Spaces & Places 2.0: JoburgPlaces

By Gerald Garner

Spaces & Places 2.0 - JoburgPlaces, a celebration of Johannesburg’s hidden gems, provides insider's knowledge of how to make the most of your time in extraordinary Johannesburg. It puts the spotlight on the extraordinary spaces and places of this bustling metropolis.
This book will empower you to venture out confidently in order to experience the incredible pulse, people and places of the city. Discover the city’s energetic heartbeat and its tranquil havens – ranging from nature areas and parks to cafes on sun-drenched sidewalks.
Gerald Garner reveals the spaces and places of Johannesburg’s glorious, regenerated inner-city, its northern nodes, village streets, vibrant townships and verdant suburbs in the quintessential guide to the city. Written in a personal and subjective style, Garner travels with you to his favourite Jozi places. In the process you gain incredible insight into the richness and diversity of the places, people and spaces. You will be astonished!
Go out and explore... Joziburg awaits you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gerald Garner
• Release date: Dec 10, 2013
• ISBN: 9781310884269

Gerald Garner

Gerald Garner is the managing director and owner of Double G Media (Pty) Ltd, an integrated media and publishing company, operating mostly within the tourism sector.Double G Media has published three books since 2010:- Spaces & Places 2.0 – JoburgPlaces (2012)- Johannesburg Ten Ahead (2011)- Spaces & Places – Johannesburg (2010)(all three books authored by Gerald Garner)Double G Media is currently busy with its fourth book, Spaces & Places 3.0 – Sandton Places.Apart from book publishing, Double G Media also offers a Joburg-based tourism and events service, using the brand JoburgPlaces. Tourism offerings range from in-depth, 6-hour inner-city walking tours to shorter 2-hour city strolls and all-day city tuk-tuk tours. JoburgPlaces also offers special events tours, ranging from pubs, bars & rooftops hops to food & wine pairing experiences in the Apprentice Penthouse.In addition Double G Media is contracted to operate the Joburg City Tourism Association secretariat and handle its fundraising. In this regard Gerald was responsible for co-ordinating the Joburg City Festival (Aug 2013) and the preceding media weekend (mid May 2013).Gerald has wide experience and a proven track-record in fundraising and events management, having handled these functions for the Institute for Landscape Architecture in South Africa (ILASA) for the past four years.Past experience:Gerald is also a documentary film scriptwriter and producer. In 2011 he co-produced and wrote the series Man-Made Marvels South Africa with Clive Morris Productions.Gerald has a degree in landscape architecture from the University of Pretoria. He is also a respected journalist, especially so in the environmental field, with a post-graduate qualification in journalism from Rhodes University.Gerald was the founding editor and publisher of the environmental trade journal, Urban Green File, published by Soft Brick Media from 1996 – 2000 and from then onwards by Brooke Pattrick Publications.Gerald sold his original magazine publishing business to Brooke Pattrick in 2000 and then become a shareholder in Brooke Pattrick where he managed the business alongside Neil Pattrick until 2009 when he sold his share of the business.At Brooke Pattrick Publications Gerald held the position of Publishing Director, steering and overseeing the company’s print and electronic products for nearly a decade.

Book preview

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Publishing a book is always a mammoth task and countless people play a vital role in creating the end product. But perhaps it is my friends and family, not directly involved in the production, who deserve the biggest thank you. They have provided me with constant motivation and support to follow my dream. Many a time I believed that my third book, and the second in the Spaces & Places series, would never see the light of day. Yet they spurred me on and the result is the book in your hands!

Thank you, especially to:

My son, Joshua Garner, for his enthusiasm. It is a pleasure to explore the city with him as my young travel companion.

Marjan Gerbrands and Desmond Naidoo for their unwavering support and financial assistance when the going got tough.

My brother, Tommy Garner, for keeping me afloat when I was ready to throw in the towel.

Gavin McInnes for his faith in the Spaces & Places concept and for his inspiring enthusiasm about Jozi’s many heritage buildings.

Isaac Chalumbira, Gerald Olitzki, Adam Levy and Jonathan Liebman for providing proof that anything is achievable when it comes to inner-city regeneration in Johannesburg.

Carina Comrie for her incredibly well-crafted graphic design that makes this book such a beautiful delight.

Graeme Feltham for his painstaking copy editing that adds colour and credence to my writing.

Jan and Jay Roode of Skyhawk Photography for their awe-inspiring aerial photographs. It is a true privilege and honour to publish some of their work in my book.

My longtime friend, Brand Smit, for creating the e-book versions.

My parents, Dudley and Helena, for always believing in me.

Subscriber list

A number of individuals and organisations have pre-ordered copies of Spaces & Places 2.0 - JoburgPlaces Without their faith in the product, and their pre-payments, this book would never have materialised!

Individuals:

Tim Casserley

Evelyn Chang

Owen Crankshaw

Bruce Eitzen

Roger Feldmann

James French

Jade Hamburger

Jaenette Hofsajer-Van Wyk

Jonathan Lee-Jones

Riette le Roux

Stefan Norval

Antoinette Raimond

Monica Scholz-Seitz

Lula Scott

Dean Scott-Hayward

Mukhtar Mukuddem

PG Smit

Darren Smith

Fi Smith

Ashvin Sologar

Nicolai von Rummel

Chelsea Weis

Ilka Zimmermann

Organisations:

Cape to Cairo Books

David Krut Publishing

Gauteng Tourism Authority

Gautrain

Johannesburg Development Agency

Johannesburg Tourism Company

KH Landscape Architects

Love Books

Narina Trogon

The Protea Parktonian All-suite Hotel

The Rand Club

Sponsors

The generous contributions of Gautrain, the Gauteng Tourism Authority and City Sightseeing Hop On-Hop Off helped to make this book a reality.

Map advertisers

The inclusion of all venues and establishments in this book was at the sole discretion of the author. Although some establishments paid a small fee for having their contact numbers listed on the map, none of them paid to have content included in this book. All content is written by Gerald Garner as his sole opinion.

FOREWORD

A city regenerated

So much has happened in Johannesburg since the publication of my first book, Spaces & Places – Johannesburg in December 2010. Published just six months after the Fifa World Cup. Johannesburg and the rest of South Africa was still basking in the afterglow of hosting this globally rousing and ultimately successful tournament. The World Cup changed a myriad negative perceptions people harboured about Johannesburg - especially so of the inner-city. Throngs of tourists and locals rediscovered the glorious heart of Johannesburg, while enjoying new infrastructure such as the FNB Stadium at Soccer City, the Gautrain from OR Tambo International Airport to Sandton and the Rea Vaya Bus Rapid Transit system from Soweto to the city centre.

The positive impact of the World Cup was not limited to that wondrous month of June 2010. In fact, it is Joburg’s citizens – and tourists to the city - who experience the most significant benefit. Since 2010 the Gautrain route between Hatfield in Pretoria and Park Station in Johannesburg has been completed. Today, it is possible to criss-cross Gauteng at a rapid speed previously inconceivable. One can be in Pretoria or at OR Tambo International Airport the one moment, and 30 or 40 minutes later in Joburg’s pulsating inner-city. Add to that the completed Rea Vaya inner-city route, as well as the introduction of Gautrain buses, and it is fast becoming a reality that one can make do without a car.

Today locals and tourists explore and discover much of Joziburg on foot and with the use of public transport. This is especially the case in the inner-city. You can stay in a hotel in Sandton, catch the Gautrain to Park Station and the Gautrain bus or Rea Vaya bus to anywhere else in the city. You can even travel to Soweto by Rea Vaya bus and have lunch in Vilakazi Street and if you prefer, you can stay in a plush hotel in the inner-city or Soweto and still make use of the public transport network to take you places! While Joburg’s new public transport infrastructure is not even close to complete yet, it has already opened up a whole new world. What a pleasure to see people walking the streets and discovering the delights of the city’s many remarkable stores, galleries, museums, hotels and public spaces!

In the case of my first book I treated Johannesburg as a somewhat reluctant city. This was a city with an emphasis on its arterial links in the suburbs with the centre regarded as risky, deadbeat and unattractive by some. All of this has changed and although the village streets of the suburbs and the urban nodes of Rosebank and Sandton still have much to offer, the real Jozi heartbeat throbs in the inner-city. For this reason Spaces & Places 2.0 – JoburgPlaces is a celebration of the urbanity of this vast metropolis.

The air in the inner-city is electric, brimming with creativity and optimism. Just look at areas such as Braamfontein, Maboneng and the Corporate Mining District for proof positive the city is undergoing a consummate rebirth. Add to that the plethora of new projects planned for the inner-city – from Newtown Junction (already under construction) to Stimela and Anglo American’s campus expansion. One thing is for sure: the inner-city can only go from strength to strength in the years to come.

In the case of this book, I launched straight into the inner-city, lending the bulk of coverage to this enlivened part of greater Johannesburg. Though, you can still find plenty of info on the suburban village streets and other urban nodes, as well as on Jozi’s green spaces and struggle heritage. Still, for me the inner-city personifies Johannesburg and I just can’t get enough of walking its streets. It is the only place in South Africa, I believe, where a truly new, democratic society is emerging. Here people don’t hide away in their own communities, behind fences. Instead they mingle freely while sharing public space. Dynamism drives this diverse mix of people ...

I consider it a privilege to offer numerous inner-city tours and on almost every tour I discover yet another innovation at play in the city. Urban regeneration has rocketed making it nigh on impossible to keep track of all the exciting new venues. My advice is for you to put on your walking shoes, and join me for a stroll through the city ...

The city awaits you!

A personal Joziburg memoir

During many travelling expeditions the world over, I have learned that the best way to explore and get to understand a new place is by befriending a local. Access to insider knowledge provides insight into a society and its physical environment otherwise quite simply beyond one’s ken.

I believe that every person that has embarked on a walking tour of Johannesburg with me, especially in the inner-city, has left with their preconceived impressions shattered; has left with a revived mental map and commensurate images of a city forever changed. It is my hope that this book will have the same effect on its readers. Not only for tourists but also for Joburgers themselves. It is such a multiform diverse city ... way beyond great expectations. There is just so much to discover, so many consummate experiences to sample and countless people to meet.

Although the book contains many historical anecdotes it really is a deeply personal and subjective account of my perception of the city. It is not an objectively researched travel directory with gradings and stars attached to service, comfort and ambience. Instead, I have simply written about the spaces and places I enjoy most in Johannesburg.

The places I chose are not necessarily the best in their categories but merely the places I choose to frequent. Nor are the places left out of this journal inferior in any way. In fact, I am sure that I will continue to discover hidden gems in this city, in this treasure trove. The city is way too vast to capture in the pages of this book. I will doubtless publish more follow-up books on specific parts of the city. Look out for Spaces & Places 3.0 – SandtonPlaces by April 2014. Perhaps books on Soweto and The Parks will follow in future too!

As was the case with my first book I felt that the images in this book should be honest and have therefore refused to accept any publicity photos from venues, instead taking all the photographs myself. With the notable exception of the impressive aerial photographs, taken by the delightful husband and wife team of Jan and Jay Roode at Skyhawk Photography. Also the cover image taken by Carina Comrie - the force behind the graphic design of this book.

My hope is that this guide will give you the confidence to venture out to discover Johannesburg for yourself. To make it your Joziburg. In the process, I am sure you will add many destinations to your list of favourites.

Now go forth and explore Joziburg!

Gerald Garner

October 2012

--------------------------------

Walk with me through Joziburg. Allow me to tell you the amazing stories of its spaces and places - such as this sculpture at the termination of Diagonal Street. Here you can sit in the laps of ‘our parents’, Walter and Albertina Sisulu.

© Photograph by Louise McAuliffe

--------------------------------

JOBURG BASICS

Of sunshine and blue sky

I have lived in Johannesburg for 17 years and, if I close my eyes, my most potent memory of this period is sunshine and blue sky. For what other city is blessed with such a perfect climate?

Today is yet another glorious Johannesburg spring day – awash with sunshine beneath a blue sky. The air suffused with the scent of tantalising freshness. The weather is a near perfect 25°C. Outside my riverside cottage in Craighall Park, Joziburg’s people are making the most of this time of the year: enjoying the freedom of running, mountain-biking, walking and horseback riding along the Braamfonteinspruit or picnicking in Delta Park.

The verdant green suburbs of Johannesburg do indeed offer an unrivalled quality of life when it comes to enjoying the outdoors. An unparalleled, spacious lushness. Many an al fresco lunch or garden ‘braai’ will unfold this summer. The summer will last from September to May with only June, July and August as genuine winter months to dread. But even then the sky will be blue!

It is not only the tree-lined streets, the rolling hills and valleys of Johannesburg’s forest-like suburbs that I embrace. Fascinating, too, is the inner-city since it has experienced a most spectacular revival in recent years. The remake is still in its infancy, but the collective effect is already clear: a city has been reborn. Walking the streets of this incredible city, I am always left with a sense of wonder that rightly states this is a city slowly taking its rightful place on urban tourists’ maps from across Earth.

Already enquiries for joining my inner-city walking groups are growing exponentially. Nothing gives me more joy than opening the treasure chest that is this city. Nothing makes me happier than seeing the delight on tourists’ faces when they discover a city beaming with radiance, aflush with a glow all its own, pulsing with energy, a city that gushes with remarkable spaces and places.

And they are remarkable.

A city of countless stories... The same rings true for the many Joburgers who are rediscovering their own city.

Ever-stimulating, Johannesburg hums with a vibrancy. It is a jaw-droppingly beautiful city that I want you to discover by encouraging you to get off the highways and main arterial roads. What you will find are verdant, densely-treed suburbs with remarkable intertwining spaces. The same applies to the inner-city: park your car and walk and ... you will be rewarded with an incredible experience. The inner-city was originally designed as a mining camp, on a scale for pedestrians, not a grid for motor cars. I make you this promise: walk the city once and you will never drive through it again. For the pleasure of walking is a million times better than the misery of rush-hour traffic!

--------------------------------

On an early spring Sunday afternoon, Joburgers celebrate the blue skies by dancing the salsa atop a rooftop at Arts-on-Main.

--------------------------------

Essential Jozi knowledge

A basic knowledge of Johannesburg’s background will go a long way in helping you navigate the city’s streets and appreciate its colourful people.

1. The city of two world-famous liberation heroes

Possibly Johannesburg’s biggest claim to fame is that it was the home town of both Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi for many years. Of course they lived here a generation apart – Gandhi until 1914 and Mandela only in the 1940s and onwards. There is much to learn about the history of these two revolutionary men in Johannesburg. It was in this city that Gandhi founded the Satyagraha movement in 1906 and it was here that Mandela led the Defiance Campaign in 1952.

2. Atop the continental watershed

Johannesburg is located at the lofty altitude of 1 750m above sea level, atop the continental watershed known as the Witwatersrand (an Afrikaans name meaning White Waters Ridge). On this ridge many small fountains well up to form streams that flow either southwards towards the Vaal and Orange River system - eventually reaching the Atlantic Ocean, or north-wards towards the Crocodile River, their destination the Limpopo River and Indian Ocean.

3. Highveld grassland environment

The high-altitude landscape in and around Johannesburg is known as the Highveld – an area encompassing vast grassland plains with smaller trees and shrubs found in valleys or on the northern slopes of ridges where they are protected from severe winter frost.

4. Of gold mining origin

Johannesburg is an exhilaratingly youthful city. It took root in 1886 when gold was first discovered. What proved to be the world’s richest gold-bearing ore body flourished into a major metropolis and according to Keith Beavon, writing in Johannesburg – The Making and Shaping of the City, within a decade the city was home to 80 000 people and by its 40th anniversary more than 300 000 people resided here.

5. A cosmopolitan metropolis

Ever since the discovery of gold, Johannesburg has continued to attract fortune-seekers from all over the globe. In Johannesburg’s early years the government of the Zuid Afrikaanse Republic viewed its population as distinctly foreign and the dispute over whether to allow foreigners to vote in elections contributed to the start of the Anglo-Boer War (also known as the South African War).

More than a century later Johannesburg is still a magnet for people from every corner of our known universe, especially from the rest of the African continent, seeking to improve their lives.

6. History of exclusion and segregation

South Africa’s racist and apartheid past, odious as it was, played a significant role in the shaping of