Tag: Eloff Street
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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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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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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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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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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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Theatres and Bioscopes in early Johannesburg
The first theatre in JHB called Theatre Royal was in Market Street (east) and erected on 17 June 1887 (some sources say 15th June) by J. Mipping. The portable and demountable structure came from Newcastle. The two stands on which the theatre was erected were purchased by Mipping via a sale on 8 December 1886.…
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Early sweeping views
I’ve read that Johannesburg has been rebuilt three times. Initially it was a haphazard town akin to the wild west with lots of tents, tin structures and bars (and some clay huts-these prohibited after 1891 building regulations) With early deeper m…
Johannesburg 1912 - suburb by suburb research 