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QUARTERLY TOURS
PLEASE NOTE
COMPUTICKET BOOKINGS ARE NOT YET OPEN
BOOK THROUGH THE OFFICE ON 011 482-3349
MEMBERS’ TOURS PROGRAMME JANUARY TO MARCH, 2012 |
NB : THE PARKTOWN AND WESTCLIFF HERITAGE TRUST IS NOT LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE CAUSED
TO ANY PERSON OR TO THEIR PROPERTY. YOU JOIN THESE TOURS AT YOUR OWN RISK!
THIS IS JO’BURG – BE ADVENTUROUS!
DURATION OF ALL TOURS IS APPROXIMATELY 2 to 2½ HOURS UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED.
PLEASE NOTE THAT COMPUTICKET BOOKINGS WILL OPEN ON THE 10th JANUARY, 2011
JANUARY 2011
WALKING TOUR -‘ABSA ART GALLERY’’
SATURDAY AFTERNOON, 14th JANUARY - MEMBER'S ONLY
When the new NORTH TOWER building for ABSA Bank was designed in 1999 five huge artworks were commissioned for the main spaces. Karel Nel’s mural “Place of Nurture’ dominates the reception area, then you walk into the vast space of the atrium where five brilliantly coloured Norman Catherine carpets hang six-storeys from the bridge; an 11 meter high wire sculpture by Walter Oltman comes next and then the Mobile City of old Johannesburg which takes 20 minutes to revolve will fascinate you.
There is a small Gallery as well filled with works by South African artists. This tour allows us to enjoy the artworks great and small and learn about the artists who have often made their names here.
MEET : Franky Toussaint
TIME : 14h00
PARK : cnr Polly and Fox Streets. Travel on the M2 east and take the Mooi Street off ramp. Turn left into Andersson, right into Troye, right into Main and then left into Polly. At the first set of traffic lights turn left into parking area and then inside parking area turn first right.
DURATION : Approximately 2½ hours
COST : R70 for members
MAX No : 30
WALKING TOUR -‘SATYAGRAHA HOUSE (FORMERLY ‘THE KRAAL)’
SATURDAY AFTERNOON, 21st JANUARY
This very modest house standing in an orchard which was really two rondawels linked together was designed by Hermann Kallenbach who owned the property and all the land around. It was home to Kallenbach and Gandhi from 1908-1909. The house has been restored and a museum created and with the addition of some appropriately low key bedroom suites has become a guest house.
The new name comes from the philosophy of passive resistance developed by Gandhi in South Africa which he later applied in India with enormous success leading ultimately to independence.
Visiting the Satyagraha House and Museum is an extraordinary experience in Johannesburg. It is a haven to all visitors.
MEET : Dennis Adams
TIME : 14h00
PARK : 15 Pine Road, Orchards – park in the street
DURATION : Approximately 2½ hours
COST : R80.00 which includes tea
MAX No : 30
BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL
EITHER THROUGH COMPUTICKET OR EIRA 011 482-3349
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
TIME : 14h00
DURATION : Approximately 2½ hours
PARK : In Ridge Road, Mountain View – this is a boomed area so enter from Judith Road at the east end of Ridge Road
COST : R70.00 for members and R100 for non-members
MAX No : 40
‘Please note that the Mountain View – Ridge Road tour which was abandoned on Saturday, 28th January due to very heavy rain will now be completed on SUNDAY, 12th FEBRUARY at 2.00 pm - parking in Ridge Road as before. This tour is available ONLY to those people who booked and paid either through Computicket or Eira Bond at the Parktown & Westcliff Heritage Trust office or Val Hammerton who recorded the names on the day. If you intend taking up your place please advise Eira on 011 482-3349 or e-mail mail@parktownheritage.co.za ‘
FEBRUARY 2012
WALKING TOUR - ‘LIVING AMONGST THE STARS’
SATURDAY, 4 th 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
TIME : 14h00
PARK : Johannesburg Observatory, 15A Gill Street, Observatory
DURATION : Approximately 2½ hours
COST : R70.00 for members and R100 for non-members
MAX No : 40
WALKING TOUR - ‘THE LIGHT HORSE REGIMENTAL MUSEUM’
SATURDAY, 11 th 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
TIME : 14h30
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)
DURATION : Approximately 2 hours
COST : R70.00 for members and R100 for non-members
MAX No : 30
‘Please note that the Mountain View – Ridge Road tour which was abandoned on Saturday, 28th January due to very heavy rain will now be completed on SUNDAY, 12th FEBRUARY at 2.00 pm - parking in Ridge Road as before. This tour is available ONLY to those people who booked and paid either through Computicket or Eira Bond at the Parktown & Westcliff Heritage Trust office or Val Hammerton who recorded the names on the day. If you intend taking up your place please advise Eira on 011 482-3349 or e-mail mail@parktownheritage.co.za‘
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
TIME : 14h00
PARK : Sunnyside Park Hotel, 2 York Road, Parktown
DURATION : Approximately 2½ hours
COST : R145.00 for members and R175.00 for non-members
MAX No : 50
BUS TOUR -'LINNWARE AND SUNLAWNS’
SATURDAY, 25th 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
TIME : 11h30 – PLEASE BRING A PACKED PICNIC LUNCH TO ENJOY IN THE GARDENS AT SUNLAWNS
PARK : Sunnyside Park Hotel, 2 York Road, Parktown
DURATION : Approximately 5 hours
COST : R180.00 for members and R210.00 for non-members
MAX No : 50
MARCH 2012
WALKING TOUR -'EMMARENTIA HIKE’ THE DAM,
THE PIONEERS AND THE HISTORY
In association with the Book Fair and starting from Marks Park
SUNDAY MORNING, 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
TIME : 9.00am – PLEASE NOTE EARLY STARTING TIME
PARK : Marks Park Sports Club – entrance in Judith Road
DURATION : Approximately 3½ hours
COST : R70.00 for members and R100.00 for non-members
MAX No : 40PLEASE 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
TIME : 12 noon – PLEASE NOTE EARLY STARTING TIME. PLEASE REMEMBER TO BRING A PACKED LUNCH WHICH WILL BE EATEN ON THE BUS
PARK : Sunnyside Park Hotel, 2 York Road, Parktown
DURATION : Approximately 4½ hours
COST : R145.00 for members and R175.00 for non-members
MAX No : 50
WALKING TOUR - ‘ST PATRICK’S DAY IN PARKVIEW’
SATURDAY AFTERNOON, 17 th 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
TIME : 14h00
PARK : In Kilkenny Road near the corner of Wexford Road
DURATION : 2½ hours
COST : R70.00 members and R100.00 for non-members
MAX No :
WALKING TOUR - ‘ART DECO IN THE CITY’
SUNDAY MORNING, 25 th 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.
MEET : Brian McKechnie and Clare Eisenstein
TIME : 10.30 AM – PLEASE NOTE EARLY STARTING TIME
PARK : MEET in Loveday Street on the corner of Main Street. PARK in Loveday Street in front of the Rand Club.
DURATION : 2½ hours
COST : R70.00 members and R100.00 for non-members
MAX No : 40
Last Edit : 24/01/2012
