Corina Van der Spoel and her staff at Boekehuis

Boekehuis has been an institution in Jozi in terms of providing a public space allowing for informed, engaged and intelligent public debate. It is a sad inditement that the holding company, the large profitable corporate Media 24, seemed to look only at the bottom of  line of profit,  rather than seeing Boekehuis and what it offered in terms of a much needed social responsibility programme, particularly in the current SA media environment .  But ce la vie, this amazing intellectual space has gone – mourned by many free thinkers in Jozi.   See   http://todoinjoburg.co.za/2011/12/save-the-boekehuis-bookshop/  ;   http://www.iol.co.za/the-star/closing-a-chapter-on-joburg-history-1.1222994  and may other ‘obituaries’.  

The big question is: will anybody else take its place?   Love Books is ideally placed to do so. It is an independent bookshop, it is located in the same area and already has the same market of the culturally interested and independent thinker, plus it already has the great adjacent space of the Service Station where Joburg’s intelligentsia and culturally informed ‘meet and eat’.   See  http://www.jhblive.com/reviews/96290.  Boekehuis has left a HUGE gap in the arena of cultural, political, social and economic debate in South Africa – will anybody fill it ??

Tickets R120, R150, R180, R230

From 1906, Johannesburg’s southern suburbs were connected to a waterborne sewage system which was gravity fed through a network of huge underground sewers to a Council-owned farm at Klipspruit, in an area of what was to become Soweto. The northern suburbs however, up until the mid 1930s, relied on French drains, open tanks and external lavatories with a bucket system.  (Many of the sanitation lanes which provided access for the horse- drawn sanitation carts still survive in suburbs like Parkview). When, in 1931, the Johannesburg City Council decided to implement a sewage system for these northern suburbs (north of Johannesburg but south of Sandton), they chose four sites in valleys that would allow gravity sewers to run from suburbs in the catchment areas of the rivers of the Witwatersrand.  Neutral names (ie non suburb-specific) with classical connotations were chosen: 

• Antea Works on the west dealt with sewage and industrial waste from Industria and drained via the Klein Jukskei into what is now New Canada and Fleurhof Dams.  
• Bruma, in the east of Joburg, is now a shopping centre and lake (which it seems is now so polluted that is near reverting to its origins as a sewage plant) Bruma took domestic waste from the eastern suburbs of Observatory, Sandringham etc. into the main Jukskei River valley.
• Cydna, now the Melrose Bird Sanctuary, on the north-east of Johannesburg, served Houghton, Oaklands, Orchards, Norwood, Melrose and Illovo, draining into the Orange Grove Spruit which later joins the Sandspruit (which rises at a point near Louis Botha Ave) and eventually, the Braamfontein Spruit.  
• Delta constructed to serve the suburbs of Parktown, Emmarentia, Auckland Park, Greenside, Parkhurst, Parkwood etc., was located on the small Delta Stream flowing into the Braamfontein Spruit. (This info from Jane Carruthers’ research on Delta Sewage works).    

Delta was unique in two respects: the main works were housed in a single building (which is also a good example of Johannesburg Art Deco and now houses the Environmental Training Centre) and the method of sewage disposal was experimental at that time.

It was not too long before it became clear that these sewage plants would not cope with the needs of Johannesburg’s rapidly increasing population. By the end of the Second World War expansion of Bruma, Cydna and Delta was not viable as they were surrounded by housing.  So  the City Engineering department needed to look at establishing a larger plant to the north of what is now Sandton.  However Northern Disposal works (at Diepsloot), with its huge pipeline which required both bridges and tunnelling to keep its gravity-feeding at the optimum, took a long time to build.  (The luxury gated community gets its derogatory nickname of D[r]ainfern from its proximity to and outlook on this massive pipe-line.) It was only in 1959 that the Northern Disposal Works began to accept any volume of sewage from the other treatment plants. Delta finally closed at the end of June 1963.  …

DELTA NOW

…… And now Delta Park home is used extensively by dog-walkers, horse-riders, (yes … horse riding in the middle of a Joburg suburban neighbourhood), joggers, mountain bikers, bird-watchers (there are well over 180 species on the Delta birding list), families with young children – there is a fabulous playground area, worshippers at the many small independent church meetings held on a Sunday (we can hear the drums and singing from Liz at Lancaster), and conference delegates, trainees and attendees at educational programmes run from  the Environmental Centre. And yes, sadly there are many homeless people who live along the banks of the river. 

For more information on Delta Park see http://www.deltaenviro.org.za/deltaacc.htm

Andrew Lyndsay of the Spaza Gallery is hosting a fab Valentine’s event.    Starting at 4 pm at 19 Wilhelmina St Troyeville there is a Valentine’s exhibition followed by a show by Venus Mercedes. Book via email emp@intekon.co.za or on 082 494 3275/ 082 957 0052. Cost R150 per head.

From Gingko’s newsletter: 

With February being the month of love, we thought we’d put together a programme that would celebrate some of the world’s greatest love songs. Michèle Corbin (soprano) and Donato Somma (tenor) will perform a wonderful selection of operatic, traditional Napolitan and more contemporary works to the accompaniment of pianist Susan Harrop-Allin.

Works include (among others) the beautiful Libiamo from Verdi’s La Traviata, Morrcone’s Nella Fantasiamade famous by Sarah Brightmanand more recently by Il Divo, the fabulous-for-singing-in-the-shower-on-your-own O Sole Mio,

We’ll be serving a special array of typical Italian street food, including antipasto platters, bagnacauda with grissini & raw veg for dipping, loads of different but equally delicious bruschetta, polenta fritta croccante otherwise know as polenta chips with muffaletta to dunk them in, popcorn w garlic & parmigiano and then luscious strawberries with balsamic glaze and tiramisu for dessert!

The concert is R100.00 per person. Book your table soonest as seats are limited as you know! Email Catherine@gingko.co.za. You’re welcome to come earlier for lunch and simply stay on, or plan on a late lunch accompanied by some of the world’s most delightful music.

WALKING TOUR ‘MOUNTAIN VIEW – RIDGE ROAD’   SATURDAY AFTERNOON, 28th JANUARY   Along the peak of the ridge high above Hope Road and Louis Botha Avenue is a lovely and prestigious precinct of fine and historical homes. One of the first was designed by Baker and Masey in 1906 complete with Cape Dutch gables and magnificent garden. Robert Howden was the architect of the house at the east end of Ridge Road – very fine brick on a kopje. Hoogterp also chose to place his client’s house well back from the road to enjoy the magnificent view. Where the tennis court faced the road there is now a delightful pavilion – a flat-pack conservatory from Paris. We also visit the Cross Bath House which proves that a dream can be made to come true. A short excursion into Young Avenue and we return along Steyn Street under the Plane trees looking at the next generation of homes.
MEET               :      Val Hammerton and Flo Bird                                                                                                                                                        PARK               :       In Ridge Road – this is a boomed area so enter from Judith Road at the east end                                                  TIME                :       14h00                                                                                                                                                                                                 DURATION       :     Approximately 2½ hours
COST               :        R70.00 for members and R100 for non-members

WALKING TOUR “LIVING AMONGST THE STARS”  SATURDAY, 4th FEBRUARY
Johannesburg’s weather forecasting station, designed by Herbert Baker, was officially opened in 1905 in what is today known as Observatory. The property was donated by the Bezuidenhout family on condition that the land was used as an observatory for meteorological and astronomical activities. Robert Innes, a self-taught astronomer, was given the responsibility of establishing and running the Observatory. His home, known as Innes House, was also designed by Herbert Baker. Learn about the men and women who lived and worked on this site and the role they played in advancing science and technology in early Johannesburg.
MEET               :           Clare van Zwieten and Janet Hughes
PARK               :           Johannesburg Observatory, 15A Gill Street, Observatory
TIME                :           14h00
DURATION       :           Approximately 2½ hours
COST               :           R70.00 for members and R100 for non-members

WALKING TOUR ‘THE LIGHT HORSE REGIMENTAL MUSEUM’ SATURDAY, 11th FEBRUARY  Johannesburg’s oldest regiment, the Imperial Light Horse now the Light Horse Regiment – they wisely dropped the Imperial branding.   The two firebrands who started the regiment, Aubrey Woolls Sampson and Walter Karri Davies, decided there were three criteria: volunteers must be able handle a rifle well, they must be able to ride and they must be men.  Within the month they found themselves in battle against fellow Jo’burgers.   The regiment saw active service in all the wars that followed so there will be enjoyable tales relating to the paintings and trophies – funny rather than sad. After enjoying the memorabilia visitors are welcome to quench their thirst in the bar.
MEET               :           Dennis Adams, William Gaul and Heinrich Jansen
PARK               :           Regimental Headquarter, 9 Southway, Kelvin (from M1 north take the Marlborough Road off ramp and turn right into Marlborough Drive – R60.  Southway is on the left)
TIME                :           14h30
DURATION       :           Approximately 2 hours
COST               :           R70.00 for members and R100 for non-members

BUS TOUR ‘JEWISH  JOHANNESBURG’ SUNDAY AFTERNOON, 19th FEBRUARY Inspired by memories of Irving Lissoos Judge Ralph Zulman has offered to lead us around his favorite places which reveal the experiences and the role played by the Jewish community in history of Jo’burg. Today when so much emphasis is played on reflecting the demographics of our country we forget that a small community of Jews managed to play such an important part in the civic and cultural life of our city. Jewish architects shaped so much of the City Centre with an enthusiasm for embracing the Art Deco as well as the International Style and venturing into designing blocks of flats in lots of suburbs as well Hillbrow and in town. Mayors, theatre managers, entrepreneurs as well as the doctors and lawyers Jewish mothers    are supposed to prefer.
MEET               :           Judge Ralph Zulman
PARK               :           Sunnyside Park Hotel, 2 York Road, Parktown
TIME                :           14h00
DURATION       :       Approximately 2½ hours
COST               :           R145.00 for members and R175.00 for non-members

BUS TOUR ‘LINNWARE AND SUNLAWNS’ SATURDAY 26th FEBRUARY
Sir Thomas Cullinan not only opened his factory at Olifantsfontein to produce refractories for Iscor, he was keen to promote a studio of ceramics.  William Morris said everything in the home should be both useful and beautiful, so The Ceramic Studio created bowls, dinnerware, vases, milk jug and tiles for bathrooms, kitchens and later post offices and even railway stations that upheld Morris’ dictum.   At Sunlawns, home of Pamela Cullinan, there is a wonderful range of the products of the first Ceramic Studio and the more commercially oriented Linnware which we’ll be privileged to see in the house and the garden. The tour passes the old Irene Post Office and the source of the clay at Olifantsfontein. .
MEET               :           Brigid Ward (herself a potter) and Flo Bird
PARK               :           Sunnyside Park Hotel, 2 York Road, Parktown
TIME                :           11h30 – PLEASE BRING A PACKED PICNIC LUNCH TO ENJOY IN THE GARDENS AT SUNLAWNS
DURATION       :       Approximately 5 hours
COST               :           R180.00 for members and R210.00 for non-members

‘ EMMARENTIA HIKE’ THE DAM, THE PIONEERS AND THE HISTORY In association with the Book Fair and starting from Marks Park SUNDAY MORINING, 4th MARCH  This is a serious hike around Emmarentia, during which we will be focusing on the history of the suburb as one of the original farms on which Johannesburg was established.  We will be visiting Louw Geldenhuys’ farm house, as well as that of his brother, Frans.  We will pay our respects at the family cemetery, and we’ll walk around the farm dam. Time permitting, we will call in at Jan van Riebeeck Park, a.k.a. the Rose Garden.  At some point, we’ll tip our collective cap to the iron-age pioneers who used this pass in their annual migration to the cooler grasslands of the south, and some of whom established their iron works on the northern slopes of Melville Koppies.  We return to the Marks Park Sports Club where refreshments will be available and the Book Fair will be in full swing.
MEET               :           Alex Parker and Ed Coogan
PARK               :           Marks Park Sports Club – entrance in Judith Road
TIME                :           9.00am – PLEASE NOTE EARLY STARTING TIME
DURATION       :        Approximately 3½ hours
COST               :           R70.00 for members and R100.00 for non-members
PLEASE WEAR SUNHATS, GOOD WALKING SHOES AND SUN CREAM.  CARRY WATER

BUS TOUR  ‘1922 STRIKE REVOLT ON THE RAND 90TH ANNIVERSARY’ SATURDAY, 10th MARCH
“It was a struggle of whites fought in the name of race, but largely turning upon the right to be heard, to have some control over the overweening power of employers. A struggle too for dignity.  A world of huge political funerals, defiance at the gallows, a last stand against overwhelming odds.”  The words of Jeremy Krikler in The Rand Revolt.  The fight wasn’t between white miners and black mineworkers; it was between white miners and their employer backed by the white government. We can’t cover it all, but we’ll visit the battle sites, see the bullet holes and lay flowers on the graves of men from both sides. Light refreshments are included
MEET               :           Winnie Job and Flo Bird
PARK               :           Sunnyside Park Hotel, 2 York Road, Parktown
TIME                :           12 noon – PLEASE NOTE EARLY STARTING TIME
PLEASE REMEMBER TO BRING A PACKED LUNCH WHICH WILL BE EATEN ON THE BUS
DURATION       :        Approximately 4½ hours
COST               :           R145.00 for members and R175.00 for non-members

WALKING TOUR ‘ST PATRICK’S DAY IN PARKVIEW’SATURDAY AFTERNOON, 17th MARCH          
The wearing of the green will start with Kilkenny Castle and Major John O’Hara the man who gave Parkview all its Irish Street names. His house reflects something of strong character. With true Irish spirit he rose in wrath from his sickbed when he heard the Otto Beit money for the founding of a University had been given to Cape Town, called a protest meeting in the City Hall and promised Milner Park for the site of the University of the Witwatersrand.  We follow Kilkenny Road to see some old houses, homes of Jo’burg pioneers like Pritchard, Charles Greig, and move up to Wexford for the home of Orlando Leake. Some beautifully proportioned little houses, as well as some very eccentric ones and then come the Westcliff homes designed by Gordon Leith.
MEET               :           Raymond Cardoso and William Gaul
PARK               :           In Kilkenny Road near the corner of Wexford Road
TIME                :           14h00
DURATION       :         2½ hours
COST               :           R70.00 members and R100.00 for non-members

WALKING TOUR ‘ART DECO IN THE CITY’ SUNDAY MORNING, 25th MARCH Art Deco burst on Johannesburg with all the vigour and confidence of the economic recovery after the Great Depression. It is exuberant, even boisterous boasting curving balconies to match the gleaming bumpers of the automobiles and racing for the sky with towers and topped with flag poles. More restrained versions did appear, tamed by the Modern Movement and Le Corbusier, but streamlining and ship’s architecture only make the steel windows more elegant. Deco Moderne is perhaps the best description for these hybrids.  It’s the Jazz Age, ocean liners racing to cross the Atlantic – its fun and its still there. The buildings in Jeppe Street are certainly shabby, but the pavement life isn’t.  Starting with the elegance of London House and Howard House, the brass work in Maritime House (office blocks) the tour moves north past His Majesty’s and up to the residential buildings Anstey’s, Manners Mansions, Castle Mansions to Astor Mansions.
Wear good walking shoes.  Jo’burg pavements are dicey.
TOUR LEADERS:      Brian McKechnie and Clare Eisenstein
MEET               :           In Loveday Street on the corner of Main Street
PARK               :           Park in Loveday Street in front of the Rand Club.
TIME                :           10.30 AM – PLEASE NOTE EARLY STARTING TIME
DURATION       :        2½ hours
COST               :           R70.00 members and R100.00 for non-members

PLEASE NOTE THAT UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED ALL BOOKINGS CAN BE MADE THROUGH COMPUTICKET. YOU CAN BOOK EITHER AT A COMPUTICKET OUTLET OR ON-LINE.  FOR INTERNET BOOKINGS USE THE ADDRESS www.computicket.com  WHEN BOOKING TICKETS, PLEASE USE EXACT NAME OF TOUR AS IT APPEARS ON THE PROGRAMME WHEN PAYING CASH PLEASE ALWAYS ENSURE THAT YOU HAVE THE CORRECT AMOUNT. IT WASTES TIME IF TOUR LEADERS HAVE TO GIVE CHANGE
BANKING ACCOUNT DETAILS – NEDBANK PARKTOWN, PARKTOWN & WESTCLIFF HERITAGE TRUST, ACCOUNT NO 1944023011 BRANCH CODE 194405
FOR COMPUTICKET TELEPHONE BOOKINGS: (011) 340-8000
TOURS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE
FOR QUERIES CONTACT OFFICE ON TEL NO (011) 482-3349 (WEEKDAYS 9AM – 1PM) OR SEND AN E-MAIL TO mail@parktownheritage.co.za
 

Jozi Carnival   The 2011 theme of the annual Joburg Carnival is Jozi my Jozi 125 celebrating the anniversary of the city’s existence.  It will take place on 31 December from 12pm and leaves from Kotze Street, moving across Nelson Mandela Bridge to Newtown.  

Laser show at Carnival City   On 31^st go along to Carnival City at 7 pm where their annual fireworks display will be replaced by a more animal-friendly but equally spectacular laser light show.  The show is free. Carnival City is situated on the intersection of the N17 toll road Snake Road (Heidelberg Road or R23) and Elsburg Road (R554) Johannesburg, South Africa

Nutcracker on Ice at Monte Casino   There are still tickets for Pieter Toerien’s  presentation of the  Imperial Ice stars in The Nutcracker on Ice at Monte Casino at 7.30 pm.