Sandton: Then and now
SANDTON – Take a look back in time, before Sandton was an economic powerhouse.
Jane Symons (nee Boswell), who turns 70 in November, has lived in Sandton for more than 50 years and has seen the area go from a peaceful rural countryside to a bustling economic hub, a dramatic shift indeed.
Symons’ father, Dr Jack Boswell, purchased 10 acres of land in the 30s that stretched from 105 West Street to Rivonia Road. “We used to have horses, cows and a stream that ran through the property which is now Katherine Street. Our thatched roof house was at the one end of the property and on the other end was the Sandown Veterinary Hospital. On the corner, where the Alexander Forbes building now stands, used to be a simple nursery.
“My grandfather, who started Boswell’s Circus, used to breed Shetland ponies, chimps, elephants and even a baby rhino.”
Symons is nostalgic about Sandown, the open fields, dirt roads and a rural life now past. To put into perspective just how much the area has changed, Symons told the Sandton Chronicle what she used to get up to as a child. “We used to do drag hunts on our ponies through Parkmore – there were only two or three houses in the area – and the hunt would meet at Inanda Club. The Benmore shopping centre was built on a farm called Montagu Simpson’s farm, and where Sandton City sits, used to be a magnificent stud farm.
In those times, shops were few and far between and Symons remembers well how their vegetables were delivered by bicycle. “There were few shops in the area. Supermarkets didn’t exist and groceries and meat were ordered and delivered once a week. The Dairy Den Ice Cream shop on the corner of Pybus Road and Rivonia Road served some of the first soft serve ice cream in South Africa.”
In contrast, Sandton is today home to more than 300 000 residents and more than 10 000 businesses, including investment banks, financial consultants, media houses, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and one of the biggest convention centres on the African continent, the Sandton Convention Centre.
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