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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…
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Johannesburg from the air 1931
While I finish up the first part of the history of Braamfontein, here is some vintage aerial footage of Johannesburg showing some edges of Braamfontein. Old aerial views of Johannesburg are hard to come by and sometimes tricky to pinpoint the location. The reason is that the city has been re-built so many times –…
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Troyeville
There are very few pictures of early Troyeville but the above postcard is a great landscape shot where one can see the great general changes over a period of just over 100 years. The postcard picture was taken from the Fairview Fire Tower around 1910. The picture below was taken from the fire training tower…
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Johannesburg traffic from 1934
A quick post while I finish up Troyeville… British Pathe recently uploaded 85 000 newsreel clips from 1896 to 1976 to Youtube. Here is the link to the entire collection. There are many particular to South Africa and Johannesburg. This one shows Johannesburg traffic in 1934. So where exactly is this? Considering the footage is…
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Bertrams and Lorentzville
Bertrams On 9 May 1889 Robertson Fuller Bertam (estate agent and stockbroker) leased a portion of land from the Bezhuidenhouts. The township laid out on the leased land was known as Bertram, and later as Bertramstown, appearing as such on an 1896 map. The suburb was meant to cash-in and catch the overflow from New…
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Fairview (once known as ‘Fawcus Township’ sometimes spelt ‘Faucus’)
It was also once called Georgetown and Johannesburg Extension, but I didn’t want to push my luck adding this to the title. This ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ suburb is wedged between Jeppestown on the south and Troyeville on the north and if traveling east along Commissioner Street is what you pass through before entering…
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Short film of Johannesburg from 1970/1
I came across this short film (more of a silent documentary set to music really) by Alan Michael Levy posted on You Tube. It’s an interesting look back in time to Johannesburg in the early 70s. Although filmed a few years before I was born, I do remember the black & white TJ number plates,…
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Markham’s clock
This is another unusual and out-of-place post, but I can’t resist sharing these pictures of the inside of the Markham’s clock tower and mechanism (or lack thereof). This was at one time the highest building in Johannesburg and it was said that the clock face could be read from as far as Hillbrow. It was…
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Jeppestown & Belgravia Pt.6 (Belgravia Hotel, general views and odds & ends)
This is the final post on Jeppe and Belgravia before moving a few blocks north up to Fairview (or Fawcus Township as it was originally known) and really a chance to post some mixed and fascinating pictures of various examples of houses, buildings, and general views that didn’t fit into the previous Jeppe & Belgravia…
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Jeppestown & Belgravia Pt.5 (Osborn Pharmacy, Thrupps, Cosmopolitan Hotel, Jeppestown Synagogue and Jooste & Bryant’s building)
Osborn Pharmacy The plans for this building date back to 24 August 1898 and it was evidently built before the Anglo-Boer War by J.R. Koller. A good description is ‘…more leisurely pace with its Victorian air, which is suburban rather than city centred.’ Although mostly Victorian with a highly decorated roofline, there are also elements…
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Johannesburg 1912 - suburb by suburb research 