Newtown Citichat 9 May 2008

CITICHAT 18/2008 - 9 May 2008


A Newtown Meander

After my mention of the NUMSA development in Newtown last week, I decided to spend some time in that part of the city to update myself. This is what I saw and learned.

Driving over the Nelson Mandela Bridge one is immediately aware of the Metro Mall to the left, the Brickfields development and the old Park Station on the right. The open area directly to the north of Metro Mall is covered in hundreds of combi-taxis. Metro Mall was built to provide ranking facilities for 2500 taxis as well as an informal trading market and, by all accounts, is working very well. I think that the design was done at a time when there were about 2 000 taxis on the ground in the vicinity, but today the rank is full and we still have hundreds ranking outside! I’m not sure if the proposed International Transport and Shopping Centre (ITSC) is going to provide relief as I understand that it will cater more for long term transportation, but we certainly need to find a solution. The very first phase of the ITSC, the demolition of part of the old Kazerne Parking garages, was commenced some months ago but was subsequently stopped by Council who have changed direction in regard to financing. My latest information is that this huge project will be put out as a PPP. With the current economic climate, one wonders whether this will be viable and it certainly looks as though it is not going to be even partly in operation for 2010!

Bottom of the NM bridge and we turn west into Carr Street. Johannesburg Housing Company’s good looking Brickfields and Phumulani Gardens residential developments on the left provide a total of 523 units. The old Park Station building on the right, on its heavy reinforced concrete platform, now looks down on an area where would-be truck drivers practice their parking and reversing skills. This area is reflected on the spatial development framework as divided into three sections, the western and eastern ‘thirds’ will have residential developments at some stage and the remaining central ‘third’ will be a park – yaaaay for green space! In regard to the old Park Station building itself, the Inner City Charter states, under a heading of ‘Iconic Public Buildings’ that “Through the leadership of various stakeholders, feasibility and business plans for the development of a number of other key iconic public place projects will be finalized by March 2008. These may include the Old Park Station……” Well, I guess ‘may’ also means ‘may not’ – I certainly haven’t heard any definite plans for this beautiful old structure and we’re into May.

At the corner of Carr and Miriam Makeba Streets, some guys up ladders are wiring CCTV cameras as part of the city-wide roll out of the CCTV blanket over the inner city. That’s certainly good news. Continuing to head west along Carr, on the left are a number of old warehouses, now mostly empty and ringed with barbed wire. They are soon to be redeveloped as a large mixed use complex by Atterbury Property whom, I understand, are currently finalizing the design and hope to be on site before the end of this year. Atterbury, apart from numerous developments nationally, have a number of successful inner city developments under their belt including the Mapungubwe.Hotel and Apartments and College House in Braamfontein. The former was done with Circlevest Properties and the two companies also developed the 112 residential unit ‘Isibaya House’ with ground floor retail on the corner of Marshall and Simmonds Streets. Back to Newtown!

Next to the proposed Atterbury development is Price Candles’ large facility. This company has a very interesting history. It was originally founded in 1830 in Battersea, UK, but as the two founders, Wilson and Lancaster, didn’t want their names to be associated with an industry as ‘vulgar’ as candle-making, they called the company “E. Price’s and Company” after a distant aunt on Lancaster’s side (probably someone they didn’t like!). They hit the jackpot in 1840 when there was a huge upsurge in the demand for cheap, good candles at the time of the marriage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. In the 1870s paraffin, which is an extract from petroleum, became the most important material for candle making. So, by the turn of the century the company was jointly owned by Shell, BP, Burma Oil and Unilever. In 1909 the company bought a candle factory in Cape Town and, a year later, built the building in Newtown which was extended to its current size in 1923. Shell South Africa bought the business in 1984 but closed down its South African operations in 2001 with the exception of the Newtown facility. In 2002 it was taken over by Sasol Wax.

Past Quinn Street and the refurbished Premier Milling office building on the eastern corner and, on the western corner, another ex-Premier building being refurbished. Still in Carr Street, one then comes to a massive industrial building where recycling is done by a company called ‘Remade’. I understand that they recycle just about anything - glass, paper, plastic, tin, etc - they pay cash for the waste that is brought to them on a weight basis. The company was started by a Mr Steve Benjamin in 1987 at which time he was unemployed and needed to make a living. With a borrowed bakkie and a weekly turnover of R80.00 the business has grown into a corporation with an annual turnover of R40 million rand. This is affirmative action for real and one that targets to profit disadvantaged people. “We put money into the hands of desperate, unemployed people at ground level but also provide opportunity to these same people to advance to the level where they can run a processing plant as an owner manager.” We talk so much about affirmative action, recycling and providing employment that it is just great to see it all happening on a sustainable and substantial scale in the inner city! Next door to their building is a structure that has been partly demolished but there is no clue as to what is proposed unless this is to form part of the residential development called ‘The Sidings’. ‘The Sidings’ will provide 440 residential units and is directly to the rear of “The Newtown” another refurbished Premier Milling office block at 37 Quinn Street but which is now residential with 30 apartments and 7 penthouses.

At the eastern end of the two-way section of Carr Street one comes to the western edge of Newtown or, maybe it is more Fordsburg than Newtown! This is Malherbe Street which runs north-south and, where it intersects with Bree Street, there is some really fine old Johannesburg architecture. The section of Bree Street that takes you back east towards the city centre is a very busy mixed - use street with shops, retail and wholesale, garages and panel shops, ‘seed and feed’ warehouses and some residential thrown in for good measure. As a result this is a lively stretch of street. On the northwest corner of Bree and Quinn Streets, a large refurbishment of a group of fascinating old buildings is underway. They are being turned into a mixed use development of 3 600 square metres to be known as ‘Newtown Quarter’ with office and warehouse space plus retail. This looks like a really classy development blending the old facades into a modern facility – Urban Solutions are the architects and they have been involved in a great deal of refurbishment in this area. The project has a courtyard and will be ideal for various types of eating establishments. It will substantially and positively impact on the area.

Between Carr and Bree Streets is Gwigwi Mrwebi Street, previously known as Pim Street. It appears to run into a dead end when it abruptly hits into the Afrika Cultural Centre but, in fact, picks up again on the other side of the Museum Afrika/Market Theatre complex from Miriam Makeba Street going east. One senses that this is emerging as a really important street in Newtown and it would be of value to call the two sections Gwigwi Mrwebi Street West and East for easier identification. The western section contains an eclectic mix of buildings/businesses interspersed with some real historical architectural gems. One such has a gable stating “Jan Owers Buildings 1913”. It now houses a furniture business called ‘M2 Furniture’ that has beautifully restored the old buildings with its front rooms acting as showrooms for its furniture which are manufactured a couple of buildings to its west. It has a delightful courtyard and the owner told me that it was originally a grain building, as were many in the area. It is practically surrounded by fine old buildings probably of the same vintage but generally quite rundown although a number have recently been given facelifts. This section of the street also contains Carfax, the well known “warehouse/club/party/venue/gallery” that has become an institution in Joeys.

Just to its east Gwigwi Mrwebi Street ‘dead ends’ into Henry Nxumalo which is the road under the M1. The columns supporting the freeway above have been used as large canvases for some great street art. The old “Market Cold Storage Building” in Henry Nxumalo looks as though something is happening with it – someone has been busy exposing the reinforcing on the façade, or has it just spalled off over time? Jump over Museum Afrika into the courtyard of the Market Theatre precinct and some of the buildings on the east are slated for demolition (although I believe the facades will be retained) for a mixed use development called “The Majestic”. This has been on the cards for a long, long time but has been subject to all sorts of delays. I understand that these have now been cleared and the development will go out to proposal call, again, in the next few weeks.

Gwigwi Mrwebi (east) also offers a number of surprises. It forms the southern edge of JHC’s Brickfields/ Phumulani development which has a number of small shops facing onto the street that seem to be quite active. Directly opposite, to its south and on the corner of Gwigwi Mrwebi and Gerard Sekoto is the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa development that I mentioned last week. Had a chat to a NUMSA official who tells me that the development that I admired is in fact their Head Office building (on the corner of Jeppe and Gerard Sekoto). It is currently being extended all the way back to Gwigwi Mrwebi maintaining the detail design of the façade of the original building. The Union’s Moses Mayekiso Conference Centre is opposite the Head office and has been functioning since 2006. It is in fact the old Diggers Inn Hotel not the Newtown Hotel as I suggested last week. On the southern side of Jeppe Street, opposite the NUMSA office facility is a lovely old building that I think was once a bank and which is partly restored but empty – it has some magnificent art deco metalwork on the doors and windows.

Turbine Hall on Miriam Makeba Street is looking better and better as the contractors get to the end of their work whilst the extensions to Sci Bono, diagonally opposite, are making rapid progress after a long delay. Directly opposite Turbine Hall on the corner of Jeppe and Miriam Makeba Streets, a proposal for a twenty-plus storey residential building was disallowed by the heritage authorities and I see the site was out on proposal call, again, last week, together with various other ‘Central Place’ sites. ‘Again’ because all of these were substantially held up due to heritage considerations and are now being re-advertised for development. Next to the corner site is what was previously known as the Workers’ Library and Museum now re-emerging as the Workers Museum. The council are currently investing between two-and-a-half and three million rand in the refurbishment of this building as a site for migrant labour history in South Africa. The refurbishment encompasses the renovation of the workers’ compound and the installation of a permanent exhibition for the whole site including some of the adjacent cottages and selected quarters for domestic workers. These buildings form the northern edge of Newtown Park which is an unexpected spread of green space that once was the site of the massive cooling towers of the President Street Power Station. In fact, the Square is lined with interesting buildings, on the west is No 1 Central Place, home to Kaya FM and the Gauteng Tourism Authority, Bassline and the Dance Factory. To the south, Moving into Dance (which is going to be upgraded) the Blue IQ offices (which will make way for a new development) and Sci Bono. The Newtown Square is in really good nick and looks well cared for but has the unfortunate ‘graffiti sculpture’ comprising four upside down motorcar skeletons painted orange and held together by what looks like giant elastic bands. The Square wouldn’t miss its demise although some people might miss the repository it offers for rubbish! At the other extreme (of art!) there is a beautiful bronze statue of Brenda Fassie outside Bassline by Angus Taylor that really picks up the whimsy of “The Madonna of the Townships” who died exactly four years ago to the day! There is a passageway next to 1 Central Place that leads one back to Jeppe Street on its northern end and to President Street on its southern end. The latter takes you to the Bus Factory where the JDA have their offices which they are busy extending. At the northern end of the passageway is a large marble pavement memorial that celebrates some of South Africa’s greats in the jazz field including Chris McGregor, Hotep Idris Galeta, Miriam Makeba, Jonas Mosa, Ntemi Piliso, Basil ‘Manenburg’ Coetzee, Kippie Moeketsi, Zacks Nkosi and Winston ‘Mankunku’ Ngozi.

Mary Fitzgerald Square will evidently be one of the ‘fan parks’ for 2010. To its west is the large Astor Cash and Carry, one of the meccas for cross border shopping along with the Oriental Plaza further to the west. Next to Astor is the derelict Transport House that, I believe, also following a protracted delay, is now on the move again.

Although its progress has certainly slowed down considerably over the past two years, Newtown is still a vibrant area with a great history and the projects that are now under construction, emerging or in the planning stages will provide a real boost to the precinct. It really is worth spending a couple of hours ‘trawling’ the area.

Ciao, neil