Johannesburg

Visiting Westcliff is always a treat. I feel like a Johannesburg time traveller when driving north along Jan Smuts Avenue and turning left at The Valley Road. In October and November it is a riot of purple when the jacaranda trees and the creeping bougainvillea blossom. E. M. Macphail, who wrote the charming book The Story of Westcliff in 1986, makes it her quest to find the right descriptive words for Westcliff. She comes up with “rich, elite, chic, wealthy, posh, privileged, stuffy, spacious, green seclusion”.

Westcliff is still regarded as a luxury suburb of choice for the affluent families of Johannesburg. It is a suburb of mansions, large stands, wide roads, secluded greenery, beautiful gardens, imposing gates, aged trees and high walls. Westcliff is one of the most beautiful suburbs of the City. It is a jewel of a garden suburb on a prime Witwatersrand ridge and has a unique charm.

Ye Rokkes, an iconic Westcliff mansion designed by the firm Aburrow and Treeby in 1902.

There are many Baker houses in Westcliff. Baker and his partners brought Kent and the spirit of the English home counties to the ridges of the burgeoning town but built with the honey-hewed kopje rocks found on site.

[[{"fid":"15938","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]":"Black Rock Westcliff - Kathy Munro"},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"2":{"format":"media_adaptive","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Black Rock Westcliff - Kathy Munro"}},"attributes":{"title":"Black...

The pristine, indigenous slice of green Joburg, Melville Koppies, has picked up the Preferred Heritage Destination category award in the National Heritage Council’s 10th Gosha Awards for 2023.

Gosha – the Golden Shield Heritage Awards – aims to “recognise excellence in the heritage sector”, and is the “only premium gesture of rewarding the heritage activists, practitioners and citizens for their relentless dedication to protect, promote and preserve the heritage of the people of South Africa”, according to the National Heritage Council (NHC).

This year there were nine categories, ranging from Young Heritage Activist, Voice of Heritage, Heritage Journalism, to National Living Treasure. 

“We entered the Preferred Heritage Destination category because it encompassed the many, many natural attributes that Melville Koppies has, plus the educative, research, and sustainable recreation facilities it offers,” says Wendy Carstens, chairperson of the Melville Koppies Management Committee. “And of course, the intense, committed volunteer involvement since its establishment in 1959.”

Carstens is the custodian of the 50ha central section of the koppies, which, together with the western and eastern sections, runs from Emmarentia in the east to Sophiatown in the west. The central section is a fenced, protected area, with Carstens and her team weeding and clearing alien vegetation on a daily basis. It has a network of paths running through it, making for a pleasant 5km hike.

[[{"fid":"15899","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]":"Tour group at Melville Koppies via Lucille Davie"},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"media_adaptive","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Tour group at Melville Koppies via Lucille Davie"}},"attributes":{"title":"Tour group at Melville Koppies via Lucille Davie","height":1346,"width":1795,"style":"height: 375px; width: 500px; display: block...

Philaphotographologist – what a highfalutin word! The word does not actually exist. Rackham (2022) applied his creativity and constructed the word following some discussion on the internet.

Personally, I rather like the word. It did take  me a minute or two to get my tongue around the pronunciation though (feela-foto-grafologist).

Rackham (2022) constructed the word as follows: Phila (to love), derived from French, followed by the two Greek words phōtós (light) and graphê (drawing) and concluding with the Latin word logia (branch of knowledge).

The word philaphotographologist translates into more understandable language, namely photograph enthusiast or photograph collector. That is what this article is about, an early South African photo enthusiast.

As a psychologist, I am intrigued by the visual orientation, or the lack thereof, in the human race.

Some of us are more inclined to a heightened visual curiosity compared to others. Those of us who have a lower level of aesthetic visual appreciation will be less inclined to give much attention to visual imagery, in this instance photographs, whilst to the visually curious, photographs provide visual stimulation.

In my mind, a person has to be visually curious to be referred to as a photo enthusiast, or a philaphotographologist for that matter.

One such person was Frederick William Willis. British-born, he became a South African citizen, initially attached to the South African Constabulary.

He loved photographs – so much so that he passionately constructed photo albums containing various themes.

I was privileged enough to get my hands on two...

Yeoville is one of the oldest suburbs of Johannesburg, established around 1890 soon after the discovery of gold. During the early 20th century, Yeoville (and neighbouring Bellevue) was a middle- and working-class hub for European immigrants, especially Jews. Then, under the apartheid Group Areas Act, Yeoville became a whites-only neighbourhood, although many coloured and Asian residents secretly took up residence there. Yeoville went through a funky, alternate phase during the 1980s, but this era is a thing of the past. This article is about tracking down a remnant of Yeoville’s multi-racial past by finding a shop that was once a thriving Rockey Street men’s outfitter business run by Mr K B Patel.

Taking photos in Yeoville in the 1980s

In 1988 I did a photojournalism course and our group went to Rockey Street in Yeoville to capture images of life on this street. I took photographs of Mr Patel and his tailoring and men’s outfitter shop. Since then, I haven’t been to Yeoville at all. I drove around recently to try and find out where Mr Patel’s shop used to be and I couldn’t find it because almost everything has changed. Many of the old shop fronts have been repurposed and covered up with new hoardings and signage and substantial and often brutal burglar bars. Metal roller doors abound and the mechanism for these doors often obscures any remaining vintage signage. Using my 1988 photographs, Google Earth and an actual visit, I was able to find Mr Patel’s original shop.

[[{"fid":"15774","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]":"KB Patel Shop...

In late October 2023, friends and family gathered in Johannesburg to celebrate Flo Bird's 80th birthday. Flo has been a tireless campaigner for Johannesburg and South Africa's heritage for several decades. Below is the speech delivered by Kathy Munro to mark the big occasion.

Flo and your family, welcome and to all our heritage community, we welcome you. Today we have the extraordinary privilege of coming together to celebrate a momentous occasion - an 80th birthday.

But this is no ordinary 80th birthday; it's an opportunity to honour a life that has left an indelible mark on Johannesburg and our heritage community.

Flo Bird unveiling a plaque on Doveton Road, Parktown

Flo is a born and bred Johannesburger. She has always lived in Parktown and is descended from Johannesburg pioneers. She has spent her entire adult life committed to her city – researching and writing about Johannesburg, She founded the Parktown and Westcliff Heritage Trust and in 2012 she founded the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation. She is still engaged in the heritage fight and still sits on the Joint Plans Committee - its meetings are a fixed date in her calendar.

It is due to her efforts that we do not have another motorway slicing through Parktown, that at least...

Another find of photographs in a drawer at an antique shop has contributed to the reconstruction of a significant historical narrative around a little-known female photographer whose work has not received the recognition it deserves in South Africa.

Sara Buijskes as a young woman by unknown photographer (Circa 1900s). Her sister Maud, who later became her assistant in the Barbican studio would have been too young to capture this photograph.

On researching her, it quickly became evident that hardly any publicly documented information existed on her. The intention of the article is therefore to add to the knowledge base of not only early female photographers in South Africa but also South African photographic history in general.

Michael, the co-author of this article, was “scratching” around in an antique shop in Mosselbay in the Western Cape when he stumbled upon almost two hundred large format black and white photographs tucked away in the shop. He had the sense that this was a significant find and bought the entire batch there and then.

At the time he did not know who the photographer was, but the uniqueness of the images justified him buying the batch. Sufficiently curious to determine who the photographer was...

Melville Koppies recently won the prestigious Golden Shield Heritage Award for a ‘Preferred Heritage destination’. This competition was organised by the National Heritage Council, an agency of the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture.

Wendy Carstens, Chair of the Melville Koppies Management Committee, is pictured top left

The heritage preserved at Melville Koppies includes the Geology, flora and fauna and history of people from the Khoisan, early farmers and more recent gold prospectors – a truly embracing heritage of South Africa.

Melville Koppies has had an active, well-informed and committed volunteer involvement ever since its establishment as a Nature Reserve in 1959.

Covid restrictions introduced many people to the great outdoors. Here compulsory masks could be dropped if one was alone in an open natural space. Melville Koppies was one such haven where hikers could stride out, enjoying the exercise while absorbing the calming influence of nature.

The interest in hiking and exploring nature has continued. For instance, on Heritage Day this year, nearly 100 hikers enjoyed a guide-accompanied 8km hike through Melville Koppies Central and East. How could we do an 8km hike in a nature reserve just five minutes from the Johannesburg CBD? Well in the Grand Old Duke of York style, hikers were led up...

A land surveyor of distinction and an early pioneer of South African satellite geodesy, Werner Kirchhoff, passed away at the age of 92 in August 2023.

Werner, born in Germany in 1931, was the son of Peter Kirchhoff and Margarete Bose. Two years later his family left Germany and immigrated to South Africa, settling in Johannesburg in 1934. Between 1936 and 1941, he attended the German school in Edith Cavell Street, Hillbrow and from 1942 to 1947, the German school in Pretoria (the Deutsche International Schule) and Pretoria Boys' High School.

Werner grew up in an artist’s home. His father (with three other artists: Hennie Potgieter, Laurika Postma and Frikkie Kruger) was commissioned to sculpt the Voortrekker Monument Hall friezes from 1941-1946. Here, the young Werner acted as the model for the young hero figure of Dirkie Uys, a young Paul Kruger at Vegkop and a surveyor in the Church of the Vow frieze. The latter post was prophetic indeed as surveying became Werner’s profession.

Werner posed for these figures in the Voortrekker Monument Hall friezes (Russel Scott)

The Kirchhoff family lived at Harmony Hall (the converted artists’ studio for the work of the four artists on...

The above painting by Frank Lewis Emanuel, 1899, shows a rather gothic view of early Johannesburg rickshaw men ferrying their passengers through a dust storm. Emanuel (1865–1948) was a painter, printmaker, draughtsman and writer who was born in London. Most of his art tackled British seaside towns and seaside vistas, so the Johannesburg painting is a bit unusual. There is no information on when Emanuel came to Johannesburg.

Rickshaws or rickshas are small two-wheeled cart-like passenger vehicles, often with a fold-down top, and pulled by one person, formerly widely used in Japan and China, and also called jinrickshaws or jinrickshas.

Rickshaws in early Johannesburg

Most photographs of early Johannesburg, when scrutinised, do not show any rickshaws. Instead, the early streets of Johannesburg are filled with carts, cabs and wagons which are horse, mule or oxen-drawn. Later on there were horse-drawn or electric trams, bicycles, or motor vehicles, depending on the era. Yet rickshaws were part of the bustling city landscape and remained in use until the 1960s.

Market Square in the early 20th century showing a rickshaw in the foreground. (SAR Tourism and Publicity and Travel Department. DRISA. ZA 0375-N-N01283)

Rickshaws for a growing city

As the city grew, rickshaws were still catered for as a...

On Sunday 16 July, Johannesburg Heritage members, in partnership with the Freemasons of Johannesburg, hosted the blue plaque unveiling celebration at Freemasons Hall, Parktown.

The crowd gathers outside Freemasons Hall (Vincent Carruthers)

Opened in 1957 and designed by Gordon Leith, the building captures Leith’s architectural commitment to the classical and traditional. There is an echo of the Herbert Baker spirit (Leith was a disciple and apprenticed to Herbert Baker). With its imposing Corinthian columns fronting a long ambulatory and the imposing bronze faced double entrance, this is an august but austere building. It has served the Freemasons well for over 60 years. The design of the building underlines a quiet grandeur but also achieves effortless functionality. The craftsmanship and detailing focus on the symbols and insignia of Free Masonry. There is symbolism, allegory and intent behind each object, the classic insignia of freemasonry are building tools such as the square and compass, the trowel and the level. The first masons were the builders creators and craftsmen of European cathedrals. The Freemasons brotherhood is rooted in ancient biblical ritual - pelicans, cornucopias, eagles all have special significance.

Gordon Leith himself was a senior Freemason. He served Johannesburg well as the architect of several important buildings in...