Hillbrow () is an Inner City residential neighbourhood of Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa. It is characterized by a high population density and has experienced issues associated with municipal disinvestment, including elevated levels of unemployment, poverty, prostitution,
Under the Group Areas Act during apartheid, Hillbrow was initially designated a "whites-only" area. It later became a "grey area", where residents of different ethnic backgrounds lived together. During this period, it developed a reputation as a cosmopolitan neighbourhood with a politically progressive character and was one of the first recognized Gay village in South Africa.
For much of the twentieth century, Hillbrow had a significant Jewish community and was home to several Orthodox Judaism synagogues, including the Great Synagogue and Poswohl Synagogue. Temple Israel, the oldest Reform Judaism synagogue in South Africa, continues to operate.
Following the end of apartheid, population growth, white flight, and socio-economic pressures contributed to rising crime rates and a decline in infrastructure maintenance.
Today, Hillbrow is home to large numbers of Immigration, particularly from Zimbabwe and Nigeria, alongside residents from local townships. Urban renewal initiatives are underway. The Johannesburg Art Gallery, located nearby, houses works by prominent South African artists, including William Kentridge.
Today, the majority of the residents are incoming migrants from neighbouring country Zimbabwe and from Nigeria. There are a few locals living there from the townships. An urban regeneration programme is underway.
History
Prior to the discovery of gold on the
Witwatersrand in 1886, the area that later became Hillbrow was located on government-owned land known as Randjeslaagte, which today forms part of the
Johannesburg CBD. Randjeslaagte was a triangular tract of land not used for farming, with Hillbrow situated at the northern apex of the triangle. The name Hillbrow derives from the suburb’s position on the brow of the east–west ridge that runs across the Johannesburg Central Business District.
The land was originally owned in the form of claims by J. Nicholls, who subsequently sold them to the Transvaal Mortgage, Loan & Finance Company.
Following World War II, property values increased, and much of Hillbrow was redeveloped into Tower block.
Jewish community
Since the early 1920s, Hillbrow has been home to a Jewish community.
[ The Jewish Community of Johannesburg, 1886-1939: Landscapes of Reality and Imagination University of Pretoria. December 2004]
Jewish residents and investors were responsible for constructing many of the neighbourhood’s buildings.
Several social and cultural meeting places also developed, including the Florian Café on Kotze Street,
which later became known as a gathering place for left-wing activists. Jewish anti-apartheid activist
Rusty Bernstein described developing his political awareness there through discussions with
Kurt Jonas, the son of German Jewish migrants and his fellow student at the University of the Witwatersrand’s School of Architecture.
Religious and communal institutions were established in Hillbrow. The Great Synagogue, formerly located on Wolmarans Street, was considered the central synagogue of Johannesburg and a major centre of Orthodox Judaism in South Africa.[ The Future of Jewish South Africa Tablet Mag. 22 March 2023][ South Africa's Oldest Reform Synagogue Is a Place Where Few Jews Dare Venture Haaretz. 19 June 2019] The former Poswohl Synagogue on Mooi Street, named after Pasvalys in Lithuania, served congregants who had emigrated from that town and was declared a National Monument in 1981.[ Poswohl Synagogue, Mooi Street, Johannesburg SA History. Retrieved on 4 October 2023]
In 1967, confrontations occurred in Hillbrow between German immigrants making Nazi salute at a local beer hall and Jewish youth. The West Germany embassy in South Africa issued a statement condemning the salutes and attributing them to young people unfamiliar with life under Nazism.[ So, African Parliament to Discuss Johannesburg Clash Between Jews and Germans Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 10 May 1967]
During the 1960s and 1970s, many elderly Jewish residents purchased flats in Hillbrow.
Several Jewish architects contributed to the design of Hillbrow’s buildings. Harold Le Roith introduced features such as pavement gardens at Golden Oaks, completed in 1976, and also designed Cresthill Mansions, later converted into social housing.[(29 November 2024). Colosseum Award Winners 2024 Retrieved on 3 February 2025][ LE ROITH, Harold Hersch (Harry) Artefacts. Retrieved on 3 February 2025] In the 1970s, Isaac and Gloria Rootshtain purchased the Cranbrook Hotel on Leyds Street, a Apartment hotel originally designed by Le Roith that had been featured in The Architectural Review in 1953.[Pevsner, Nikolaus (7 June 1953). Johannesburg: the development of a contemporary vernacular in the Transvaal The Architectural Review. Retrieved on 3 February 2025] They reopened it as a Kashrut establishment named The Connoisseur.[ The Zionist Connoisseur: The story of Gloria Rootshtain Telfed. Retrieved on 28 December 2024]
Gay community
In the mid-20th century, Hillbrow developed a reputation as a center for a white
gay community. Beginning in the 1960s, several gay-oriented establishments and publications were established in the area.
Racial integration and white flight
the mid-1970s onward, Jews began moving from Hillbrow and other inner-city suburbs to the northern suburbs of Johannesburg.
In 1978, the South African branch of the National Front distributed racist and
Antisemitism pamphlets in Hillbrow critical of Jewish
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In the 1987 elections, the far-right National Party fielded Leon de Beer as a candidate in Hillbrow. His campaign was promoted in the Hillbrow-based gay publication Exit and combined support for gay rights with a proposal to resegregate Hillbrow as a whites-only district.
In 1989, Isaac and Gloria Rootshtain Aliyah to Israel, selling The Connoisseur hotel in the same year.
In 1990, one of South Africa’s first training and information centres for HIV was established in Hillbrow, serving primarily white gay men at its inception. In the 1990s, much of the white community—including the largely white gay community—left Hillbrow as part of white flight. By the late 1990s, the clinics in Hillbrow were primarily serving Black heterosexual women.
As of 2018, a small number of poor and elderly Jews remained in Hillbrow and the neighboring suburb of Berea, receiving support primarily from Jewish charities in Johannesburg.[ Life is tough for elderly still living in Hillbrow and Berea South African Jewish Report. 6 September 2018]
Social action
Several social action groups and organizations have been active in Hillbrow to address local social challenges. In 1990, Jean du Plessis and Adele du Plessis founded The House Group, which established shelters and programs focused on the care and rehabilitation of female child victims of commercial sexual exploitation. The organization’s first premises were located at 52 Soper Road, near
Ponte City, before relocating in 1993 to two adjacent buildings at 60 Olivia Road, at the base of the
Hillbrow Tower. These facilities included The House Drop-in Centre and the Intombi Shelter. The House Group was among the first organizations to advocate for legislation granting girls in shelters the same legal protections as boys. In 1997, the Gauteng Provincial Government enacted the first legislation enabling shelters to accommodate girls.
Landmarks
Constitution Hill
The Constitution Hill precinct, which houses the Constitutional Court of South Africa, is situated on the western edge of Hillbrow. It forms part of a broader government and private sector initiative to revitalize the area and the central business district.
Hillbrow Tower
The
Hillbrow Tower, a telecommunications structure, is a prominent feature of the Johannesburg skyline and has appeared in numerous depictions of the city, including the city seal. Completed in 1971, the tower stands 270 metres tall, making it the tallest building with a
Elevator in Africa. Originally named the JG Strijdom Tower, it became widely known as the Hillbrow Tower and was officially renamed the Telkom Joburg Tower in May 2005, with the new name displayed in lights. The tower previously housed a luxury rotating restaurant, which closed in 1981 due to security concerns.
Ponte City
Ponte City is the tallest residential building in Johannesburg and is regarded as a notable urban landmark. Designed by architect Rodney Grosskopff, who also designed the
Joburg Theatre, it was completed in 1975. The building rises 54 storeys above one of the highest points in the city and is distinguished by its cylindrical form. Once considered a desirable address, Ponte City experienced deterioration in living conditions during a period of disinvestment. In 1999 the building came under new management, with maintenance and gradual restoration undertaken alongside broader municipal and provincial initiatives to rehabilitate Hillbrow. In 2007, British director
Danny Boyle announced plans to use Ponte City as a film location.
[ New Danny Boyle project Ponte Tower in first stage of development]
In popular culture
Literature
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Something Out There, a 1984 novella by Nadine Gordimer briefly features foreign tourists, a married couple, that are mugged outside the Moulin Rouge Hotel in Hillbrow.
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Zoo City, a 2010 science fiction novel by Lauren Beukes is largely set in Hillbrow.
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The Restless Supermarket, a 2001 novel by Ivan Vladislavic, portraying South Africa's transition to democracy through the lens of Aubrey Tearle, a conservative white pensioner. Through this lens, Hillbrow becomes representative of the larger post-apartheid South Africa.
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Welcome to Our Hillbrow, a 2001 novel by Phaswane Mpe deals with life in the district in the years after apartheid, focusing on a large number of issues ranging from poverty, HIV/AIDS, and xenophobia.
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Room 207, a 2006 novel by Kgebetli Moele about six young black men living in Hillbrow
[ A Walk through Hillbrow: Melancholic Attachments, Impeded Movement and the Search for a Post-Apartheid Image of Masculinity in Kgebetli Moele's Room 207 Scrutiny2 by UNISA. 2017]
Music
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Hillbrow by Johannes Kerkorrel, from the album Eet Kreef (Shifty Records, 1989).
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Hillbrow by Stef Bos, from the album Jy vir My.
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Hillbrow by Manfred Mann's Earth Band, from the CD box Odds & Sods – Mis-takes & Out-takes
Film
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, a 2008 crime film set in Hillbrow
Documentary
In 2000, directors Michael Hammon and Jacqueline Görgen released the documentary
Hillbrow Kids, which followed the lives of street children in post-apartheid Johannesburg. In 2007,
BBC Two broadcast
Law and Disorder in Johannesburg, presented by
Louis Theroux, which examined crime and social conditions in the city, with a focus on Hillbrow.
[ Inside the Hijacked Building | Louis Theroux: Law and Disorder in Johannesburg| BBC Studios BBC. 2007] In 2013, Al Jazeera English aired a
Witness documentary on Hillbrow, portraying the suburb as a densely populated urban area characterized by both crime and resilience.
[ Hillbrow: Between Heaven and Hell | Witness Al Jazeera. 2013]
Photography
Hillbrow has been the subject of several works by photographer
David Goldblatt. His 1973 photographs
Hillbrow, Johannesburg, South Africa and
Domestic Worker on Abel Road, Hillbrow, Johannesburg are held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
[ David Goldblatt works MoMA. Retrieved on 6 June 2024][ David Goldblatt works MoMA. Retrieved on 6 June 2024][ David Goldblatt - South African, 1930–2018 MoMA. Retrieved on 3 June 2024] The photograph
Sunday Morning: A not-White family living illegally in the "White" group area of Hillbrow, Johannesburg depicts a Black family residing in the suburb in violation of the Group Areas Act and is part of the Yale University Art Gallery collection.
[ Sunday morning: A not-White family living illegally in the "White" group area of Hillbrow, Johannesburg Yale University Art Gallery. Retrieved on 6 June 2024]
In 2010, several of Goldblatt’s Hillbrow photographs were included in the exhibition South African Photographs: David Goldblatt at the Jewish Museum in New York. These works included Holdup in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, November 1963 and Baby with childminders and dogs in the Alexandra Street Park, Hillbrow, Johannesburg, 1972.[ David Goldblatt’s photographs tell the story of South Africa The Economist. 4 February 2019][ David Goldblatt Art Blart. 15 September 2010] The exhibition pieces were loaned from the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg. Other Hillbrow works by Goldblatt include The Watchman, Balnagask Court, Hillbrow (1972), Woman Shopping, Hillbrow (1972), and Man with an Injured Arm, Hillbrow (1972).[ David Goldblatt Lens Culture. Retrieved on 3 June 2024]
Notable people
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Bonaventure Hinwood (1930–2016), Roman Catholic priest and Afrikaans poet
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Sid James (1913-1976), Actor
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Sol Phenduka (1987–present), radio presenter at Kaya FM
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Helen Zille (1951–present), former Federal Leader of the Democratic Alliance
Bibliography
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Daniel Conway (2009), "Queering Apartheid: the National Party's 1987 'Gay Rights' Election Campaign in Hillbrow", Journal of Southern African Studies, 35,4: 849–863.
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Glynn Griffiths and Paddy Clay, Hillbrow (Cape Town: Don Nelson, 1982)
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Alan Morris, Bleakness and Light: Inner City Transition in Hillbrow, Johannesburg (Johannesburg: University of Witwatersrand Press, 1999)
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Ron Nerio and Jean Halley, The Roads to Hillbrow: Making Life in South Africa's Community of Migrants (Fordham University Press, 2022)
External links
