marc@johannesburg1912.com
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Johannesburg 1912 – suburb by suburb research
"What is fashionable now is despised by the next generation, thought quaint by the following and revered by the one thereafter"
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30 responses to “Contact”
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Very interesting site, loved the pictures of the old buildings.
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What a wonderful trip down memory lane your site provided! I was looking for a photo of the the Royal Bioscope where I spent so many happy hours in the 1950s. I’m glad to see it is still in use even if it is a shadow of its former self.
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Glad it brought back happy memories!
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Hi. I really love your website! What a great job you have done.
I am interested in finding the Athenaeum Club in Johannesburg that was mentioned in press around 1910.
I use mostly historical info to support and expand geological and seismological models of various areas in SA.
I am also very interested in the dynamite explosion of 1896 at the Braamfontein Railway Siding and would be happy to exchange info when I complete my study.
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Thanks Nicky. The Athenaeum club in JHB has been demolished. It was across the road from Joubert Park on Wolmarans Street.
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Someone posted this on reddit, and I’ve spent the last hour reading. I’ve sent a lot of the pictures to my dad.
And I’m sure I’ve been to more than one show you DJ’d at, so props to you Marc.
Got any information on Melville?
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Hi, thanks for reading (and maybe coming to a show…) I’ll be getting to Melville at some stage.
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This is really a wonderful and informative site. Thank you so much for doing this.
I’m curious to know if you have any information on the Orlando Power Plant in Soweto. Any plans and/or early images of it, who designed it etc.
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Thanks Omphile! I’m sure I have some info. I’ll have a look and let you know. Please give me some time though
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Hi, please email me. I have some info on Orlando Power station you may be interested in.
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great site – thank you, my husband and I have spent the entire evening going down memory lane.
Can you perhaps help with any photos of the interior of the Standard Theatre. I have a piece (a “lady lamp”) that is supposed to have come from one of the podiums or pillars at the base of the banisters of the stairwell within the foyer theatre – and while I bought it simply because I fell in love with it when I clapped eyes on it, I would love to know that it did in fact one upon a time have a more glamorous life and purpose than standing lonely in my dining room.Shiv
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Thanks for reading! I only have what I posted I’m afraid. Some of the theatre’s marble stairs went to the Brian Brooke Theatre and I recall reading that Adam Leslie may have had other theatre relics in his. Will let you know if I find anything.
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Such a great inside into our history. Do you Perhaps know what happened to the records of the patients of the Florence Nightingale Hospital
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Hi Palesa, I’m afraid I don’t know.
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Hi Hilton, I’ve been browsing your fabulous site with its wonderful photographs. My late father’s address at birth is listed as 45a Beit St. When I visited the ‘site’ in 2014, I found a rundown industrial building that looked like it was on its last legs. I’ve got a few photographs of old Doornfontein as it was in the early 1900s, but none that allow me to pin down a likely locality for my dad’s address. Any suggestions? (I’ll be in Jbg in early May). Thanks.
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Hi Marc, I grew up at a place called Siesta Guest Farm in Lombardy East Rembrand Park. It housed transitional families and was an amazing place of people in all kinds of difficult situations. Whites of course but also provided free housing to staff and their families ( s. quarters – as typical) and was run and owned by a kind Jewish family the Bergmans. The staff stayed with the guest farm til the day it was sold in the mid -late 80s.
I have searched and searched for pics or maps or any records of the place. If you ever come across any info about it pleeeeeze share. here are many of us who were raised there and long for the glimpse of the past.-
Hi Mandy, I’ve not heard about this but will keep a look out for it
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Hi Mandy. I stayed there for a while i the mid/late 70’s. Would love to be in touch.
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Hi Marc, have you come across a suburb called New Brixton? This was the address of my late f.i.l in the 1930s. I can find both Brixton and Newtown on the contemporary tram map. But no reference to a New Brixton. Any thoughts?
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Hi Liz, I’ve seen the name on a few genealogical sites, but It’s not a fixed/separate suburb. My guess is that it was part of new section or expansion of Brixton likely around the time of Brixton Cemetery from 1915 onwards and is now just part of Brixton proper. Suburb boundaries have known to be flexible and re-drawn over the years
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Hi
I found this channel on Youtube that has a load of old SA films that shows Joburg in the 1940-50’s, I don’t know if you have seen it before…
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCddem5RlB3bQe99wyY49g0g
Cheers
Benji-
Thanks Benji! There’s a lot to go through…
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I am researching the Alice in Wonderland production by Wheeler’s Juvenile Company at His Majesty’s Theatre, Johannesburg in April 1910. I believe there is an advertisement in The Star 6 April 1909 and a review 10 April 1909, although I have been unable to access these.
Do you have any information about it, particularly who did the adaptation and who was in the cast?
Thank you for your help
Catherine Richards (UK)
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Hi, I’ll reply using our mail address
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Hello; I was born in the Florence Nightingale Clinic in June 1956. I would be interested to know what records they may have of my birth. Does it still exist ? Are the records available ? Lots of questions; many thanks.
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Good afternoon, I came across your site while trying to find any info on a Grosvenor Boarding House where my mom’s family lived in the mid 920s and early 1930s. The property is described as being sprawled over the Berea Kopje in Jhb.
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Hi Gwyneth, it’s not a name I’ve come across, but there were big old houses on top of that kopje. The main house that was eventually demolished was called ‘Welgelen’. I’m not sure if it became a boarding house, or if it was another one nearby. It would have stood where Highrise flats are today next to Gainsborough Mansions.
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Hi Marc, great site. Thank you! I don’t know if you’ve ever come across this map, but it shows greater Johannesburg in 1970. Found it really interesting to see where the more northern suburbs of the northern suburbs were in terms of their development at the time:
Holmden’s Greater Johannesburg / compiled and drawn by Map Office (Pty) Ltd: https://dp.la/item/887749877ea93f56297552720b69530c
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Thanks Iain! Thanks for the link. I picked up a physical copy of that a few months ago. I use the street map versions in book form to track changes as well. So far have on from 1940 and late 1960s (they are difficult to date precisely). Hoping to get one from the 1930s soon! Also from the same database is the 1950s tourist map which is great.
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Johannesburg 1912 - suburb by suburb research 
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