January 14, 2003
By Lucille Davie
EVER wondered what Johannesburg's most secret place is? I stumbled upon it the other day: a short, secluded, very friendly street in Parkhurst running alongside the Braamfontein Spruit that has only eight residents who are guarding their secret street very carefully.
And why is it a secret? Because it's such a great place to live - it's a quiet cul-de-sac, it has attractive homes and gardens, it has river frontage, and best of all, everyone is on first name terms, something almost unheard of in a city where most residents don't know or greet their neighbours. There's more: they socialise with one another, look after each another's homes when on holiday, and even more unusual, their dogs are playmates.
For all these reasons the residents want to keep their wonderful street a secret. I can't tell you its name, or where it is.
Most residents have lived in their houses for over 20 years, and have no plans to move elsewhere. One resident, Bob Williams, waited four years to buy a house in the street. He got to know about this secret place when he visited a friend in the street. He learnt that an elderly couple were living next door. "I knew they had to move at some time - I just sat it out. They eventually moved to a retirement village," he says.
While walking down the middle of the street with him, I commented that it was a perfect place for a street party, and he said that that was exactly what the small group has done. "We have had a street party where every resident invited 20 guests. We carried our dining room tables out into the street, and had a great time."
The pavement gardens in this street are immaculate, and even the piece of council land at the end of the street is neatly mowed and clipped.
Hugh Hislop moved into his house in 1978 when there were only three houses in the street, which was a dirt road 24 years ago. It was tarred later that year. "It was very beautiful, the whole side on the river was open," he says.
Hislop watched his neighbours' houses being built around his. Of those neighbours he says: "We look after each other. We have each other's phone numbers, and when we walk down the street we invariably talk to a neighbour." When someone goes away on holiday, keys are handed over and that house is visited several times a day, and pets are cared for.
He sums it up: "Our neighbours are our friends. I recently had my 70th birthday party, and invited my neighbours."
The river is canalised through this section of Parkhurst, and the walls are over four metres high in places. Whenever Johannesburg has heavy rains the river reaches halfway up the walls. Hislop recalls that about 20 years ago the river flooded and spilled over into the street.
One of the houses in the street has its garden on the other side of the Spruit, with an elegant metal bridge linking the house to the garden. The owners sit eating their meals on an extended balcony over the river, enjoying the gentle gurgle of the river six metres below them.
Even the hadedas find the street friendly. A pair has made a scrappy, twiggy nest around six metres from the ground in one of Williams' pine trees. Hadedas usually make their nests high up in trees, seeking privacy. The nest is surprisingly small for the size of these noisy birds. "The female is about to lay her eggs," says Williams.
Williams says the street is so secluded that Pikitup, the city's garbage collectors, don't even drive down to pick up their garbage bags - a workman is sent down with a trolley to collect them.
At the end of the street is a 10-acre empty plot which has just been sold to a developer for a townhouse development. The residents are concerned that this development will destroy their corner of quiet tranquillity. The developers plan to build four houses on their side of the river, and six on the other side, but the residents hope that the fact that the land slopes downward and therefore falls below the 50-year flood plain means that they won't get permission from the city to build.
I think I'll be keeping an eye on the houses in the street - maybe one will come up for sale in the next 20 years.
