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History of Ferreira’s Dorp (or Ferreira’s Town)
Ferreira’s Dorp or Ferreira’s Town (or both one-word variations) is an area in the south-western part of the originally laid out township of Johannesburg. It borders Marshalltown, Newtown, and Westgate. It predates the birth of Johannesburg by several months and holds the early history of Africans, Chinese, Jewish, and Indian communities in the mining town…
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Transvaal Memorial Hospital for Children
In November 2019 I was contacted by Karen Landi of Ei8ht Community whose offices are based at the old Transvaal Memorial Children’s Hospital, a historic building at the bottom of Braamfontein across the road from the former Queen Victoria Maternity Hospital. Karen had just launched the Children’s Memorial Institute website at the request of the…
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History of Fordsburg
Fordsburg was established in 1888 on land that had once been part of the farm Langlaagte (more on the history of the early farms HERE). It was owned and laid out by the private firm of Ford & Jeppe Estate Company who had acquired land to the east and west of the new mining camp.…
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Masonic buildings in Johannesburg
Some housekeeping: Please follow me on Instagram at @johannesburg1912 where I post interesting Johannesburg related stuff on weekends (mainly). Follow this blog via e-mail HERE. Scroll down on the right after archives. My first book ‘Johannesburg Then & Now’ is available at local bookstores or internationally via Amazon or kindle. Click HERE for the relevant…
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Johannesburg Then and Now is out
It was Bob Lefsetz who said, ‘Never promote before availability.’ Although the book was officially out two weeks ago, it’s now out-out. Most stores have now received their stock and put it out on the shelves. I’ve included some retailer links HERE. It’s available in SA from most book retailers as wells from various on-line…
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Arcades of old Johannesburg
While researching my book, Johannesburg ‘Then & Now’, there were several sections where the amount of information I uncovered was too large for the allocated space. The piece on the old arcades was one such example. Presented here is the original long version Pedestrian arcades ran mostly north-south and connected main roads like Market, Commissioner…
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New photographs and an update
It’s been some months since the last Johannesburg post. The reason is that I’ve been working on an exciting new project based on some of the work here (and a whole lot more). The publisher has asked that I don’t divulge too much information just yet. There are a few processes and formalities to go…
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Churches of Johannesburg Pt.2
This piece covers churches built up to around 1955 that are still standing. The first piece covered the ‘Lost churches’ and can be read HERE. I’ve broken it up into two sections: The first section covers those that are no longer used as places of worship starting with the oldest. The second section covers those…
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Views of Johannesburg from 1961 from the film Basie
A couple of years ago I bought a few old South African DVDs that were shot in the late 1950s and early 1960s. They were for research for a story on ‘Ducktails’ (1950s Johannesburg gang culture and where a lot of our current slang comes from). I eventually watched one of them the other night.…
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History of Hillbrow Pt.2
Hospital Hill and History of Hillbrow Pt.1 are the other two parts of the research. This quaint little fire Station, completed in 1912, was originally the Northern Districts Fire Station Hillbrow is still operational and known as Berea Fire Station. It’s located at the top end of Banket Street near Louis Botha Avenue and the…
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Johannesburg 1912 - suburb by suburb research 