Travel

Joburg Heritage Foundation Tour of New Doornfontein

Posted on 17th May 2017

Last Friday the first cold front of the season made landfall in Johannesburg and it was freezing. I had signed up for my first Joburg Heritage Foundation Tour of New Doornfontein and I was hoping the rain would clear up by then. It didn’t, but it the rain did not hamper the tour. I have been wanting to do a tour for a while now, but I had to wait for a kid-free weekend to take part, it’s not really something you take small children to.

I arrived just before 2 pm and it was raining, a soft Cape Town like rain and I made my way to the group. We all introduced ourselves to each other.

We were guided by of Alkis Doucakis, who has been researching this area for many years. Unfortunately, I could barely hear most of what he said and decided to just enjoy walking around and photographing the area. We explored the city’s earliest water sources, the unique industrial heritage, places of worship, and the influence of waves of migration.

The tour explored the historical fabric of New Doornfontein but also celebrated the new, and I particularly enjoyed the street art of the area. I will be doing a seperate post on the street art as I have so many photos – stay tuned!