Inner City of Johannesburg

The Inner city encompasses the central districts of Johannesburg, including the tourist areas of Braamfontein, Maboneng, Newtown and Fordsburg.

Understand

The historic inner city is rich in architectural history and contains many institutions, museums and excellent art galleries. The district has a however a troubled recent past, with many residents and businesses leaving in the years after the end of apartheid. During the late 1990s and early 2000s the inner city was in practice a no-go zone with rampant crime and destitution. However, a massive reinvestment programme in the last decade have started to rejuvenate the district.

Crime is however still an issue, and walking alone during late evenings and nights are not recommended. Also, several squatted buildings are still dotted around the inner city. These places are often safe havens for drug users and dealers. Such buildings can often be seen from a distance and a detour around them is strongly advised.

Get in

By train

The beating heart of all rail services within Gauteng region as well as intercity trains from cities across the country is the sprawling Johannesburg Park Station. MetroRail runs frequent local and regional services while Gautrain provides a fast link with Pretoria and O.R. Tambo International Airport via an easy change in Sandton.

• 1 Johannesburg Park Station. (updated Dec 2020)

There are several other stations within the inner city that can be of use if you are travelling to specific destinations. A few relevant stations includes:

• 2 Johannesburg Westgate railway station. (updated Dec 2020)
• 3 Johannesburg Faraday railway station. (updated Dec 2020)

By bus

There are plenty of buses going into the inner city, most of them convey at Gandhi Square.

• 4 Gandhi Square bus station. (updated Sep 2022)

See

The area is home to Johannesburg's original 1 Chinatown on Commissioner Street, and while the community has declined considerably since the 1990s, a handful of shops and restaurants remain in the area.

Museums

• 2 Museum Africa, 121 Lilian Ngoyi St, ☏ +27 11 833 5624. (updated Dec 2020)
• 3 Wits Origins Centre Museum, Yale Road and Enoch Sontonga Ave (At University of the Witwatersrand), ☏ +27 11 717-4700. An excellent multimedia display of the rock art and the origins of humankind. Good curio shop, book shop and coffee shop. Adults R80, students and youth R40. (updated Oct 2018)
• 4 Constitution Hill, 11 Kotze St. (updated Dec 2020)
• 5 Sci-Bono Discovery Centre (Corner of Miriam Makeba St and Helen Joseph St). (updated Dec 2020)
• 6 Fietas Museum, 25 14th St, ☏ +27 72 193 3580. Dedicated to the district of Fietas, which was the inofficial name of the district Pageview. The area was forcefully cleared of it's predominantly Indian inhabitants and largely razed during the early 1980s. (updated Feb 2021)
• 7 Lindfield Victorian House Museum, 72 Richmond Ave, ☏ +27 11 726 2932. (updated Feb 2021)

Art galleries

• 8 Johannesburg Art Gallery, Klein and King George streets. The biggest gallery on the African continent with a good collection of local and international work on display. Free entrance. (updated Oct 2018)
• 9 Standard Bank Gallery, Frederick St, ☏ +27 860 123 000. Free entrance. (updated Oct 2018)
• 10 Wits Art Museum (At University of the Witwatersrand, Corner of Bertha St and Jorissen St), ☏ +27 11 717 1365. (updated Dec 2020)

Churches

• 11 Greek Orthodox Church in Joubert Park, 74 Wolmarans St, Hillbrow. Built in 1912. (updated Dec 2020)
• 12 St Mary's Cathedral, 13 Wanderers St. (updated Dec 2020)
• 13 Friedenskirche, 38 Edith Cavell St, Hillbrow. This church was for a long time at the centre of German cultural life in Johannesburg. (updated Dec 2020)
• 14 Holy Trinity Catholic Church, 16 Stiemens St, Braamfontein, ☏ +27 11 339 2826. Built in 1938. (updated Sep 2022)

Parks

• 15 Enoch Sontonga Memorial Park. Large park dedicated to Enoch Sontonga (1873-1905) who in 1897 composed the Xhosa hymn Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika ("God Bless Africa"). The hymn was picked up by ANC in 1925 and has been South Africa's official anthem since 1994. (updated Sep 2022)

Others

• 16 Hillbrow Tower. The tallest building in Africa until 2021, at 269m. Inaccessible for visitors.  
• 17 Ponte City. The tallest residential building in Africa, with a largest neon sign in the Southern Hemisphere on top of it. Since the hollow building rises above an uneven rock floor that was left in the original state, the contrast between Brutalist architecture and bare rock is quite moving.  

Do

• 1 Joburg Theatre, 163 Civic Boulevard. (updated Dec 2020)
• 2 Market Theatre, 56 Margaret Mcingana St. (updated Dec 2020)
• 3 Tin Town Theatre, 4 Margaret Mcingana St. (updated Dec 2020)
• 4 Ellis Park Stadium (Emirates Airline Park), 47 North Park Lane. Joburg's home for rugby union, hosting the Lions of the European-based United Rugby Championship (though including three other South African sides), with a playing season October–March. The stadium is also the primary home of the Golden Lions, an effective developmental side for the URC Lions that plays in the domestic Currie Cup from January–June. (Some Golden Lions games are played at a much smaller stadium at the University of the Witwatersrand.) It also frequently hosts matches of the South Africa men's national team, known as the Springboks (also "Bokke", a contraction of the Afrikaans Springbokke). The stadium, with a capacity of about 60,000, is in the Doornfontein district 500 m north of Jeppe railway station. (updated Oct 2023)

Buy

• 1 Oriental Plaza, 38 Lilian Ngoyi St. Shopping centre and tourist attraction in Fordsburg. The bazaar-like structure was built in 1974 for Indian trader after that the apartheid regime had forcefully removed them from the suburb of Parkview, or Fietas as it was known back then. (updated Dec 2020)

Eat

There are plenty cheap hole-in-the-wall eateries and food carts within the city centre. However, options for higher end dining are limited even if there are a few gems. A more accessible option for fine dining is Sandton.

Mid range

• 1 Mangrove, 2 De Beer St, ☏ +27 73 667 9509. Popular all-day eatery. (updated Sep 2022)

Splurge

• 2 The Rand Club, 33 Loveday St. Housed in a majestic club house built in 1904. While most of the building is members-only, the restaurant is open to the public. (updated Dec 2020)

Drink

• 1 Kitchener's Carvery Bar, 71 Juta St, ☏ +27 11 403 0166. Has been around, in some form or another, at this site since 1906. Pub by day and early evening that turns into a nightclub after midnight. (updated Sep 2022)

Sleep

Mid range

• 1 12 Decades Johannesburg Art Hotel, 286 Fox St, ☏ +27 861 226-787. Rooms are conceptualised to interpret each decade of Johannesburg's history. (updated Oct 2018)
• 2 ANEW Hotel Parktonian, 120 De Korte St, ☏ +27 11 403 5740. (updated Sep 2022)
• 3 The Bannister Hotel, 9 De Beer St, ☏ +27 11 403 6888. Small, trendy hotel. (updated Sep 2022)