Neil Fraser
November 4, 2002
Over the past 18 months or so I have voiced the frustration of many in regard to the apparent lack of Council commitment to the rich heritage of this city as exemplified in their total disregard for its buildings.
The disastrous situation at Drill Hall, previously illegally occupied and the site of two fires that claimed a number of lives; the Rissik Street Post Office which was fast becoming a prime example of 'demolition by neglect'; the sorry tale of the Bertrams' "pepper pot" houses, etc.
Well, the good news is that, following a number of recent workshops, a heritage policy has been thrashed out for Drill Hall that will shortly be forwarded to the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) and the Executive Mayor for approval. The initial report on alternative uses for the Rissik Street Post Office will be discussed at the end of next week. But that' s not all!
Just five months ago, (Citichat 21), I wrote of a critical meeting between the SAHRA, various local heritage organisations, the Executive Mayor, senior councillors and officials.
The purpose of the meeting was to try and find a joint solution to another of the many dichotomies that the city has inherited: Heritage and other buildings that have been abandoned by the private sector and now illegally occupied as residential accommodation; heritage buildings owned by the public sector and falling into "demolition by neglect"; a lack of funding, a lack of suitable housing and, in the opinion of some around the table, a lack of interest in preserving a heritage that may be repugnant to many.
The Executive Mayor agreed to appoint a Heritage Task Team that would, in the short term, address the immediate crisis of "bad buildings" in the Inner City and, in the longer term, 'align and integrate development and heritage strategies'. Another Task Team, another Talk Shop?
Not this time! The Task Team was duly established under the capable direction and chairmanship of Eric Itzkin (author of 'Gandhi's Johannesburg') the Deputy Director, Immovable Heritage which falls under the Arts, Culture and Heritage Department of the City of Johannesburg.
The Task Team agreed that it was critical, in the first place, to develop an accurate knowledge-base of the city's heritage assets, something that the city, surprisingly, does not possess. There had been a number of surveys undertaken by the Council previously but these were architectural in nature rather than heritage-based.
RAU had undertaken a survey in the mid-1970s but it too was heavily architecturally slanted. In fact, at least one notable building was lost as a result of the architectural bias of that report. It failed to record and register the Starlite Cinema, 44 President Street, which was a popular 'black bioscope' during the apartheid years, because the building didn't have any architectural merit.
The building was thus demolished to make way for what Eric gently refers to as a "rather undistinguished parking garage". Makes you want to cry, just look at the resurgence around the historic Apollo Theatre on 125th Street in Harlem, New York. Sorry, I wander!
The Task Team met again yesterday to receive a report on progress achieved regarding some of the 'crisis buildings' in the city. The Task Team also discussed Phase One of a report that had been commissioned in response to the need to develop a 'heritage audit' . Not bad considering that only some five months has elapsed since the meeting with the Executive Mayor!
The aims of the heritage audit were to: investigate the cultural significance of the city's building stock. develop a workable inventory of heritage buildings. satisfy the needs of Development Planning, Heritage and other functions. supply information for the Provincial Heritage Register.
The Report was compiled by Johann and Catharina Bruwer who worked together with the 'foot survey' team assembled by Yakoob Makda, the Region 8 Director. This 'non-heritage team', under Martin New, is developing a report on the condition of all buildings in the inner city and using the opportunity to record and take action against all zoning, planning and by-law infringements.
The 'heritage team' found that the 'foot survey' team had decided to start with an area which co-incidentally corresponded roughly to the founding 'footprint' area of the city, Diagonal to Joubert and Pritchard to Commissioner.
The brief to Johann Bruwer was to identify and assess all buildings and significant open spaces including checking archival records, consulting with relevant specialists and role players and transferring all collected material onto a user-friendly database.
From a cursory look at the report he has also included a lot of fascinating historical data related to buildings that preceded the current structures. For example, he writes: "Halfway between Commissioner and Market Streets on this site by 1900, was the Gaiety Theatre (1893) facing Kort Street. On the south-western corner of the site originally, stood a single storey building (with basement for storage) of brick with an iron roof, now demolished. It was the property of Messrs Waldorf Hotel Off-Sales. The building was divided into three sections: a 'Non-European-' and a 'European' Off-Sales section and an undesignated shop. The architect of this non-descript building was I. Wayburn."
When the report is completed and released it will provide an excellent record of what is and was but also evidence of an increasingly committed City Council.
Early in the 20th Century Oswald Spengler wrote: "We cannot comprehend political and economic history at all unless we realise that the city ... is the determinative form to which the course and sense of higher history generally conforms. World history is city history."
Want to experience our history? The Parktown and Westcliff Heritage Trust has some great tours, both bus and walking, morning and afternoon. Phone (011) 482-3349 for more information.
