Advanced booking for all Joburg Heritage tours is essential. Call +27 11 482 3349 or email mail@joburgheritage.co.za to book. Tours can also be booked online via computicket.
JANUARY 2019
Sat 19 Jan: The Rand Club and Historical Financial District (walking tour)Founded in 1887 and remodelled in 1904, The Rand Club is one of Joburg's oldest buildings. It is an institution that has embodied certainty and permanence and its interiors, filled with maps from colonial Africa, 19th-century prints of lion hunting and paintings of glorious military victories, have changed little over the last century. This tour explores the history, personalities and architecture of this grand building and its surrounding neighbourhood.
Tour starts at 14:00 outside the Rand Club (33 Loveday Street) and lasts approximately two hours.
Sat 26 Jan: Skin Deep – Joburg's Remarkable Sculptures, Friezes and Reliefs (walking tour)
This walking tour examines up close the oft-unnoticed sculptural details of Joburg's most iconic buildings, including delicately rendered sculptures, friezes and reliefs. Learn from guides Brett McDougall and Ted Botha why architects include these details, from the classical figurines framing the Standard Bank Chambers that represent industry and agriculture, to the stylish and once-modern Art Deco details woven into many of the City Centre's structures.
Tour starts at 14:00 at the Carlton Centre and last approximately three hours.
FEBRUARY 2019
Sat 2 Feb: Honouring Black History Month in Dube (Bus Tour)Explore the unique history of the Dube township on this bus tour, where you will trace the steps of the men and women who resided there throughout the second half of the 20th century. Envisaged as a township for black intellectuals, academics, creatives and artists, Dube was home to many individuals with stand-out stories, including Dr AB Xuma after he was evicted from Sophiatown, as well as black servicemen returning from the World War II.
Tour starts at 13:00 at the Sunnyside Park Hotel (Princess of Wales Terrace, Parktown) and lasts approximately four hours.
Sat 2 Feb: Lifestyles of Victorian Joburg's Rich and Famous The View House Tour
(again on 10 March)
Pull back the curtains on one of Joburg's most opulent historic homes during this tour of The View on the Parktown ridge, where Thomas Cullinan lived out his real life rags-to-riches story at the end of the 19th century. Learn about the history of the Transvaal Scottish Regiment, as well as about domestic life of the upper echelons of Victorian and Edwardian society, with tea and scones in hand, at this tour led by Dr Alexandra Parker and Kennedy Tembo.
Tour starts at 14:00 at the View, 23 Ridge Road, Parktown and lasts for approximately two hours.
Sat 9 Feb: Very Downton Abbey – Glenshiel and its Neighbours (walking tour)
In 1908 Sir William and Lady Dalrymple commissioned renowned South African architect Herbert Baker to design them a home on the Westcliff ridge. The result was Glenshiel, a butterfly-winged home so palatial that when the house was gifted to the Order of St John by Major Haggie, the stables were transformed into a spacious home for him. Starting at the Ridge School, which was originally called the Woolsack, the walking tour takes a look around the beautiful interiors and gardens of the magnificent Glenshiel as well as other impressive stops including the beautiful Pallinghurst, a Gothic mansion that is now the home of Hope School and has delightful views over Zoo Lake.
Tour starts at 14:00 outside the The Ridge School, Woolston Road, Westcliff and lasts approximately three hours.
Sun 17 Feb: King Edward VII School (walking tour)
A product of Lord Milner's post-Boer War administration of 1902, this school (whose present location dates back to 1911) has some of the most magnificent architecture and gardens in the city. This tour of the school and its grounds is led by heritage architect Joy Campkin-Smith whose re-imagining of the old gymnasium into a Media Centre and Museum won the 2013 GIfA Award.
Tour starts at 14:00 at the entrance to King Edward VII School, St Patrick’s Road, Upper Houghton and lasts approximately 2.5hours.
Sat 23 Feb: Johannesburg Then & Now Book Launch and John Moffat Building Walking Tour
In Marc Latilla's recently published coffee table book Johannesburg Then and Now he juxtaposes historic images of some of Joburg’s most famous buildings and spaces with present-day shots of the same sites, sparking a conversation on what Joburg’s spatial history reveals about politics, socio-economics and community. Join Latilla and Professor Katherine Munro in a discussion of the book and a tour of one of its subjects, the John Moffat Building (home to the Faculty of Architecture) on the Wits University campus.
Tour starts at 14:00 at the John Moffat Building, Wits University Campus, Braamfontein and lasts approximately two hours.
MARCH 2019
Sat 2 March: Historic Hollard Street and The Minerals Council (walking tour)The Minerals Council of South Africa building, formerly the Chamber of Mines, is not only an Art Deco treasure worth exploring inside and out, but is located in one of the busiest and most dynamic parts of the city. Explore this historic building as well as the surrounding streets in historic Marshalltown which are undergoing very exciting redevelopment with Flo Bird and Brian Kent McKechnie.
Tour starts at 14:00 in the basement of the Minerals Council, Hollard Street and last approximately three hours.
Sun 17 March: Back to the 80s (bus tour)
This bus tour tracks down the structures that uniquely symbolise development and architecture trends during the 1980s in Johannesburg, from Helmut Jahn's glittering 'Eleven Diagonal Street' building in the City Centre to the northern suburb's monolithic Sandton Sun hotel. Architects Yasmin Mayat, Brendan Hart and Brian Kent McKechnie lead the tour, exploring the glitz, glamour and turmoil of the decade through the structures that were erected at the time.
Tour starts at 14:00 at Sunnyside Park Hotel, Princess of Wales Terrace, Parktown and lasts approximately three hours.
