Saratoga Avenue after Harrow Road bridge (Now called Joe Slovo Drive)

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I was about to complete the Doornfontein post (finally took the balance of the pictures this week) but wanted to first post some pictures of the houses on the other side of the Harrow Road bridge or Joe Slovo Drive as it’s now known. There are only two houses left on Charlton Terrace which is what Saratoga Avenue becomes after the bridge. The Tudor house below was known as ‘Shelley House’ and was once used for housing visiting judges.

Last house on Charlton Terrace Doornfontein

Second last house on Charlton Terrace Doornfontein (Source: Marc Latilla)

Charlton Terrace eary 1900s

Charlton Terrace early 1900s. Note that the same Tudor house is in the above picture (Source: A Johannesburg Album)

Harrow Road and Charrow Court and Ponte 2018

Site of St. Augustine’s church from 2018 (Source: Yeshiel Panchia)

Next to Shelley House in the postcard above is the second St. Augustine’s Anglican Church (designed by Aburrow & Treeby). The first St. Augustine’s was originally in Height Street south of Beit Street and was built 1892. It was demolished in the 1970s and replaced with the Perskor Building (the headquarters for the media company founded by H. F. Verwoerd and publisher of Die Vaderland and Transvaler) which now forms part of University of Johannesburg. The second St. Augustine was demolished in the 1930s and relocated to Orange Grove. Part of Harrow Road and the block of flats, Charrow Court, now stand where the second St. Augustine’s used to be.

The other remaining house on Charlton Terrace

The other remaining house on Charlton Terrace (Source: Marc Latilla)

The house above is just after the petrol station at the slip road to Bertrams. It has a high wall obscuring the view and is currently a car wash. The shot above is taken from the back of the house on the Bertrams side.

Charlton Terrace was once part of land rented for James Sivewright from the Bezhuidenhout’s. It is named after John Charlton, an early mining pioneer, who lived in a small house in Natal Camp

One road above Charlton Terrace is Gordon Terrace. Here stands an entire row of old houses – virtually untouched. See Google Earth snap of all of them. They are far back from the road and difficult to get a good picture of from the street.

Google Earth shot of the houses on Gordon Terrace Doornfontein

Houses on Gordon Terrace Doornfontein (Source: Google Earth)

Back of a house on Gordan Terrace from Yoeville Hill above

Back of a house on Gordan Terrace from Yeoville Hill above (Source: Marc Latilla)

The house on the far left of the Google earth photo was No.10 Gordon Terrace and belonged to Rabbi Dr Judah Leo Landau (23 April 1866 – 26 August 1942).

According to the 1895 map, Saratoga once became Gordon Terrace. Oddly, there is an earlier map from 1890 (posted on the previous Saratoga blog and re-posted here with markings) that shows it leading onto Charlton Terrace as it does today with the above area named ‘Charlton Reserve’ with no Gordon Terrace at all. At some point Gordon Terrace came into being and joined Saratoga. At a later point Saratoga re-joined Charlton Terrace leaving Gordon Terrace one road back minus all the traffic.

Map from 1895

Map from 1895

Map from 1890Map from 1890 (Source: Watershed Town)

Bibliography:

Blue Plaques. St. Augustine. http://www.blueplaques.co.za/content/saint-augustines-high-school-boys [Accessed 12 August 2018]

History Matters. Pesrskor. https://historymatters.co.za/content/apartheid-inc-%E2%80%93-profile-racist-corporation-june-9-2010 [Accessed 12 August 2018]

Norwich, O. I, 1986. A Johannesburg album-Historical postcards. Johannesburg: AD. Donker

UPDATES:

General text and background info: 12 Aug 2018

Additional photos added: 24 September 2018

 

This entry was published on April 9, 2011 at 10:35 pm. It’s filed under Johannesburg and tagged , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.

3 thoughts on “Saratoga Avenue after Harrow Road bridge (Now called Joe Slovo Drive)

  1. Melissa on said:

    Hello, I would like to know it the Shelly house is still there ?
    This house belonged to my grandfather in the 1940‘s/1950‘s …I found this out through the photograph but would like to be sure. Is there any way you could tell me if it’s still standing or if it has been pulled down ?
    Many regards from Germany.
    Melissa Blumberg -Booth

  2. Melissa on said:

    It would be of great help to my mother. Thank you, kind regards and looking forward to your reply!
    Melissa Blumberg-Booth

    • Marc Latilla on said:

      Hi Melissa, Apologies for only replying now. I seem to have missed your comment. The house still stands although I’m not sure what it’s used for today. It did belong to a catering company a few years ago.

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