Johannesburg’s hip transformation

Johannesburg’s hip transformation


The Maboneng Precinct Johannesburg

The Maboneng Precinct Johannesburg

Head to the Maboneng Precinct to find one of South Africa’s hippest urban enclaves and an incredible example of urban regeneration.

The southeastern
section of Johannesburg’s city centre is a shabby patch of concrete jungle,
where a flyover scythes through a grimy jumble of warehouses and red-brick
blocks, their facades shadowed by fire escapes, security bars and hoardings. But
follow the flyover’s graffiti-splashed pillars a short distance to Berea Road and
you will find one of South Africa’s hippest urban enclaves – an incredible
example of urban regeneration.

On the grid of streets
running northeast of Berea you can eat Ethiopian food in a weekly market, drink
cocktails on a rooftop, browse galleries and boutiques and witness the area’s dynamic
reinvention on a guided tour. And for travellers, spending a few hours here gives
a glimpse of the development that is starting to transform central Johannesburg.

Reviving
Maboneng

The Maboneng Precinct was once,
like the rest of inner-city Johannesburg, a no-go area. When apartheid ended in
1994 and Nelson Mandela led the African National Congress party to power in
South Africa’s first democratic elections, a crime wave swept through the city during
the inevitable period of transition and uncertainty. As businesses relocated to
the relative safety of Johannesburg’s northern suburbs, squatters moved into
the vacated buildings; car-jacking was common after dark and walking around was
dangerous any time of day. Left behind was a boarded-up ghost town with a
fearsome reputation.

It was
a bold move, then, for property developer Jonathan Liebmann to try and attract
professionals and creatives back to this part of the city. Not only did he have
to turn Maboneng’s derelict warehouses and disused factories into a fashionable
destination – mimicking the gentrification of docks, riversides and industrial
quarters in neighbourhoods such as Shoreditch, London and Williamsburg, Brooklyn – but he had to
overcome the demonisation of inner-city Johannesburg in many locals’ suburban
mindsets. Opened in 2009, today his Arts on
Main
complex is the nucleus of a buzzing urban destination, which stretches
about four blocks northeast from Berea Road to Betty Street, between Fox and
Main Streets. Liebmann’s company, Propertuity, now owns more than 30 buildings in
the area, with new retail and residential spaces and a nightclub set to open in
the coming months.

Arts on Main


Occupying a 1911 bonded warehouse, Arts on Main houses galleries and boutiques in
its whitewashed, high-ceilinged interiors. Highlights include the Love
Jozi/Black Coffee fashion store, which sells
Love
Jozi’s
locally inspired range. Suiting Johannesburg’s friendly and
down-to-earth attitude, there is a playfulness to designer Bradley
Kirshenbaum’s work. The glass JoburgTap
bottles for example feature the warning, “Drinking this water is one of the
safest things to do in the city”, while T-shirts display designs such as
Johannesburg’s skyline rising from a
barcode
. The store also showcases Black
Coffee
’s line of sumptuous, meticulous and highly imaginative women’s wear,
in which designer Jacques van der Watt incorporates such influences as Central
African ceremonial garments. Next door is the David
Krut Bookstore
, its tables holding everything from international art
periodicals to a healthy collection of Africana.

Both
shops open onto a rear courtyard, which is dotted with bushy lemon and olive
trees and overlooked by the surrounding cityscape of flat roofs, air vents and
razor wire-topped walls. A vintage car decorates the upstairs terrace of Canteen
restaurant
, which serves modern dishes such as beer-battered hake and chips
in a minimalist interior.

Huge
slogans splayed across the courtyard buildings bear testament to the artistic metamorphosis
of Maboneng. “Lido Electrical” reads one of the older signs, while a newer
addition is less prosaic: “Love your work”. As part of its vision to bring young
creatives back to the inner city, Propertuity offers discounted studios and
apartments in Maboneng to up-and-coming artists. William Kentridge is one of
the more renowned artists with a studio in Arts on Main; his works – typically
charcoal drawings, sculptures and animated films – have fetched more
than $1 million
at auction. With sundry galleries, art-related
organisations and regular events including performances, screenings and
readings, Arts on Main has become one of Johannesburg’s foremost creative
hubs. 

Creative Maboneng

On Sundays and the first Thursday evening of the month, Market
on Main takes place at Arts on Main. The craft and cuisine extravaganza fills
the ground floor with food stalls, selling everything from Ethiopian curries
and injera (sourdough pancakes) to
handmade ravioli. Johannesburg is one of Africa’s most cosmopolitan cities but lekker (tasty) South African specialities
are also on offer, including boerewors
(beef sausage) rolls and bunny chow (curry in a hollowed-out bread loaf), an invention
from Indian-dominated Durban.

Upstairs,
beneath skylights in the corrugated roof and a rusty pulley from the building’s
warehouse days, the stalls sell a quintessentially Johannesburg mix of
contemporary and traditional items, reflecting the rich culture of this
Afro-metropolis. Leather jackets and silk cushions are sold next to rolls of block-printed
fabric and beaded Maasai belts.

Sunday
is also a great time to explore the rest of the Maboneng Precinct, where Fox
and Kruger Streets in particular bustle with people dining al fresco and
strolling between shops and cafes.

The
excellent choice of local
eateries
includes Blackanese Sushi
& Wine Bar
, with its noodle bar, chopstick-decorated walls and, as the
name suggests, black chefs preparing sushi platters. There is also PataPata,
a 1950s-style diner and deli; Eat
Your Heart Out
kosher deli; House
of Baobab
, specialising in African cuisine such as couscous and stews; Sharp!,
which offers a chance to experience the typical shisha nyama (social gatherings and braais) that smoke away on
township corners; and Little
Addis
, serving the same spicy, filling Ethiopian dishes and platters that
draw crowds to Market on Main. On House of Baobab’s rooftop, the Living
Room
bar-cafe is a local favourite for sundowners; its sofas, hammocks and
eco-garden gazing over the towers of Johannesburg’s CBD.

While
you are wandering, do not miss Area3, a
space run by Adidas, which regularly holds exhibitions, events and parties to
showcase local art, music, fashion and sports talent. And the Maboneng Precinct
even has an independent cinema. Located in the Main
Street Life
complex, a renovated textile factory, The Bioscope
shows a programme of African-interest features as well as international films
and documentaries.

Touring Maboneng


Viewing apartments may not sound like the most fun activity, but free tours of
chic
conversions
give fascinating insight into the far-sighted and utopian
vision underlying Maboneng, where people are invited to contribute to the
area’s reinvention by coming to work, live and play. Call Propertuity a day in
advance to organise the tour (010-007-0080) or inquire at the information
office inside the shipping container near the corner of Fox and Kruger Streets;
on Sunday you may be able to turn up and join an existing one.

On
the tour, a Propertuity sales agent will lead you between buildings including
Artisan
Lofts
, a converted 1950s office block; Revolution
House
, originally a 1930s material shop; and Main
Street Life.
Inside the complexes is a stunning collection of penthouse apartments,
open-plan spaces and smaller units, all slickly converted and reflecting the
buildings’ manufacturing heritage in their high ceilings and exposed beams.
Amazingly, as the idea of inner-city living has yet to enter mainstream Johannesburg
in earnest, believers in this project can pick up a studio for as little as 350,000
rand, making this urban revolution a tempting and realistic proposition.

If
you prefer to explore the streets, Main Street Walks offers a five-hour
Maboneng
tour
  which takes in attractions
including Arts on Main and the Kwa Mai-Mai Market, where traditional clothing
and items are sold alongside the ingredients of potions and medicine made by sangomas (traditional healers).

Practicalities

Stay in the heart of the Maboneng Precinct at the 12 Decades Art Hotel, located on the
seventh floor of Main Street Life. Each of the boutique hotel’s 12 rooms has
been decorated by a local artist or designer to evoke a decade in
Johannesburg’s history, from 1886 when the gold rush began to 2006. For
example, the Minehaus room, conceptualised by furniture designers Dokter and Misses, covers 1916 to 1926;
its white corrugated iron and abstract decor evoking both Johannesburg’s
mining-town past and early 20th-century art movements. Through the Artist Exchange scheme,
artists can stay at the hotel in exchange for an artwork.



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