Author: Marc Latilla
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History of Hillbrow Pt.1
On the 13 July 1893 a court ruled that the claim for the ground that would become Hillbrow belonged to J. Nicholls. He swiftly sold it to Transvaal Mortgage, Loan & Finance with which Sam Goldreich was associated. The ground was surveyed in 1894 and on the 20th May 1895 permission was received to change…
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Hospital Hill (Old Suburb between Braamfontein & Hillbrow)
Hospital Hill was a popular name for the eastern part of the March 1888 surveyed part of the township of Johannesburg. It included the land on the hill where the first general hospital was built (the land granted by the government), Joubert Park and northerly surrounds, Kruger Park (which became the Wanderer’s Sports Club) and…
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Hillbrow’s revolving restaurant and disco
While I wrestle with the next suburb post (Hospital Hill & Hillbrow) and the final part of the church piece, I wanted to share some pages from a Johannesburg tourist guide from April 1973. Thanks to Doran from Bookdealers in Melville who is always on the lookout for rare and interesting Johannesburg books for my…
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Lost churches of early Johannesburg
This is part one of a piece on lost churches in early Johannesburg. Part two will focus on old churches that are still standing but no longer used as originally intended (and a few that are, but only the old ones up to the 1950s…). For continuity, I have included the existing version of a…
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History of Braamfontein Pt.4 (Rand Show, WITS, Nunnery, Brewery)
The Milner Park history of the Rand Easter Show (or Witwatersrand Agricultural Show as it was known) Read the 1894-1902 history of the Rand Show HERE In 1903 Lord Milner convinced the Transvaal government to donate a large open space to the city as a gift. It was named Milner Park and was to become…
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Rare 1931 Map of Johannesburg tram system
My book dealer tracked down this rare map of the Johannesburg tram system from 1931. I’ve taken a picture of the full map but as it’s quite a big fold-out map, it doesn’t photograph clearly. There are some smaller and clearer sections of the suburbs presented below as well as tram information printed on the…
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History of Braamfontein Pt.3 (Explosion, Cemetery & Early Rand Show)
This is part 3 of what will finally be a 4 part history on Braamfontein. Do go back and check the first two parts here and here as some of the original pictures have been updated with better quality shots. There are also some new additions that weren’t available when the posts were originally published.…
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History of Braamfontein Pt.2 (Lost Braamfontein)
I’ve come across yet another suburb name that a part of Braamfontein was once known as: Argyle (or Argyll). This was once known as Johannesburg’s smallest suburb and was a few blocks west of the old Johannesburg Hospital. According to Anna Smith’s ‘History of Johannesburg street names’, the Transvaal Volksraad granted Commandant Daniel Egnatius Schutte…
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History of Braamfontein Pt.1
Braamfontein today is largely unchanged from 30 years ago. It seems like it’s always just been this way, but its long history starts off as a farm in 1853 to a booming middle-class residential suburb in the mid-1890s to the 1930s. During the economic and building booms of the 1930s and 1950s, many businesses relocated…
Johannesburg 1912 - suburb by suburb research 