Tours delve into Joburg’s heritage
JOBURG - Make the month of May even more merry with some great tours offered by the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation.
Sightseers can take their pick of walking and bus tours that focus on historical figures, art and music.
3 May: The foundation will offer the Gandhi in Johannesburg bus tour.
The tour will be led by Eric Itzkin, author of Gandhi’s Johannesburg: Birthplace of Satyagraha, who will take sightseers to places associated with Gandhi, including Constitition Hill’s Number Four Prison and the Satyagraha House in Orchards, where Gandhi lived with his friend Hermann Kallenbach.
The tour will begin at Sunnyside Park Hotel, 2 York Road, Parktown, at 1.30pm.
10 May: The foundation will offer a walking tour of Parktown – west of Jan Smuts Avenue.
The tour will take sightseers around the houses in Parktown West, including stately homes like Bishopskop, and those designed by Richard Sloper, Francis Fleming and Joseph Solomon.
The tour will begin at the small park between Seymour and Falklands roads, Parktown, at 2pm.
17 May: The foundation will offer the Art Deco in the City walking tour.
Colin Berger and Clare Eisenstein will lead sightseers on a journey through art deco and the frenetic energy of a Saturday morning in the CBD.
The tour will begin at the corner of Jeppe and Von Wielligh streets, Johannesburg, at 10.30am.
24 May: The foundation will present Music in the Music Room – The Lewandowski Chorale at Arcadia.
The chorale is a group of musicians dedicated to the revival of classical Jewish liturgical music in its original, unarranged form.
Arcadia, Sir Lionel and Lady Florence Phillips’ second Parktown home, was a place of music, art and culture.
“After a short tour of this magnificent mansion, we will be treated to a recital by the chorale,” said the foundation’s Flo Bird.
The tour will begin at Villa Arcadia (Hollard Insurance), Oxford Road, Parktown, at 5pm.
31 May: The foundation will offer the Paarlshoop bus tour.
“Paarlshoop was established in the year of Johannesburg’s founding, very near the spot where George Harrison discovered the main reef,” said Bird.
The tour will take in the old Dutch Reformed church (now a mosque) , the orphanage, reservoir and pump house, Langlaagte Station, and important sites in George Harrison Park and Crown Mines.
The tour will begin at Sunnyside Park Hotel, 2 York Road, Parktown, at 2pm.
Booking is essential for all tours.
Details: 011 482 3349; www.computicket.com; mail@joburgheritage.co.za
