History Braamfontein

According to Anna Smith, in her book 'Johannesburg Street Names', there is no township Braamfontein - but rather an area of Johannesburg popularly known by that name. It is named after the original Braamfontein Farm, which formed part of the western boundary of the government owned Randjieslaagte, proclaimed in 1886 to become Johannesburg. It occupied approximately an area between the Braamfontein the Braamfontein Cemetery in the West and the Civic Centre in the east - between Wolmarans and Hoofd Streets, but excluding Wanderers View, Argyle and towards the west a rather vague area now known as Clifton.

J.J. Lindeque purchased the south-west portion of the Braamfontein from a Mr F. van Dyk in 1884. Part of Lindeque's area was bought by the government in order to to increase Johannesburg's water supply. A further protion was bought by H. Ecksten & Co. but when no minerals were found, they decided to establish a plantation to supply the timber for the mines. This plantation was known as the Braamfontein forest. In 1892 the Braamfontein Co. connected with H. Eckstein & Co. resolved to establish the township of Parktown.

Braamfontein Cemtery

In 1887 a block of twelve stands were set aside for Johannesburg's first cemetery in the north-west corner of Bree and Harrison Streets, where the Traffic Department offices had been since 1968. By September 1887 a cemetery had been established in Braamfontein as the first official burial ground. A crematorium was only opened in the south-east corner in, although a Hindu crematorium had been established in the Brixton cemetery as early as 1918.

Originally the major area of Braamfontein was occupied by small dwellings many of whcich were semi-detached, thus establidshing a middle-class suburb. With the rapid growth of the town and the addition of the University of the Witwatersrand to the west, and the first Collage of Education in Hoofd Street, the population increased. Like Parktown this suburb was not far enough north and west from the grwoing centre of Johannesburg to allow it to continue as a purely residential area. Thus within the last few decades it has been converted into a commercial zone with many high-rise buildings for the growing financial and business enterprises of Johannesburg. This, in turn, attracted several new hotels and restaurants.