I’m a sucker for second hand bookshops, actually I’m a sucker for bookshops, period. But if you want a real experience visit the Collectors’ Treasury in Commissioner St in Joburg’s eastern inner city.  It is located in an 8 story building – a very unprepossessing post-war structure, which is slightly further west of Arts on [...]

Which comes first – the chicken or the egg?  In the case of the built environment it is surely the buildings which must precede the functional possibilities they offer.  So as the supply of  high rise inner city developments has increased,  so the demand for a venue with a view has grown.  And there is [...]

Cycling is becoming an increasingly popular way of seeing local Joburg sites and sights.  Lebo of  Sowetobicycle tours has for many years offered cycling tours.  There are various options on offer starting from a 2 hour tour which includes a visit to a worker’s hostel, the Hector Pieterson Museum as well as the route of [...]

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 Property Company and the Johannesburg [...]

 
 
 
 
 
Urban Joburg responds to Monocle Magazine’s binary view of Joburg.  Love their description of what Jozi inner city has to offer:  ‘We’re a city where one can drink a strong espresso in ‘Little Addis’ before heading off to Fordsburg for a vegetarian biryani AND making a stop at Neighbourgoods for a red [...]

 
 
 
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 inter-disciplinary, focusing on critical social analysis.  I found an interesting article [...]

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 Science.   This part of town is vibrant [...]

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 [...]

On Tuesday evening, I went to 10 years On Air – the collaborative Review exhibition of the On Air partnership: Marcus Neustatter and Stephen Hobbs. Unexpectedly, Marcus was there to give a walkabout which made viewing particularly enjoyable and accessible . It was really good to see their production over the last decade – much of [...]

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 [...]