Tag: Hillbrow
-
History of Hillbrow Pt.1
On the 13 July 1893 a court ruled that the claim for the ground that would become Hillbrow belonged to J. Nicholls. He swiftly sold it to Transvaal Mortgage, Loan & Finance with which Sam Goldreich was associated. The ground was surveyed in 1894 and on the 20th May 1895 permission was received to change…
-
Hillbrow’s revolving restaurant and disco
While I wrestle with the next suburb post (Hospital Hill & Hillbrow) and the final part of the church piece, I wanted to share some pages from a Johannesburg tourist guide from April 1973. Thanks to Doran from Bookdealers in Melville who is always on the lookout for rare and interesting Johannesburg books for my…
-
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…
-
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.…
-
Windybrow
I discovered two more out of print books today on Johannesburg. Both pointed to a few buildings/houses in Doornfontein that I may have missed – Doornfontein being my next planned post. In the meantime, here are a bunch of pictures I took of Windyb…
-
Saratoga Avenue
The well-heeled of the population were not satisfied with living in the small blocks laid out by the town planners near the mines and noise and dust of the new town. In 1887, Johannesburg’s first luxury residential area was laid out by Yeo Sherwel…
-
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…
-
Introduction and Randjeslaagte
A year ago, while planning for a new room/story to be built on our house in Melville, I got to see the original hand drawn plans from 1912. The house looked very different back then. How cool would it be if I could find a picture of what the house…
Johannesburg 1912 - suburb by suburb research 