design is based on a portion of the facade of the new Louvre (Paris) by Visconti and Lefuel (built 1852-7). It also reflects the treatment used by Sir Charles Barry in the Halifax Town Hall (built...

In the article below, journalist Lucille Davie takes a look at the exceptional life of Kathy Munro. The piece was published on Davie's website on 4 July 2018. Click here to view more of her work.

Some people have to exercise every day. For their spiritual sanity. Some people have to cook breathtaking meals every day. For their creative sanity. Kathy Munro has to collect books. For her innate curiosity.
 
She says she has collected books since she was a teenager. “I started collecting more seriously when I got married.”
 
She now has a collection that takes up three rooms, plus an ample passageway. In total, her collection consists of 16 300 books - enough to push anyone over the book ecstasy edge. And she continues to look out for books that interest her.
 
Walking into her house is an adventure: there are surreptitious boxes of books everywhere, waiting to be catalogued. Antique furniture lives happily with lovely ceramic collections and comfortable rugs and well-sat-on chairs and sofas. Books sit contentedly in glass cabinets.
 
Fortunately she has a spacious three-roomed flat below her house that accommodates her collection, built for her by her husband, Keith, “for his sanity”, she laughs. The walls are lined from floor to ceiling with books. The passageway is lined in the same way. She's brought in stand-alone bookshelves for extra storage space, and laments that she has no more space for books. The only places where there are no bookshelves are the...

She is the daughter of the City of Gold and she is gorgeous. Sandton is definitely coming of age with landmark buildings around every corner. If you love her during the day, you should see her at night! Property owners and their lighting experts have created quite a show when the sun goes down. Below are a few photos taken by The Heritage Portal team to encourage you to explore the city at night.

Sandton City and the Michaelangelo Towers. Note the two lovebirds on the bottom right. (The Heritage Portal)

The iconic Sandton City (The Heritage Portal)

When Sandton City was reclad a few years ago it received some brilliant lighting and a wonderful spire (The Heritage Portal)

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The Drum Café has established itself as the foremost entertainment destination in drumming. For more than a decade the Drum Café has successfully offered corporate team building drumming events and performances. Its shows have gone round South Africa and been taken abroad. Drumming has become something of a South African export.

Hardwood and cowhide - Handcrafted  traditional drums on display in the museum (Kathy Munro)

CEO and creator of the Drum Café, Warren Lieberman, continues to do all this and is now adding a new dimension - a museum combined with live performances. It’s something new on the Johannesburg scene and will be opening in July 2018. Here is your chance to see and experience drums for Africa but that is just the start.

The museum of African indigenous musical instruments is located at 157 Jan Smuts Avenue (close to the Kim Sacks Gallery) Parkwood, Johannesburg and a few steps away from the traffic lights at the Chester / Jan Smuts intersection). This is a museum that celebrates traditional African music. The Drum Café and Museum offers the visitor the chance to study the collection of African instruments and enjoy a musical experience in drumming. It is interactive, engaged, experimental and fun. The...

A Peep Into My Life, The Memoir of William Eastwood was reproduced in 2016, 82 years after it was initially published. This was done at the request of Eastwood's granddaughter Mary Drabbe, who is now proudly distributing his original work. Photographs and some relevant research has been added by compiler and editor Jennifer Els.

Mary reveals how her grandmother was so tired of hearing all the stories of her husband’s life that she persuaded him to write them all down. The reproduction of this memoir brings a fascinating story to a new audience. It was written by a man who came to Johannesburg in 1887, at the age of twenty-five, having been born in Bradford in the United Kingdom.

In the first section of the book, Eastwood records events of his childhood in Britain, the difficulties of finding employment and then of his adventures over a two-year period, when he travelled to and explored places like Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, the Fiji Islands and New York.

Eastwood's recollections of a three-month sea voyage in 1883 provide a vivid account of the conditions and dangers of travel on a sailing ship at that time. He returned to England after his adventures but on his father's urging soon set out for South Africa like so many others at that time.

He initially arrived in Potchefstroom where he stayed with his brother Phil who was working there. Both then and at a later stage, when he was employed to operate a three-stamp-battery, readers get a glimpe of...

In the article below, journalist Lucille Davie tells the story of Taffy Long who was executed for a murder that took place during the 1922 Rand Revolt. The piece was originally published on the City of Johannesburg's website on 5 July 2002. Click here to view more of Davie's work. The image above shows Fordsburg Market Square during the Revolt.

One of South Africa’s biggest funeral processions – 10 000 people – was held in the 1920s for a man widely believed to be innocent, hanged by the government of General Jan Smuts.
 
The man was 31-year-old Samuel Alfred Long, nicknamed Taffy, who, after two trials, was found guilty of murdering Pieter Marais during an uprising in Johannesburg that saw the city at war with its citizens, in the 1922 Miners’ Strike. The hanging took place in November 1922, and the 10 000 people marched to Brixton Cemetery where Taffy was buried.

Old photo of Taffy Long

 
Taffy came to symbolise the workers’ unhappiness with the mine owners at the way they handled a drop in the price of gold in 1921 – by dropping wages and employing more black miners at cheaper wages.
 
Many thought Taffy was innocent, but in the tensions of the time he was an Englishman who had allegedly killed an Afrikaner. The irony was that the Afrikaans government of Smuts was also killing Afrikaners, siding against them...

On Saturday morning 16th June 2018, I attended a Johannesburg East Plans committee meeting. Our work is about heritage preservation while considering appropriate changes and new developments. Isabella Pingle, the representative of the Kensington Ratepayers and Residents Association, placed a photo before us showing the damage recently done to the Bez Valley World War I Memorial. The Memorial has effectively been destroyed despite the recent efforts of the local councillor Carlos Da Rocha and the community to clean the small park. In late 2014 an effort was made by City Parks, the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation and others to revamp the memorial. It is one of those Johannesburg heritage spots that has been hanging on by its finger nails. The challenges of preservation have overwhelmed the City of Johannesburg.

What is left of the Bez Valley War Memorial (Isabella Pingle)

This small local memorial is located opposite Darras Centre on the boundary edge of the suburbs of Bezuidenhout Valley and Kensington. The address is the corner triangle where 5th Street, 9th Avenue and Kitchener Avenue intersect. The  memorial is a block away from the main thoroughfare - Albertina Sisulu Road. It is a triangular patch of park land that falls within the orbit of the City Parks of Johannesburg.

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A short distance from the entrance to the Market Theatre is the famous jazz club Kippies. In the article below, Joburg journalist and explorer Lucille Davie reveals the story behind the building and the man that gave it its name. The piece was originally published on the City of Joburg's website on 13 September 2002.

Most people know that jazz club Kippies in Newtown was named after saxophone player Kippie Moeketsi. But what they don't know is that the building that houses Kippies was never there in the first place.
 
Kippies is modelled on an Edwardian toilet, the original of which was built around 200 metres slightly north of Kippies in 1913, the same time the building, which also houses the Museum Africa, was built.
 
It's a cosy venue, its walls painted sky blue. Its original old section has attractive small arched windows, and a small cupola or domed roof. The classic architecture of the Edwardian toilet was copied because it blended in with the neighbouring market building.

Edwardian Toilet before restoration (The Heritage Portal)

A restored Edwardian Toilet takes its place...

The recent Jozi Walks weekend brought a new verve and vibe to Hillbrow. Gerard Bester and his team of extraordinary young people of Hillbrow showed off the good, the funky and the dramatic side of Hillbrow life. It was a Hillbrow experience of note! Both the Saturday and the Sunday tours were fully booked. It is a first for the Theatre Community Centre and for the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation.

Where did the initiative start? Gerard Bester of the Hillbrow Theatre Project at the Hillbrow Theatre Community Centre initiated a partnership with the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation for the 2018 Jozi Walks (promoted by the Johannesburg Development Agency). Gerard met Flo Bird and me (representing the JHF) for a coffee and our imagination was fired by the possibility of a new and inspiring partnership. Last year the JHF offered an Orange Grove / Maryvale walking tour but this year we decided to work on the Hillbrow project. We were all delighted when the JDA selected our proposal. Flo and I joined the Hillbrow community team led by Erica Lüttich and Gerard to plan a route and unearth the history of the area. The stars of the project were the young people of Hillbrow.

Tour Guides lead the way (Erica Lüttich)

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