Delve into Joburg’s past

JOBURG – The Johannesburg Heritage Foundation will offer a plethora of bus and walking tours to suit all tastes over November and December.

From churches to mosques; city streets to grand homes, the tours will highlight places of historical importance and offer attendees snippets of nearly-forgotten information.

On 2 November, the bus tour Hallowed Ground: Six churches in one block in Benoni will include tours of the Anglican cathedral, the Methodist church and the convent chapel.

On 9 November, a walking tour of Jeppestown and Fairview will take people from the once-genteel Belgravia to working-class Fairview.

“Belgravia was the Dainfern of its time; a gated suburb that boasted grand homes and the amenities that accompanied them, including a very fine girls’ school, St Mary’s College,” said the foundation’s Flo Bird.

She said the tour would take in much of what remained of the city’s early residential and commercial architecture.

On 17 November, the foundation will offer a walking tour of the Westpark Jewish Cemetery, the final resting place of many who made powerful contributions to the life of the city, including mayors, politicians like Helen Suzman, and theatre-folk.

On 23 November, the bus tour Mosques and Minarets will allow people to explore several mosques whose architecture reference the heritage of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and India.

“At the turn of the Twentieth Century, it was the church steeples that indicated the expansion of the suburbs. Now the mosques enrich the cultural life of the city, indicating changes in demographics and the fading away of apartheid,” said Bird.

On 14 December, the walking tour Main Street Mall will take people from the Magistrate’s Court to Gandhi Square.

“Main Street reflects the rich history of the city, in terms of gold mining, politics, finance, legal expansion, transportation and significant personalities. It also represents the economics of a city, manifested by the decay and rejuvenation within a metropolitan area,” said Bird.

Details: 011-482-3349; www.computicket.com