page_title: History of Johannesburg
section_title: The Colonial Transvaal
hierarchical_section_title: History of Johannesburg / The Colonial Transvaal
caption_attribution_description: English: This is the Standard Bank Building in the city of Johannesburg, Marshallstown taken in the year 1924. It is part of the Joburgpedia and the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation project where archived documents and pictures of the city of Johannesburg are being digitized
context_page_description: Johannesburg is a large city in Gauteng Province of South Africa. It was established as a small village controlled by a Health Committee in 1886 with the discovery of an outcrop of a gold reef on the farm Langlaagte. The population of the city grew rapidly, becoming a municipality in 1897. In 1928 it became a city making Johannesburg the largest city in South Africa. In 2002 it joined ten other municipalities to form the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. Today, it is a centre for learning and entertainment for all of South Africa. It is also the capital city of Gauteng.
context_section_description: In April 1904 there was a bubonic plague scare in the shanty town area of Brickfields. The town council decided to condemn the area and burn it down. Beforehand most of the Africans living there were moved far out of town to Klipspruit (later called Pimville), where the council had erected iron barracks and a few triangular hutments. The rest of them had to build their own shacks. No provision was made for the alternative accommodation of other racial groups. The fire brigade then set the 1600 shacks and shop, plus an Indian temple, in Brickfields alight. Out of this holocaust there emerged one rat that was promptly shot. Thereafter the area was redeveloped as Newtown where a new market was built.
  Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a qualified English barrister, came to southern Africa in 1893 to act as legal representative of some Indian traders in Pretoria. He moved to Natal, where he was instrumental in forming the Natal Indian Congress. In 1902 he concerned himself with the rights of Indians in the Transvaal Colony. He opened his own firm of attorneys (solicitors) in Johannesburg. In 1910 his supporters gave him the use of land to open an ashram, named Tolstoy Farm and dedicated to the ideas of the Russian novelist and philosopher Leo Tolstoy, outside Johannesburg, which was to become the centre of the next phase of satyagraha (nonviolent resistance). In 1913 Gandhi and 2,000 Indian men and women flouted the law and marched from Natal into the Transvaal. He was arrested and jailed. Eventually he reached agreement with General Smuts, resulting in the South African Parliament passing the Indian Relief Act of 1914. He regarded his work in South Africa as done and returned to India in 1915. He acquired the honorific title Mahatma.
  Sophiatown was originally part of the farm Waterval. In 1897 the speculator Hermann Tobiansky acquired a 237-acre portion of the farm, which was situated about four miles or so west of the centre of Johannesburg. In 1903 he had some of the land surveyed as leasehold township, divided into almost 1700 small stands. The township was named after Tobiansky's wife, Sophia, and some of the streets were named after his children Toby, Gerty, Bertha and Victoria. Blacks started acquiring land in Sophiatown.
  All the gold mines reopened and the Randlords returned to Johannesburg. The first mansion to be built was not in Parktown, but on the hill overlooking Doornfontein suburb. It was called "Eastington" and was built in 1902 for John Dowell Ellis. Soon they started building their Parktown mansions as well. One of the first to be built was "Northwards". It was designed by Herbert Baker and built at 21 Rockridge Road for Sir John and Lady Josie Dale Lace. When they fell on hard times it was taken over by George Albu. The present owner is the University of the Witwatersrand. The house was built by specialist craftsmen and masons rather than from manufactured parts which had become popular during the Industrial Revolution. The house possesses some beautiful romantic features like a minstrel gallery and Juliette balconies.
  Crown Mines Limited, which was founded in 1909 by the combination of seven mining properties, including the Robinson Mine and the Crown Mine, was for many years the biggest producer of gold in the world. It continued mining until 1977.
  The Rand Club of Johannesburg is the oldest private members' club in Johannesburg, South Africa, and founded in October 1887. The plan for the current, third, clubhouse was put on paper in 1902 and its construction was finished in 1904 on the design by architects Leck & Emley in the Edwardian neo-baroque style.
  Lord Alfred Milner left South Africa on 2 April 1905 and was succeeded as High Commissioner by the Earl of Selbourne. In January 1906 the Liberal Party in the United Kingdom won the general election and decided to grant the Transvaal responsible government. An election was held in 1907 and General Louis Botha became the Prime Minister of the Transvaal.
  The various religious organisations were also building their houses of worship. The synagogue was in Preside
caption: Standard Bank building in 1908
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