A view of Johannesburg’s rich and turbulent history and heritage.
On Saturday 17th November there is a Johannesburg Heritage Foundation walk (2 hours) past 2 homes in Parktown: Brenthurst, & Timewell with a visit to Etunzini. [Unfortunately this tour is for members only but there is still time to join. Phone Eira on (011) 482-3349] Back to the tour .. Brenthurst was designed by Baker […]
Read More »Potato Sheds make way for Newtown Junction In 2011 the old potato sheds behind the Market Theatre in Newtown, Johannesburg were demolished to make way for the first major retail and leisure investment in the city for a while. Planned as a mixed-use node it is being developed by Atterbury Property, facilitated by the Johannesburg […]
Read More »The space in-between or the uitvalgrond formed old Joburg city centre Just discovered a great website on Joburg (bit embarrassed I didn’t know of it before). It’s www. jhbwtc.blogspot.com and it’s the website of the Johannesburg Workshop in Theory and Criticism. Based at Wits University, their work (as their name indicates) is academic and […]
Read More »Where can I find markets selling traditional medicine? Many guests who have stayed at Liz at Lancaster over the years have been fascinated with the idea of traditional medicine. Some of the more intrepid ones have made their way down to Diagonal Street in western downtown central Joburg where you can find The Museum of Man and […]
Read More »Over ten years ago the concept of a Cultural Arc was mooted by Prof Carolyn Hamilton, then Head of the Humanities Postgraduate School at Wits. Envisioned as a metaphorical sweeping link between three powerful cultural institutions across the geography of the city, it would connect the Johannesburg Art Gallery on the east, to Wits in […]
Read More »Craighall Park turns 100 Feels like spring not autumn here in Jozi with temperatures of 27° over the week-end. And what better way to enjoy the unseasonably warm weather on Saturday than at the Craighall Park Centenary Open Day. I have had the privilege of living in Craighall Park for nearly 40 years (terrifying thought!) and […]
Read More »From grazing land to sewage works to recreational space: Delta Park Delta Park, 104 hectares of open park land, is just 5 blocks from Liz at Lancaster. The area now known as Delta Park was part of the farm Klipfontein in the 19th Century. In 1902 it became a grazing area for cows as part […]
Read More »Gerald Garner who wrote Spaces and Places Johannesburg as well as Johannesburg 10Ahead, has recently started walking tour of Jozi’s inner city. On 28th Jan a tour will leave from Mary Fitzgerald Square at 9 am. Billed to see the public art in Newtown, Turbine Hall, Chancellor House, the Anglo American campus, the Ashanti Hotel and […]
Read More »The Parktown Westcliff Heritage Trust runs tours to interesting places which are very varied on their offerings. Many of these tours provide access to places that one cannot always get to independently. Sadly however, the guiding style and information provided can be a little superficial and descriptive, with in-depth information often tantalizingly lacking. But enjoy the outings. […]
Read More »Satyagraha Guesthouse: Beautifully restored house where Gandhi spent time when in Johannesburg Ghandi’s philosphy of Satyagraha (non-violent non-cooperation) was born in South Africa and more specifically in what was then the Transvaal, in the first decade of the 20th Century. Ghandi arrived in Johannesburg in 1893 and stayed at various places during the 12 years he […]
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