Hillbrow, Gauteng
Encyclopedia
Inner City, Johannesburg
The Inner City of Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, South Africa has a number districts including Braamfontein, Braampark, Central Business District, Doornfontein, Hillbrow, Jeppestown, Joubert Park, Marshalltown, Newtown, and Yeoville, among others....
residential neighbourhood of Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
, Gauteng Province, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. It is known for its high levels of population density, unemployment, poverty and crime.
In the 1970s it was an Apartheid-designated 'whites only' area but soon became a 'grey area', where people of different ethnicities lived together. It acquired a cosmopolitan and politically progressive feel but due to poor planning its infrastructure could not cope with the rapid population growth. This, together with lack of investment led to an exodus of middle class residents in the 1980s and the decay of major buildings, leaving in its wake an urban slum by the 1990s.
Today the majority of the residents are migrants from the townships
Township (South Africa)
In South Africa, the term township and location usually refers to the urban living areas that, from the late 19th century until the end of Apartheid, were reserved for non-whites . Townships were usually built on the periphery of towns and cities...
, rural areas and the rest of Africa, many living in abject poverty. An urban regeneration programme is underway. There are street markets, mainly used by local residents, and the Johannesburg Art Gallery contains work by major local artists including William Kentridge
William Kentridge
William Kentridge is a South African artist best known for his prints, drawings, and animated films. These are constructed by filming a drawing, making erasures and changes, and filming it again. He continues this process meticulously, giving each change to the drawing a quarter of a second to two...
.
In media and fiction
In 2000, Michael Hammon and Jacqueline Görgen directed a documentary named Hillbrow Kids, depicting the struggles of a group of street children in post-apartheid urban South Africa. The 2001 novel Welcome to Our HillbrowWelcome to Our Hillbrow
Welcome to Our Hillbrow, is a novel by South African novelist Phaswane Mpe which deals with issues of xenophobia, AIDS, tradition, and inner city status in the Hillbrow neighborhood of post-colonialism Johannesburg...
by Phaswane Mpe
Phaswane Mpe
Phaswane Mpe was a South African poet and novelist. He was educated at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he was a lecturer in African literature. His debut novel, Welcome to Our Hillbrow, was published in 2001...
deals with life in the district in the years after apartheid, focusing on a large number of issues ranging from poverty, HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
/AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
, and xenophobia
Xenophobia
Xenophobia is defined as "an unreasonable fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange". It comes from the Greek words ξένος , meaning "stranger," "foreigner" and φόβος , meaning "fear."...
.
Hillbrow has also been a setting used by other South African writers: in the 2001 novel, The Restless Supermarket
The Restless Supermarket
The Restless Supermarket is a novel by Croatian-South African author Ivan Vladislavic, which tracks the changes in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, during the 1990s, through the eyes of a grumpy, retired proof-reader who spends his life in one café. Though well reviewed, the novel is hard to find,...
, Ivan Vladislavic
Ivan Vladislavic
Ivan Vladislaviċ is a South African short story writer and novelist of Croatian origin. He lives in Johannesburg where he also works as an editor. In the eighties he worked as a fiction and social studies editor at Ravan Press...
comically portrays South Africa's transition to democracy, endowing his narrator, Aubrey Tearle, with the perspective of a conservative white pensioner. Through this lens, Hillbrow becomes representative for the larger post-apartheid nation.
In 2007, BBC 2
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
reporter Louis Theroux
Louis Theroux
Louis Sebastian Theroux is an English broadcaster best known for his Gonzo style journalism on the television series Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends and When Louis Met.... His career started off in journalism and bears influences of notable writers in his family such as his father, Paul Theroux and...
ran a documentary called "Law and Disorder in Johannesburg
Law and Disorder in Johannesburg
Law and Disorder in Johannesburg is a British documentary. It was a Louis Theroux documentary and ran for 80 minutes.-Reception:The Leicester Mecury described the programme as "Law and Disorder in Johannesburg was a tense, depressing and occasionally gobsmacking film shot in a city plucked from...
". The documentary depicted the state of complete abandon and lawlessness in some parts of the city, specifically on Hillbrow.
Much of Lauren Beukes'
Lauren Beukes
Lauren Beukes is a South African novelist, short story writer, journalist and TV scriptwriter. She lives in Cape Town, South Africa with her husband and her daughter.- Books :...
2010 science fiction novel Zoo City
Zoo City
Zoo City is a science fiction novel by South African author Lauren Beukes. The book was first published in 2010 by Jacana Media, and won the 2011 Arthur C. Clarke Award...
was set in Hillbrow.
Constitution Hill
The Constitution HillConstitution Hill, Johannesburg
The Constitution Hill precinct, located at the western end of the suburb Hillbrow in Johannesburg, is the seat of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. The first court session in the new building at this location was held in February 2004.-History:...
precinct, seat of the Constitutional Court of South Africa
Constitutional Court of South Africa
The Constitutional Court of South Africa was established in 1994 by South Africa's first democratic constitution: the Interim Constitution of 1993. In terms of the 1996 Constitution the Constitutional Court established in 1994 continues to hold office. The court began its first sessions in February...
, is located on the western edge of Hillbrow, and is part of a major government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
and private
Private sector
In economics, the private sector is that part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is run by private individuals or groups, usually as a means of enterprise for profit, and is not controlled by the state...
initiative to revitalize the area and the rest of the CBD.
Hillbrow Tower
The Hillbrow TowerHillbrow Tower
The Hillbrow Tower is a tall tower located in the suburb of Hillbrow in Johannesburg, South Africa. At , it has been the tallest structure and tower in Africa for 40 years, and it was also the tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere until 1978, when surpassed by the 270m Mount Isa Chimney in...
, a telecommunication
Telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...
s tower, dominates the Johannesburg city skyline, featured in many picture postcard views of the city. It has become a symbol of the city and appears in the city seal. Completed in 1971, it rises to a height of 270 metres, thus making it the tallest man-made structure with an elevator in Africa. Initially named the JG Strijdom Tower, it became popularly known simply as the Hillbrow tower, and in May 2005 it was renamed to Telkom Joburg Tower, with its new name displayed prominently in lights. It once featured a luxury rotating restaurant, but that was closed in 1981 due to security fears and is unlikely to be reopened.
Ponte City
Ponte City Apartments
Ponte City is a skyscraper in the Hillbrow neighbourhood of Johannesburg, South Africa. It was built in 1975 to a height of , making it the tallest residential skyscraper in Africa. The 54-story building is cylindrical, with an open center allowing additional light into the apartments. The center...
is the tallest residential building in Johannesburg and one of the city's most striking urban landmarks. It was designed by architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
Rodney Grosskopff (who also designed other South African landmarks such as the Johannesburg Civic Theatre) and completed in 1975.
The building is distinct due both to its height, rising to 54 storeys above one of the highest points in Johannesburg, as well as its cylindrical shape. During its prime, Ponte City was one of the city's most sought-after addresses, but with inner-city urban decay
Urban decay
Urban decay is the process whereby a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude...
setting in, it has become run-down, over-populated, and unsafe. The building was placed under new management
Property management
Property management is the operation, control of ususally on behalf of an owner, and oversight of commercial, industrial or residential real estate as used in its most broad terms. Management indicates a need to be cared for, monitored and accountability given for its usable life and condition...
in 1999, and with regular maintenance reinstated and gradual restoration, coupled with council, provincial, and government initiatives to rehabilitate Hillbrow, it is beginning to find some shine again.
As of February 2007, Danny Boyle
Danny Boyle
Daniel "Danny" Boyle is an English filmmaker and producer. He is best known for his work on films such as Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Trainspotting. For Slumdog Millionaire, Boyle won numerous awards in 2008, including the Academy Award for Best Director...
, the British director of Trainspotting
Trainspotting (film)
Trainspotting is a 1996 British satirical/drama film directed by Danny Boyle based on the novel of the same name by Irvine Welsh. The movie follows a group of heroin addicts in a late 1980s economically depressed area of Edinburgh and their passage through life...
, has announced plans to use the building as a film set in a future release.
Books and publications
- Glynn Griffiths and Paddy Clay, Hillbrow (Cape Town, Don Nelson, 1982)
- Kgebetli Moele, Room 207 (Kwela Books, 2006)
- Alan Morris, Bleakness and Light: Inner City Transition in Hillbrow, Johannesburg (Johannesburg, University of Witwatersrand Press, 1999)
- Phaswane MpePhaswane MpePhaswane Mpe was a South African poet and novelist. He was educated at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he was a lecturer in African literature. His debut novel, Welcome to Our Hillbrow, was published in 2001...
, Welcome to Our HillbrowWelcome to Our HillbrowWelcome to Our Hillbrow, is a novel by South African novelist Phaswane Mpe which deals with issues of xenophobia, AIDS, tradition, and inner city status in the Hillbrow neighborhood of post-colonialism Johannesburg...
(Pietermaritzburg, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2001) - Ivan VladislavicIvan VladislavicIvan Vladislaviċ is a South African short story writer and novelist of Croatian origin. He lives in Johannesburg where he also works as an editor. In the eighties he worked as a fiction and social studies editor at Ravan Press...
, The Restless SupermarketThe Restless SupermarketThe Restless Supermarket is a novel by Croatian-South African author Ivan Vladislavic, which tracks the changes in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, during the 1990s, through the eyes of a grumpy, retired proof-reader who spends his life in one café. Though well reviewed, the novel is hard to find,...
(Cape Town, David Philip, 2001)