Tag: Early Johannesburg
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Update to Lost Churches of Johannesburg
Usually, around this time of the year, I’d be publishing a new post of some description. It seems a post a year is about my average given the amount of work that goes into them. Of course, the algorithms and digital media experts would all disagree with that strategy, but I don’t really care much…
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Hotels of Early Johannesburg
A history and listing of the ‘good, bad, and ugly’ hotels in Johannesburg CBD and Hillbrow from 1886 to the mid-1980s
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This is Joburg interview
My friend and journalist Charles Leonard interviewed me a few weeks ago for his new podcast ‘This is Joburg’.
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History of Newtown Pt.2
Initially, I wanted to complete Newtown in two parts. While working with the 1937 Goads map and a 1974 Curries Map of Johannesburg, I started digging into the various business names listed on the maps and uncovered some fascinating histories of some businesses that had their start in Newtown after the completion of the abattoir…
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Barnett’s Panorama of Johannesburg c1897
Over the last 10 years, while writing this blog and researching early Johannesburg, I’ve looked at thousands of photographs in books, online, and in various archives. While backing-up photos, I came across a number of early street shots of Johannesburg and thought it would be a good idea to try and date them by identifying…
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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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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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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…
Johannesburg 1912 - suburb by suburb research 