Hillbrow () is an

inner city The term inner city (also called the hood) has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in a downtown or city centre area. Soc ...

residential neighbourhood of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

Gauteng Province Gauteng ( , ; Sotho-Tswana for 'place of gold'; or ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only 1.5% of the coun ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. It is known for its high levels of population density, unemployment, poverty,

prostitution Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, no ...

and crime. It had a large and active

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

community for much of the twentieth century and housed several

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...

synagogues such as the Great Synagogue and Poswohl Synagogue. Temple Israel, the oldest

Reform Reform refers to the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The modern usage of the word emerged in the late 18th century and is believed to have originated from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement, which ...

synagogue in the country, continues to hold services. In the 1970s it was an

Apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

-designated "whites only" area under the

Group Areas Act Group Areas Act was the title of three acts of the Parliament of South Africa enacted under the apartheid government of South Africa. The acts assigned racial groups to different residential and business sections in urban areas in a syste ...

, but later became a "grey area", where people of different ethnicities lived together. It acquired a cosmopolitan and politically progressive feel, and was one of the first identifiable gay and lesbian areas in urban South Africa. However, due to the mass growth of the population of poor and unemployed people after the end of Apartheid, crime soared and the streets became strewn with rubbish. This, together with lack of investment and fear 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 incoming migrants from neighbouring country Zimbabwe and from Nigeria. There are a few locals living there from the

townships A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

. An urban regeneration programme is underway. There are street markets, mainly used by local residents, and the

Johannesburg Art Gallery The Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) is an art gallery in Joubert Park in the city centre of Johannesburg, South Africa. It was once the largest gallery on the continent with a collection of more than 9000 artworks. The gallery collection is la ...

contains work by major local artists including

William Kentridge William Kentridge (born 28 April 1955) is a South African artist best known for his prints, drawings, and animated films. He is especially noted for a sequence of hand-drawn animated films he produced during the 1990s, constructed by filming ...

History

Prior to the discovery of gold on the

Witwatersrand The Witwatersrand (, ; ; locally the Rand or, less commonly, the Reef) is a , north-facing scarp in South Africa. It consists of a hard, erosion-resistant quartzite metamorphic rock, over which several north-flowing rivers form waterfalls, w ...

in 1886, the suburb laid on government owned land called ''Randjeslaagte'' that now makes up the

Johannesburg CBD The Johannesburg Central Business District, commonly called Johannesburg CBD, is one of the main business centres of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is the densest collection of skyscrapers in Africa, however, due to white flight and urban blight, ...

. It was a triangular shaped piece of waste land not used for farming and the future suburb lies in the northern apex of the triangle. The origin of its name is simple, the suburb lies on the brow of the east west mountain ridge that crosses the Johannesburg CBD. The land was owned as claims by J. Nicholls who sold them to Transvaal Mortgage, Loan & Finance Company. It was laid out as a residential suburb during 1894 and 1895, with Richard Currie auctioning the stands. In 1897 it became part of Johannesburg's Sanitary Board. After World War Two, developers started purchasing the stands at values beyond their worth and eventually turned it into blocks of flats.

Jewish community

Since the beginning of the 1920s, Hillbrow was home to a growing and stable community of Jewish residents.The Jewish Community of Johannesburg, 1886-1939: Landscapes of Reality and Imagination
University of Pretoria. December 2004 Jewish residents and investors were responsible for building most of Hillbrow's buildings. The neighbourhood was also home to a number of popular meeting places for Jewish residents, such as the Florian cafe on Kotze Street. In later decades the cafe was often frequented by Jewish and non-Jewish patrons on the political left. It was here that Jewish anti-apartheid activist,

Rusty Bernstein Lionel "Rusty" Bernstein (20 March 1920 – 23 June 2002) was a Jewish South African anti-apartheid activist and political prisoner. He played a key role in political organizations such as the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Afric ...

began to develop his political consciousness. He was with Kurt Jonas, son of

German Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321 CE, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (c. 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish commu ...

migrants and his fellow student at the Architecture School of the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The universit ...

. Through this encounter with Jonas he learned of "the invisible world of black workers and trade unions which existed on my own doorstep." The former Great Synagogue is located on Wolmarans Street. It is considered the city's mother synagogue and "the crown jewel of Orthodox Judaism in

." Hillbrow is also home to Temple Israel, the oldest

synagogue in the country. The

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

building was designed by Herman Kallenbach and has been granted heritage status. Hillbrow is also home to the former Poswohl Synagogue on Mooi Street. The name refers to

Pasvalys Pasvalys () is a city in Panevėžys County, Lithuania, located near the bank of the Svalia River. History In 1557, the Treaty of Pasvalys was signed in the town, which provoked Ivan IV of Russia to start the Livonian War. Pasvalys has mineral ...

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

where the original members emigrated from at the turn of the century.Poswohl Synagogue, Mooi Street, Johannesburg
SA History. Retrieved on 4 October 2023 It was declared a National Monument under old NMC legislation on 4 December 1981. In the 1960s and 1970s, many elderly Jewish people purchased flats in Hillbrow, planning to stay there for the final chapter of their lives. There was an uptick in Jewish migration out of the inner city suburbs into the northern suburbs from the mid-1970s. In 1967 the press reported confrontations between local Jewish youth and German immigrants at a beer hall in Hillbrow. The Germans made

Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

salutes, prompting protests from local Jewish youth. The

West German West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republic after its capital c ...

embassy in South Africa issued a statement deploring the salute, blaming “irresponsible youths who were too young to experience Nazism” for celebrating the regime. Gideon Jacobs, a member of the opposition requested that the confrontations be the subject of a discussion in parliament. A South African branch of the British neo-fascist National Front was established in 1978 and spread

anti-semitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

and racist pamphlets about Jewish landlords renting to non-white tenants in the suburb. A number of Jewish architects also contributed to Hillbrow's urban landscape. Architect

Harold Le Roith Harold "Harry" Hirsch Le Roith (24 March 1905 – 4 July 1995) was a South African architect. He was a key figure in modern architecture in South Africa in the twentieth century. He is mostly known for designing residential buildings and synagog ...

sought to "green" the neighbourhood by introducing pavement gardens and planting to Golden Oaks, an apartment building he designed in 1976.LE ROITH, Harold Hersch (Harry)
''Artefacts''. Retrieved on 3 February 2025 He also designed Cresthill Mansions in Hillbrow, which is now used as social housing. In the 1970s, Jewish couple, Isaac and Gloria Rootshtain purchased the Cranbrook Hotel on 58 Leyds Street. The building, a residential hotel, had been designed by

and featured in Britain's influential ''

The Architectural Review ''The Architectural Review'' is a monthly international architectural magazine. It has been published in London since 1896. Its articles cover the built environment – which includes landscape, building design, interior design and urbanism � ...

'' magazine in 1953. The couple reopened the hotel as a

kosher (also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, ), from the Ashke ...

hotel, renaming it The Connoisseur. Gloria wrote South Africa's first celebrity cookbook, ''Cooking with a Connoisseur'' in 1982.The Zionist Connoisseur: The story of Gloria Rootshtain
Telfed. Retrieved on 28 December 2024 The Connoisseur operated as a kosher hotel until its sale in 1989, when the Rootshtain's made

aliyah ''Aliyah'' (, ; ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from Jewish diaspora, the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel or the Palestine (region), Palestine region, which is today chiefly represented by the Israel ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. A small number of mostly elderly and impoverished Jews continue to live in Hillbrow and neighbouring Berea.Life is tough for elderly still living in Hillbrow and Berea
''South African Jewish Report''. 6 September 2018 They are mostly supported by Jewish charities in Johannesburg.

Gay community

In the mid-20th century, Hillbrow developed a reputation for its growing

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

community. Many gay establishments and publications were founded in Hillbrow from the 1960s forward. The gay community was strong and large enough in Hillbrow that the conservative ruling

National Party National Party or Nationalist Party may refer to: Active parties * National Party of Australia, commonly known as ''The Nationals'' * Bangladesh: ** Bangladesh Nationalist Party ** Jatiya Party (Ershad) a.k.a. ''National Party (Ershad)'' * Californ ...

, which instituted apartheid, fielded a pro-gay rights candidate, Leon de Beer, in the 1987 elections. De Beer's victorious campaign was heavily advertised in the Hillbrow-based gay publication ''Exit'' and his campaign promises were to both advance gay rights in parliament and reinstate Hillbrow as a whites-only district. His campaign garnered enough support from the gay community that he won the election, becoming the first elected official in South Africa to run and win on a pro-gay platform. In 1990, one of the first training and information centres for

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the im ...

in South Africa was established in Hillbrow, initially catering mainly to white gay men. As the racial demographic in Hillbrow radically shifted, so too did the people in need of HIV-related care, and by the late 1990s the clinics mainly worked with black heterosexual women. Hillbrow experienced a heavy decline and most of the gay community, which was predominantly white, left the area within the decade.

Social action

A number of social action groups and organisations exist in the suburb to alleviate the difficult conditions challenges. In 1990 Jean du Plessis and Adele du Plessis founded The House Group, an organization with several shelters and programs aimed at retrieving and rehabilitating female child victims of commercial sexual exploitation. The organization's first address in Hillbrow was on 52 Soper Road, close to

Ponte City Ponte City is a skyscraper in the Berea, Gauteng, Berea district of Johannesburg, South Africa, just next to Hillbrow. It was built in 1975 to a height of , and was the tallest residential skyscraper in Africa for 48 years, until overtaken in 2 ...

. In 1993 they moved to two adjacent premises on 60 Olivia Road (at the foot of the

Hillbrow Tower The Hillbrow Tower (officially the Telkom Joburg Tower, and formerly JG Strijdom Tower) is a tall tower located in the suburb of Hillbrow in Johannesburg, South Africa. At , it was the tallest tower in Africa for 50 years, until it was surpass ...

) where the organization had The House Drop-in Centre and Intombi Shelter. The House Group were pioneers in pushing for legislation that would provide for equal rights for girls in shelters (legislation already supported boys in shelters). In 1997, the

Gauteng Provincial Government The government of Gauteng province in South Africa consists of a unicameral Gauteng Provincial Legislature, legislature elected by proportional representation, and an executive branch headed by a Premier of Gauteng, Premier who is elected by th ...

proclaimed the first legislation that allowed shelters for female children.

Landmarks

Constitution Hill

The Constitution Hill precinct, seat of the

Constitutional Court of South Africa The Constitutional Court of South Africa is the supreme constitutional court established by the Constitution of South Africa, and is the apex court in the South African judicial system, with general jurisdiction. The Court was first establ ...

, is located on the western edge of Hillbrow, and is part of a major

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

and

private sector The private sector is the part of the economy which is owned by private groups, usually as a means of establishment for profit or non profit, rather than being owned by the government. Employment The private sector employs most of the workfo ...

initiative to revitalize the area and the rest of the CBD.

Hillbrow Tower

The

, a

telecommunication Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

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 a lift 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

is the tallest residential building in Johannesburg and one of the city's most striking urban landmarks. It was designed by

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

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 The term inner city (also called the hood) has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in a downtown or city centre area. Soc ...

urban decay Urban decay (also known as urban rot, urban death or urban blight) is the sociological process by which a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude. There is no single process that leads to urban decay. ...

setting in, it has become run-down, over-populated, and unsafe. The building was placed under new

management Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a Government agency, government bodies through business administration, Nonprofit studies, nonprofit management, or the political s ...

in 1999, and with regular maintenance reinstated and gradual restoration, coupled with council, provincial, and government initiatives to rehabilitate Hillbrow, it began to find some shine again. In February 2007,

Danny Boyle Daniel Francis Boyle (born 20 October 1956) is an English director and producer. He is known for his work on the films ''Shallow Grave (1994 film), Shallow Grave'' (1994), ''Trainspotting (film), Trainspotting'' (1996) and its sequel ''T2 Tra ...

, the British director of ''

Trainspotting Trainspotting may refer to: * Trainspotting (hobby), an amateur interest in railways/railroads * ''Trainspotting'' (novel), a 1993 novel by Irvine Welsh ** ''Trainspotting'' (film), a 1996 film based on the novel *** ''Trainspotting'' (soundt ...

'', announced plans to use the building as a film set in a future release.

In popular culture

Literature

*'' Something Out There'', a 1984 novella by

Nadine Gordimer Nadine Gordimer (20 November 192313 July 2014) was a South African writer and political activist. She received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991, recognised as a writer "who through her magnificent epic writing has ... been of very great ben ...

briefly features foreign tourists, a married couple, that are mugged outside the Moulin Rouge Hotel in Hillbrow. *''

Zoo City ''Zoo City'' is a 2010 science fiction novel by South African author Lauren Beukes. It won the 2011 Arthur C. Clarke Award and the 2010 Kitschies Red Tentacle for best novel. The cover of the British edition of the book was awarded the 2010 BSFA ...

'', a 2010 science fiction novel by

Lauren Beukes Lauren Beukes (born 5 June 1976) is a South African novelist, short story writer, journalist and Screenwriter, television scriptwriter. Early life Lauren Beukes was born 5 June 1976. She grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa. She attended Roede ...

is largely set in Hillbrow. *'' The Restless Supermarket'', a 2001 novel by Ivan Vladislavić, portraying South Africa's transition to democracy through the lens of Aubrey Tearle, a conservative white pensioner. Through this lens, Hillbrow becomes representative of the larger post-apartheid South Africa. *''

Welcome 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-apartheid Johannesburg. It was first published in 200 ...

'', a 2001 novel by

Phaswane Mpe Phaswane Mpe (10 September 1970 – 12 December 2004) was a South African poet and novelist. He was educated at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he was a lecturer in African literature. He did his master's degree in publishing at Oxfor ...

deals with life in the district in the years after apartheid, focusing on a large number of issues ranging from poverty,

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

, and

xenophobia Xenophobia (from (), 'strange, foreign, or alien', and (), 'fear') is the fear or dislike of anything that is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression that is based on the perception that a conflict exists between an in-gr ...

. *''Room 207'', a 2006 novel by Kgebetli Moele about six young black men living in Hillbrow

Music

* ''Hillbrow'' by

Johannes Kerkorrel Johannes Kerkorrel (27 March 1960 – 12 November 2002), born Ralph John Rabie, was a South African singer-songwriter, journalist and playwright. Career Rabie, who was born in Johannesburg, worked as a journalist for the Afrikaans newspapers '' ...

, from the album '' Eet Kreef'' (Shifty Records, 1989). * ''Hillbrow'' by

Stef Bos Steven "Stef" Bos (born 12 July 1961 in Veenendaal) is a Dutch singer who lives in Cape Town, South Africa. He sings in Dutch, and occasionally in Afrikaans, and has been successful in Belgium, the Netherlands and South Africa since his breakthrou ...

, from the album ''Jy vir My''. * ''Hillbrow'' by

Manfred Mann's Earth Band Manfred Mann's Earth Band are an English rock band formed by South African musician Manfred Mann (musician), Manfred Mann. Their hits include covers of Bruce Springsteen's "For You (Bruce Springsteen song), For You", "Blinded by the Light" an ...

, from the CD box '' Odds & Sods – Mis-takes & Out-takes''

Film

* '' Gangster's Paradise: Jerusalema'', a 2008 crime film set in Hillbrow

Documentary

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 Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

urban South Africa. In 2007,

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

reporter

Louis Theroux Louis Sebastian Theroux (; born 20 May 1970) is a British and American documentarian, journalist, broadcaster, and author. He has received three British Academy Television Awards and a Royal Television Society Television Award. After graduati ...

ran a documentary called '' Law and Disorder in Johannesburg''. The documentary depicted the state of complete abandon and lawlessness in some parts of the city, specifically in Hillbrow. In January 2013,

Al Jazeera English Al Jazeera English (AJE; , ) is a 24-hour English-language News broadcasting, news channel operating under Al Jazeera Media Network, which is funded by the government of Qatar. Al Jazeera introduced an English-language division in 2006. It is ...

aired a ''

Witness In law, a witness is someone who, either voluntarily or under compulsion, provides testimonial evidence, either oral or written, of what they know or claim to know. A witness might be compelled to provide testimony in court, before a grand jur ...

'' documentary about Hillbrow described as "A personal journey to Hillbrow, where human spirit, hope and enterprise triumph in this crime-ridden melting pot in the heart of South Africa."

Photography

The suburb was the subject of several photographs by the renowned photographer,

David Goldblatt David Goldblatt HonFRPS (29 November 1930 – 25 June 2018) was a South African documentary Photographer noted for his dedicated portrayal of the South African peoples within the political landscape of the apartheid era.Weinberg, Paul.David ...

. "Hillbrow, Johannesburg, South Africa 1973" depicts a white family amid the context of the

designating the area "Whites-only". "Domestic Worker on Abel Road, Hillbrow, Johannesburg March 1973", depicts a black domestic worker. Both photographs are held by the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. "Sunday morning: A not-White family living illegally in the "White" group area of Hillbrow, Johannesburg" depicts a black family living in Hillbrow in defiance of the Group Areas Act. The photograph is part of the collection at

Yale University Art Gallery The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) is an art museum in New Haven, Connecticut. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University. Although it embraces all cultures and period ...

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is List ...

. In 2010, some of his Hillbrow photographs featured in the exhibition "South African Photographs: David Goldblatt" at the

Jewish Museum A Jewish museum is a museum which focuses upon Jews and may refer seek to explore and share the Jewish experience in a given area. Notable Jewish museums include: Albania * Solomon Museum, Berat Australia * Jewish Museum of Australia, Melbourn ...

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. They included "Holdup in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, November 1963", depicting a small white child with a toy gun playing with a black man. "Baby with childminders and dogs in the Alexandra Street Park, Hillbrow, Johannesburg, 1972" shows a white baby with black childminders. These photographs were on loan from the

Goodman Gallery Goodman Gallery is an art gallery founded in Johannesburg, South Africa by Linda Givon (previously Goodman) in 1966.Rachel Spence (26 September 2019Art with a conscience: Goodman Gallery opens in London''Financial Times''. The gallery operates sp ...

in Johannesburg for the exhibition. His other photographs from the area include: "The watchman, Balnagask Court, Hillbrow. June 1972", "Woman shopping, Hillbrow. 1972" and "Man with an injured arm, Hillbrow. June 1972".David Goldblatt
Lens Culture. Retrieved on 3 June 2024

Notable people

* Bonaventure Hinwood (1930–2016), Roman Catholic priest and Afrikaans poet *

Sid James Sidney James (born Solomon Joel Cohen; 8 May 1913 – 26 April 1976) was a South African–British actor and comedian whose career encompassed radio, television, stage and screen. Noted for his distinctive laugh, he was best known for numerou ...

(1913-1976), Actor * Sol Phenduka (1987–present), radio presenter at

Kaya FM Kaya 959, formerly known as Kaya FM 95.9, is a commercial radio station that broadcasts from Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa. Current On-Air Lineup History Kaya 959 was launched in August 1997, and was one of the first frequencies to be app ...

Helen Zille Otta Helene Maree (''née'' Zille ; born 9 March 1951), known as Helen Zille, is a South African politician. She has served as the Chairperson of the Federal Council of the Democratic Alliance since 20 October 2019. From 2009 until 2019, she w ...

(1951–present), former Federal Leader of the Democratic Alliance

References

Bibliography

* Daniel Conway (2009), "Queering Apartheid: the National Party's 1987 'Gay Rights' Election Campaign in Hillbrow", ''Journal of Southern African Studies'', 35,4: 849–863. * Glynn Griffiths and Paddy Clay, ''Hillbrow'' (Cape Town: Don Nelson, 1982) * Alan Morris, ''Bleakness and Light: Inner City Transition in Hillbrow, Johannesburg'' (Johannesburg: University of Witwatersrand Press, 1999) * Ron Nerio and Jean Halley, ''The Roads to Hillbrow: Making Life in South Africa's Community of Migrants'' (Fordham University Press, 2022)

External links

Hillbrow Tower
{{Authority control

Hillbrow Hillbrow () is an inner city residential neighbourhood of Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is known for its high levels of population density, unemployment, poverty, prostitution and crime. It had a large and active Jewish commun ...

Urban decay in South Africa Red-light districts in South Africa Jews and Judaism in Johannesburg