Parktown North is a suburb 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 ...

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 ...

. The suburb has many old colonial-style houses, and manages to maintain a village atmosphere, despite being near to one of the busiest roads in the city,

Jan Smuts Avenue Jan Smuts Avenue is a major street in Johannesburg, South Africa. It begins in Randburg, and passes through important business areas like Rosebank. It passes the Johannesburg Zoo, Zoo Lake and Wits University before becoming Bertha Street, and ...

. It is one of the older residential areas of the Northern Suburbs, having been created as a residential area for the less affluent relatives of the

Randlord The Randlords () were the capitalists who controlled the diamond and gold mining industries in South Africa from the 1870s to the First World War. A small number of European financiers, largely of the same generation, gained control of the diamon ...

s who had built their mansions on

Parktown Parktown is a wealthy suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa, and is the first suburb north of the inner city (both chronologically and geographically). It is affectionately known as one of the Parks, others including Parkview, Gauteng, Parkview, Pa ...

Ridge during the early days of the Rand gold rush (during the 1890s). It takes its name from being north of

. Parktown North is in close proximity to the

Gautrain Gautrain is an Higher-speed rail, higher-speed Express train, express commuter rail system in Gauteng, South Africa, which links Johannesburg, Pretoria, Kempton Park, Gauteng, Kempton Park and O. R. Tambo International Airport. It takes 15 minu ...

and has many bus stops that transport commuters to Gautrain stations. Many suburbs of Johannesburg are laid out as grids with numbered streets in one direction and numbered avenues intersecting perpendicularly. Parktown North is the only suburb of Johannesburg to have only numbered avenues with no numbered streets. It is not a grid and the avenues run in all directions. The suburb is built around a small spring and lake, however this is not visible from the street and is hidden from the public separating the gardens of three private houses. Parktown North is a popular dining out venue for Johannesburg residents. Most notably 7th Avenue is home to many of the area's top restaurants. Parktown North has an active Residents Association (PNRA) that looks after its many interests around the suburb from Heritage, building and electrical issues, to power outage and maintenance issues.

References

Johannesburg Region B {{Johannesburg-stub