1

Hilson Bridge is the earliest suburban bridge built in Johannesburg, and dates back to 1926. It is constructed of locally sourced granite, and its low-slung and inconspicuous design is in unusual sympathy with its environment. The descendants of the Willow trees seen in this historic photo are still to be found here.

2

High Road between Plantation and Nursery Roads was called Red Square by the Security Branch because of the number of residents involved in anti-apartheid activities. The Rochmans at 21 Nursery Road sheltered Nelson Mandela in the early 60s, Michael Harmel at 47 High was the chief theoretician of the communist party, and Eli Weinberg became the photographer of the Struggle.

3

In contrast to the modest Hilson Bridge, the Pretoria Street Bridge, constructed in 1938, asserts its importance with bulky, rough-hewn dark granite and imposing pediments. The construction of the bridge was necessitated by rapid suburban growth in Highlands North and neighbouring Oaklands and Abbotsford in the 1930s.

4 

The Johannesburg Melrose Shree Siva Subramaniar Temple (Melrose Temple) was founded in 1897 by indentured Tamil labourers working in the Melrose Laundry on the Sandspruit. The Tamil community was granted rights to build a temple here by Kruger’s ZAR government, although restricted ownership laws meant that the land was owned by a white proxy. Sadly, the original buildings were demolished in the 1990s.

5 

This odd looking structure is what remains of a memorial erected in 1976 to commemorate the Royal Air Force aircrews who died while undergoing training in SA. Sadly, the Harvard wings once attached to it were removed after being vandalised, and are now housed  at the SAAF Museum at Zwartkops.

6

In 1927 it was decided to extend waterborne sewerage to the suburbs using the small natural drainage basins of Joburg’s streams. Gravity-fed plants were established and given Classical-sounding names that would not prejudice the neighbouring suburbs by association – Antea, Bruma, Cydna and Delta. These four schemes were constructed during the Depression of the 1930s and were capital projects and poverty relief endeavours using only ‘poor white’ labour. They were eventually superseded by the gigantic disposal works at Diepsloot/Dainfern.

7

The Cydna Bridge, constructed on Melrose Street in 1931, is the most modest, and perhaps the most charming of our neighbourhood’s three historic bridges. Sadly, this area has been tainted by association with Brett Kebble’s arranged murder-suicide just up the road on Melrose Street Bridge.

8

The Katyn Memorial was erected in 1981 to commemorate the Katyn Forest Massacre, in which 14,500 Polish officers, police officers and citizens were executed by the Stalin regime of the Soviet Union in 1940. It was the first memorial outside of Poland to this event. The monument has since been extended to commemorate the Warsaw Flights and Polish Home Army during World War II.

The oldest house in Abbotsford, built before 1913, is found next to the Park.

9

The Bram Fischer family house. After evading police for months in 1964, he was arrested just down the road from his home, at the corner of Beaumont and Stella.

10, 11 and 12

Pretoria-born attorney MA Begemann arrived in Johannesburg in 1886, and in 1896 was living in a large house set in a block of 8 acres to which four magnificent oak avenues led – “Oaklands”. The house still stands, although the block has been carved up and many of the Oak trees are gone. A subsequent owner, RS Mennie, whose family still own the property, built the magnificent stables on Haswell Street, and the almost hidden water tower on the corner of African and Currie.