Neil Fraser
February 23, 2004
I mentioned the Main Street upgrading a couple of times last year without elaborating on the project. Work has now started on site and this is going to be another impactful and quite unique addition to the inner city.
Gerald Olitzki, the city based lawyer/property developer who conceived the Gandhi Square renewal, also had his eye on Main Street between the Anglo American Corporation precinct upgrade at the street's west end and Gandhi Square. His vision was to basically pedestrianise this stretch of roadway over six city blocks that already lie within the South West Improvement District (SWID) thus creating a 'safe and clean' business precinct.
The majority of the affected property owners bought into the idea in principle but felt that it didn't go far enough - that the street should be redeveloped on a themed basis - and what better theme than is offered by the large presence of the mining fraternity in the street - Johannesburg's mining origins!
Streets celebrating a specific period of a city's history or that become synonomous with some aspect of the city are nothing new. London is full of them - Oxford and Regent Streets, Saville Row - one thinks of Bourbon Street in New Orleans; Wall Street and 5th Avenue in New York; State Street in Chicago; Beale Street in Memphis, the list is endless.
So why not a Main Street that celebrates the place, the Main Reef, and the process, mining, on which the city was founded? As numerous players were consulted so enthusiasm for the idea grew and suggestions for enhancing the project increased and the 'Main Street Mall' was born. The project is being mainly financed by the private sector property owners in Main Street with some seed funding from the City through the Johannesburg Development Agency.
The two blocks at the western end of Main Street, between West and Mclaren, were beautifully pedestrianised by the Anglo American Corporation a couple of years back.
AAC of course have offices on both sides of the street over most of these two blocks and their South African Head Office bears the internationally known address, 44 Main Street, Johannesburg. The piazza created by the pedestrianisation provides a splendid setting for this imposing building built during 1937-9.
I love Clive Chipkin's description of the building ('Johannesburg Style') which includes the following: "On the central axis of No.44 the pavement widens into a semi-circular paved area to allow the visitor to pause before ascending the intimidating flight of broad entrance steps that takes him or her up to the level of the entrance floor... the steps lead to the giant entrance portico. The four-storey-high entrance is defined by a pair of great freestanding rectilinear columns, vertically fluted. Here the elaborate bronze doorways form a draught lobby in front of a tinted Art Deco entrance screen that in turn rises up the full height of the portico.
The overriding centrality of the design and the daunting massiveness of the stonework (fortress-like as in a Medici palazzo); the elaborate relief sculpture on the projecting plinths and the pair of circular fountain tanks in the forecourt, richly carved with water and mythological creatures, all create a polite power and cultural worthiness. This low building, unnamed with English reticence, is the seat of finance capital in South Africa, and no signage is needed to inform you of this."
Opposite No. 44 is No. 45, the second AAC headquarters building built in 1948-50. Chipkin: "...a sheer cliff of massive Ficksburg masonry with square window insets...No. 45 surprisingly barely acknowledges its opposite number across the road...nevertheless the uniform sandstone facing and the sculpture reliefs serve to provide an awareness of corporate unity on both sides of Main Street and help to dispel rumours that there is a personality split in the organisation."
60 Main Street is a much more recent building erected in 1988. The building was built on an historic piece of ground, the site of the Marshall Street police station. The original buildings were, sadly, demolished by the Council and the site used for parking for a number of years.
The vacant site was put out to tender by the Council and the development awarded to the Mines Pension Fund, the project having been put together by John Penny, with the legal practice of Webber Wentzel as the main tenant.
The odd U-shaped footprint of the project was a requirement of the Council at the time evidently believing that it was creating an open plaza for public use, but this was never successful. The development was later purchased by Gensec and, when Webber Wentzel deserted the city for northern pastures, the building stood largely vacant. It was more recently sold to a new investor and is currently undergoing extensive renovations prior to being occupied in April by Anglo Platinum, a major mining corporation.
The building's original architects, Portal Partnership Inc, are also handling the renovations and are the architects responsible for the overall Main Street Mall design.
Moving east, still on the south side of the road, the Chamber of Mines building, with its entrance off Hollard Street, was built in 1921 and renovated in 1954. It is the second Chamber building, the first having been built in 1894/5 in Market Street. The first Chamber was in fact established on the 7th December 1887 in the Central Hotel in Commissioner Street whilst the 'modern' Chamber was founded on the 5th October 1889. The founding companies of the Chamber read like a 'who's who of Joburg history' - The Corner House (later Rand Mines and now Randgold and Exploration Limited) representing Wernher, Beit, London and led by H Eckstein and JB Taylor (a must-read is the recently published 'Lucky Jim - Memoirs of a Randlord' drawn from JB Taylor's manuscripts and notes which gives a fascinating account of the events and people involved in the foundling gold mining industry but also covers a much wider spectrum); Consolidated Gold Fields (later Gold Fields of South Africa) led by Cecil Rhodes; the Robinson Group led by JB Robinson and the Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Company (now JCI Limited) led by Barney Barnato.
Directly east of the Chamber of Mines building is the magnificent office block of BHP Billiton. Two companies registered in 1895 and 1897 respectively, the General Mining and Finance Company and A Goertz & Co respectively, grew over the years with the latter becoming Union Corporation and merging in 1980 with General Mining to become Gencor.
General Mining's headquarters were at 6 Hollard Street, the site of their original building constructed in 1903 the only remaining part of which is a stained glass window. A new building was built on the site for the General Mining Corporation in the fifties. This was the largest building of five on the city block bounded by Hollard, Marshall, Simmonds and Main Streets when the decision was taken to rationalise them into a single headquarter building. Harcourt House, on the corner of Main and Simmonds Streets was retained due to its historical significance and Art Deco aesthetics.
The architects, Taljaard Carter Architects, have superbly integrated the new and old and the resultant building was the first recipient of the Colosseum Award which recognises excellence in heritage conservation. In the early stages of design the idea was born that the central area created in the rationalisation process should become a vast atrium rising over 10 storeys off a piazza and it is a wonderful space with huge hanging tapestries depicting various facets of the mining industry. As part of its centenary celebrations, Gencor assembled an outstanding collection of contemporary art.
They were selected to reflect "the diverse cultural palette of the South African people" and the entire building is in fact the exhibition space for this remarkable collection. A report on the building concludes that: "within 6 Hollard Street lie the elements of conservation, contemporary architectural fabric, structural innovation, integration and urban design."
The organisation was later merged into the massive BHP Billiton Group - BHP being a leading global natural resources company and Billiton one of the world's premier mining companies.
North of the Chamber of Mines building, on the opposite side of Main Street, is another building whose original occupants had mining origins. Now known as Eagle House, it originally housed the third Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Hannes Meiring 'Early Johannesburg' describes the birth of the JSE: "Shares first changed hands in a miner's tent on the Ferreira and Wemmer claims and still later in a livery stable in Sauer Street. The Johannesburg Stock Exchange, officially, established on 8 November 1887, moved into its first building on 16 January 1888 but by 1890 a larger building was erected next to it at a cost of seventy thousand pounds. It was a marvel of progress with electric lights - but no telephone! Trading was often so brisk that it continued in the street after the Exchange had closed and Von Brandis was asked to close off a section of Simmonds Street for this purpose between Market and Commissioner Streets. He had posts erected, with chains hung between them, which gave rise to the phrase 'Between the Chains' with which press reports were sometimes headed."
In 1912 the interior of the second Stock Exchange building was converted into a theatre "whilst the exterior was altered to such an extent that it was no longer recognisable."
The third Exchange Building was built in Hollard Street in 1902/04: "the exclusivity of the elite group who used this building was underscored by severe repetition as well as by the application of classicist building elements, such as the portico with temple façade, arched pediments, cornices and rustic work."
Today, the building is owned by the same group who purchased 60 Main Street and is let as commercial space.
Further east, JCI House backs onto Main Street. Johannesburg Consolidated Investments was formed in 1887 around the investments of the Barnato brothers, who had already made their fortune in diamonds in Kimberley.
JCI was responsible for a considerable portion of the development of Johannesburg and the Witwatersrand supplying capital to create the city's first waterworks and the first residential suburbs and to help to establish gold and platinum mines. Known as 'Johnnies' it became an increasingly diversified industrial and mining group and was unbundled in the late 1990s in pursuit of black empowerment.
It is this rich history and relationship with the mining industry that has led to the theming of the proposed partly- pedestrianised street. As many of the buildings require vehicle access, a two- lane feeder road will be maintained through the pedestrianised precinct but the detailed design of paving, kerbs etc will be aimed at giving pedestrians priority and keeping vehicle traffic to a minimum. Buses have been re-routed and the extended pavements will be used for coffee shops.
The project was conceived essentially as a landscaping proposal resulting in as much planting as possible as well as providing a number of water features. The landscaping will be enhanced with themed street furniture such as special lamp- posts, benches, light fittings, refuse bins and display boards. Street furniture will be based on mining objects and images.
Photographs, some of demolished mining related buildings, will be displayed and mining artifacts will be placed throughout as street sculpture. A mining headgear will be erected in the vicinity of 60 Main Street, the historic stamp mill from Langlaagte is currently being refurbished and will be mounted in Hollard Street. Underground locomotives and coco pans have been acquired for display.
There are some other important aspects of the proposed Main Street Mall that will ensure that it will not be a "colonial/apartheid mining monument" but I'll talk to you about those later, for now, cheers.
