Newtown is a popular precinct in the Johannesburg CBD and it’s best known for venues such as Newtown Junction, the area’s new mall; the historical party venue, Mary Fitzgerald Square; and the most exciting and innovative jazz venue in the city, Bassline.
Development began in the area in 1904 and throughout the long and illustrious history of the precinct, City Buzz is sure that there are a few facts about the area that would surprise you.
Check out the five facts that you did not know about Newtown:
- In 1882, when the first of the gold had just been struck in the newly-established Johannesburg City, there was an outbreak of bubonic plague in the slums where Newtown was soon to be built and developed.
- Newtown, some years before it was named as such, was called Brickfields and was known as a ‘Coolie Location’. When Joffe Marks, owner of Marks Limited, bought the area, he commissioned a clearance of the racially segregated slums and began development in Newtown.
- In 1931, double-decker buses were introduced in Newtown, without which we would not have the exciting Red Bus City Tours or the double-decker Metro buses that take hundreds of people to and from their destinations each day.
- A power station was built on Jeppe Street, which was unimaginatively named the Jeppe Street Power Station, and the decline of the area could be directly attributed to the decommission of the important structure in 1961.
- There is a Jazz Walk of Fame at Mary Fitzgerald Square where tribute is paid to jazz greats including Miriam Makeba, Winston Mankunku, Hotep Idris Galeta, Jonas Gwangwa, Kippie Moeketsi, Chris McGregor, Basil ‘Manenberg’ Coetzee, Zakes Nkosi and Ntemi Piliso.
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