Johannesburg

The discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand in 1886 started a gold rush that surpassed the Californian (1849), Victorian (1851) and Barberton (1885) rushes and the initial boom created the city of Johannesburg, which was literally and figuratively built on gold. The initial boom lasted for three years as the mining companies followed the sloping reef into the earth’s crust and then in 1889 the bust happened, as the gold appeared to suddenly run out which in turn caused a pall of pessimism to hang over the diggings. Read on and you will discover what happened next.

Boom times outside Johannesburg's First Stock Exchange (The Johannesburg Saga)

In early 1886 an itinerant gold prospector and stone mason, by the name of George Harrison, was passing through an area of the Old Transvaal, between the Vaal River and Pretoria known as the Witwatersrand (Ridge of White Waters), then a windswept wilderness without a tree to be seen. He was on his way to the Barberton goldfields when he stopped on route to ask for casual work from the Struben brothers who were prospecting for gold (in what is now Strubens’ Valley). They could not oblige him but instead sent him over to see Widow Oosthuizen, who needed walls built for a house, on a section of...

In the article below, first published in the Gold Fields Review 1992-1993, Eris Malan tells the story of the discovery of a remarkable set of documents that filled a significant gap in the priceless Gold Fields Collection. She also traces some of the history behind the Collection including the process that led to the Cory Library at Rhodes University becoming the custodian. The article has been shortened by The Heritage Portal Team.

The Cory Library for Historical Research at Rhodes University, and the Gold Fields Collection in particular, owe their very existence to the right combination of "what ifs".

What if Sir George Cory had dedicated all of his research time to chemistry and none to history? What if the University of the Witwatersrand had accepted the offer of the Gold Fields papers and artefacts? What if environmental conditions at Luipaards Vlei Estates store had led to the destruction of an historical chain - the vital documents which eventually filled 192 packing cases?

The net result would have been no Cory Library, today one of the most important and varied sources of southern African history. The Cory would also have been denied one of the most complete collections of documents, books, photographs and memorabilia reflecting the mining, financial and economic history of the past hundred years.

Masses of material representing the empire-building phantasmagoria of Cecil John Rhodes is contained within the walls of the Cory Library. It is all there, from the signing of the concession with Lobengula to the minutes of...

This article originally appeared in the do.co.mo.mo journal. Thank you to the authors for giving us permission to republish. Click here to view the article as it appeared in do.co.mo.mo journal 48 2013/1.

Aiton Court, in Johannesburg, is a case study in how heritage and economics clash in economically constrained cities. This iconic and formally innovative Modern apartment block from 1937 is located in an area where the income levels of tenants are now very low. Although the building is protected by legislation, the viability of its restoration is being further tested by a rent boycott. The article covers the building’s history, and questions how to approach its conservation differently, given the strong demand for housing at a cost level that would be excluded by purely market–led gentrification. We propose that locating conservation strategies in relation to the building’s history and to other subsidies aimed at the public good may provide other routes to preserving Aiton Court.

Aiton Court’s History

Aiton Court is an iconic and early Modern apartment building in Johannesburg’s dense suburb of Hillbrow [Main image / figure 1]. Designed by young South African architects Angus Stewart and Bernard Cooke in the mid–1930s, it reflects their exposure to the formal language of the CIAM architects through Cooke’s lecturer Rex Martienssen, the leader of what Le Corbusier termed the Groupe Transvaal (Le Corbusier, 1935; Herbert, 1975). The design of minimal apartments also shows the influence of their fellow student and political mentor Kurt Jonas who had studied housing rights in Berlin...

In 1961, South African Panorama ran a special article bidding a sad farewell to tramcars in Johannesburg (the tram had dominated the transport scene for seven decades until the rise of the trolley-bus led to its demise). Below are a few excerpts and photographs from the wonderful piece. 

Horsedrawn Tramcar heading down Commissioner Street (South African Panorama)

Tramcars have been part of the Johannesburg scene for 70 years - for almost as long, in fact, as there has been a Johannesburg. Now this colourful and somewhat noisy era in public transportation is coming to an end. The trackless, electrically-operated trolley-bus - silent and manoeuvrable in big-city road traffic - has come to stay. By the end of last year, "tram" routes which once criss-crossed Johannesburg had been reduced to four only, and any day now the last of the leviathans of the Johannesburg streets will clang to rest in the municipal sheds.

The last two designs for trams in...

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange has had a remarkable six homes during its existence reflecting the massive growth of  Johannesburg, South Africa and the institution itself over a relatively short period of time. The streets where it has been located have become famous in financial circles around the world (think Simmonds, Hollard, Diagonal and now Gwen Lane). Whenever the Stock Exchange has moved, major banks and companies have followed creating new financial districts and leaving old ones to reinvent themselves. This has led some commentators to label the JSE fickle while others have argued that the institution has been quick to adapt to changing times. Wherever you stand in the debate, it is clear that the JSE has left its mark on the City of Gold.

The First Stock Exchange Building was completed in 1887, a year after the founding of Johannesburg. It was located on the corner of Simmonds and Commissioner Streets and became the hub of the young mining camp. A frenzy of trading occurred most days with people from all over the world trying to get their share of the wealth eminating from what would soon be recognised as the largest gold field on earth. 

The First Stock Exchange Building designed by Fred Holman in 1887 (From Mining Camp to Metropolis)

At the end of a working day investors and brokers would pour out onto the street to...

The sculpture shows a soldier in kilt and Scottish regalia. It fits in most dramatically with its position on a rising site on the triangular ground where St Andrew’s and Ridge Road meet. Visually it is very satisfying. It may not be a great work of art, but it is certainly a fine memorial, beautifully proportioned and well executed.

South African Scottish Memorial (The Heritage Portal)

The memorial was designed by William Tait Conner, a Scottish architect born in Glasgow who moved to Johannesburg in 1903 (click here for fascinating details from Artefacts). He served with the Transvaal Scottish in the First World War, attaining the rank of major. His partner A. Hamilton was killed in the conflict. Tait Connor won the competition to design the War Memorial in Boksburg, but gave his services freely for this work in 1922.

[NB - See the comments section for clarification on this paragraph] The sculptor was Arthur Taylor, who must have been a man of some eminence in Aberdeen. Alf Beattie, a member of the South African Scottish and a survivor of the Battle of Delville Wood, had known Taylor when he had grown up in Aberdeen. He wrote to his old friend and suggested he sculpt a SA Scottish...

These sketches were drawn in 1966 as part of a first year student project at Wits. It involved taking a walk through a familiar built environment and documenting the various textures and vistas that one encountered. I was still struggling to develop a drawing style of my own, and the kind of clean pen-and-ink drawings that mark my later work were yet to evolve.

I now consider these drawings to be somewhat archaic and outdated, but they do document a set of buildings that are no longer in existence and therefore deserve revisiting. Ironically the only space that still survives is the parking lot in front of Fournos, which is still just as soulless and lacking in human scale as it ever was. 

It is not by accident that this narrative is totally devoid of black people. Events at this time took place at the height of Apartheid, and although most of the people you met in Rosebank were probably English-speaking and professed to hold liberal opinions, few would have had any contacts in the black community. The Progressive Party represented nearby Houghton, which was predominantly liberal Jewish in character, but Rosebank was waspish and voted for Dave Marais, of the United Party, a diamond merchant who chaired the (all-white) South African Football League and spoke in Parliament a total of three times in twelve years. 

[[{"fid":"2709","view_mode":"media_adaptive","fields":{"format":"media_adaptive","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Rosebank 1966 - Franco Frescura - 0002"},"type":"media","attributes":{"title":"Rosebank 1966 - Franco Frescura - 0002","height":1387,"width":1988,"style":"width: 500px; height: 349px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;","class":"adaptive media-element...

Over the last few months, Mayor Herman Mashaba has been communicating his vision for accelerating the rejuvenation of Johannesburg's inner city. He has met with business people and property developers and challenged them to turn the CBD into a construction site. He has committed to tackle corruption and improve the enforcement of the city's by-laws. He has said all the right things about harnessing heritage sites and reusing old buildings. As a result inner city enthusiasts (and I'm sure many residents and workers as well) are feeling a new wave of optimism. It is going to be fascinating to watch the changes that occur in the coming years as the new administration tackles huge challenges in a complex environment. 

Many of the projects featured in this piece were already in motion before the new administration took office. I hope to see a solid acceleration of activity (sensitively approached of course) in the coming years. (Note: As many structures in the inner city have cultural significance and/or are older than sixty years the Provincial Heritage Resources Authority Gauteng (PHRAG) will need to increase its capacity. If not there may be a bottleneck of applications or more worryingly the PHRAG may be bypassed. This will be one to watch). 

Below are a number of projects I have spotted on recent walks around parts of the inner city. As the title of the article suggests this is not a full round up of activity. I have also included some updates where construction has yet to begin and highlighted projects and...

In June 1954, a new building was completed at 80 Albert Street to the east of the Johannesburg CBD (just south of the Barclays / ABSA precinct today). It was designed as the head office of Johannesburg’s Non-European Affairs Department (JNEAD) and became the nerve centre for controlling the lives of black people in Johannesburg for over three decades. Despite having great cultural significance, the building’s controversial and complex history remains relatively unknown outside heritage circles.

The Foundation Stone (The Heritage Portal)

At its inception in 1927, the JNEAD consisted of a Manager, four clerks and a typist as well as a handful of superintendents in the field. By the early 1970s, shortly before the West Rand Administration Board (WRAB) took over ‘Urban African Administration’ from the Johannesburg City Council, the JNEAD was an enormous organisation employing approximately three and half thousand people and overseeing almost every aspect of 'urban African life'. The growth of the Department was a response to one of the most complex situations confronting any local authority in the world. The huge industrial growth of Johannesburg had led to an exponential increase in the size of the black population and the Department’s response was a rapid expansion to exert greater control.

The paragraphs below unpack the various functions of the Johannesburg Non-European Affairs Department...

For many, Parkhurst is synonymous with boutique fashion and fine dining but it is less well known for its struggle heritage. Earlier this week I visited a house on 12th Street which was used as a large ANC weapons cache in the late 1980s. The cache formed part of a then top secret ANC operation code-named Vula which ran from 1988 to 1990 and aimed to establish a well-supplied underground network of top personnel that could revive the armed struggle. Many commentators have described Vula as the most successful ANC operation inside South Africa during apartheid.

I stumbled across the fascinating story behind the 12th Street house while reading Helen Zille’s autobiography ‘Not Without a Fight’. It turns out that the house was owned by her brother Paul for a number of years including its period as a weapons cache with ‘enough explosives to blow up Johannesburg’* (it appears unlikely that he knew what the house was being used for due to the secretive nature of the operation). Interestingly, the current owners mentioned they still receive the occasional letter addressed to Paul.

Book cover

Mac Maharaj, one of the key leaders of Vula, appears to have been responsible for the selection of the 12th Street house. In an interview with Helen Zille in 2015 while she was researching her book, Maharaj mentioned that he...