Upcoming Tours
Power to the People – Electric Newtown
Type of Tour
Walking Tour
Date
Saturday, 2nd May 2026
Time and Duration
14:00
2.5 Hours
Cost
JHF Members: R190
Non-Members: R295
Max no of people
40
Description
Newtown is well-known as a vibrant arts and culture precinct, but the history of this fascinating area goes back much further, to the earliest days of Joburg. Back then, this marshy ground outside Johannesburg’s original border was simply known as Brickfields.
Join your guides Karen Curry and David Fleminger to discover how Newtown grew from a muddy slum into the city’s second market square, with its magnificent Edwardian market building.
We’ll also explore Newtown’s heritage as the location of the city’s main power station and electric workshop, and discuss its continuing evolution as a dynamic inner-city cultural hub that includes the Market Theatre, Museum Africa, the Sci Bono Centre, the Workers Museum and many other important institutions.
After the tour, you are welcome to explore Museum Africa or the Sci Bono Centre further, at your leisure. Secure underground parking is available at the Newtown Junction Mall on the corner of Miriam Makeba Street and Gwigwi Mrwebi Street. We will meet outside the main entrance to the Market Theatre.
Please bring along drinking water and wear comfortable walking shoes, a sunhat and sunblock. As this is an inner-city tour, we recommend that you leave your valuables at home.
Meeting Place
Market Theatre, 138 Lilian Ngoyi St, Newtown
Contact Number
060 813 3239
Homecoming: A Legacy of Art and Mining
Type of Tour
Walkabout and talk
Date
Saturday, 9th May 2026
Time and Duration
9:30
+- 2 Hours
Cost
JHF Members: R100
Non-Members: R205
Max no of people
40
Description
We are delighted that a collection of Johannesburg’s art treasures have returned home after travels abroad. To celebrate, we are hosting a special visit to the Homecoming Exhibition. Currently on show at the Standard Bank Gallery in Simmonds Street, the exhibition features a selection from the renowned Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) collection.
Many of these much-loved works formed part of the Gallery’s founding collection in the early twentieth century. They were acquired when Florence Phillips commissioned Hugh Lane to assemble a gallery that would extend the cultural and educational horizons of a young and rapidly growing city. Alongside these works are later acquisitions that reflect the evolving story of Johannesburg and its artistic legacy.
Wilhelm van Rensburg, Senior Art Specialist & Head Curator at Strauss & Co, will take us through the exhibition. Its works are arranged around unexpected and thought-provoking themes – such as Food, Death, Sailing and the Nude – offering fresh perspectives and new curatorial insights. Entry to the gallery is free.
The tour continues with an exploration of the Standard Bank atrium. Here, the preserved Ferreira Mine Stope provides a powerful reminder of the city’s mining origins, set within the striking architecture of 1980s Johannesburg.
Prof Kathy Munro will conclude the visit with an engaging talk drawing together the threads of art, mining and finance in the making of the City of Gold. Having begun her own art education at the Johannesburg Art Gallery, Prof Munro later lectured in South African economic history at Wits. She will reflect on the vision of Florence Phillips, the ambitions of the Randlords, and the shifting meanings and interpretations of this important collection over time.
Underground parking is available at the gallery.
Meeting Place
Standard Bank Art Gallery, 44 Frederick Street, Marshalltown
Contact Number
060 813 3239
Johannesburg Mining District - Dust and Dreams
Type of Tour
Walking Tour
Date
Sunday, 10th May 2026
Time and Duration
9:00
3 Hours
Cost
JHF Members: R190
Non-Members: R295
Max no of people
40
Description
The great Johannesburg story begins deep beneath the earth. And when the main reef was discovered, the landscape became defined by gold and the people who arrived from across the world to extract it. Soon, the Mining District along Main Street in town was bustling and many of the great mining and financial houses set up shop along the thoroughfare.
Today, Joburg remains Africa’s financial powerhouse but the original mining district has changed. Over the years, many companies moved out and their impressive offices have been transformed into educational and social hubs. The road has been semi-pedestrianised and interesting historical relics from the mining days have been installed including a stamp battery and the famous Impala Stampede sculpture by Herman Walt.
All in all, Main Street is not just a place, it’s the origin story of modern Johannesburg. And the mining belt is evolving from its industrial past into a mixed, human-centred future; a future that is uneven, layered, and still unfolding.
Join Eugenie Drakes on a leisurely stroll to experience the shift for yourself. Our walk will start outside the old Anglo American office building. From there we will head up Main Street to Ghandi Square – experiencing the stories, spirit, growth and change that is happening en route.
This is an inner city tour so please leave your valuables at home. There are, however, cameras and security. The streets are waiting for you.
We will meet on the steps of the old Anglo American Building, 44 Main Street. Parking may be available on the street but we recommend that you Uber or similar.
Meeting Place
Former Anglo American Building, 44 Main Street, Marshalltown
Contact Number
060 813 3239
From Buckets to Brigades: A Journey Through Joburg’s Firefighting History
Type of Tour
Bus Tour
Date
Sunday, 17th May 2026
Time and Duration
9:30
3 Hours
Cost
JHF Members: R350
Non-Members: R450
Max no of people
45
Description
Step aboard and journey back in time. Uncover the fiery story of Johannesburg’s intrepid inferno fighters — where courage, determination, and innovation saved the day, and the city.
From humanity’s earliest relationship with fire in the Cradle of Humankind, to the rise of a gold rush town constantly under threat, this tour traces the remarkable evolution of firefighting in Johannesburg. What began as a desperate struggle with rudimentary tools, grew into one of the largest fire departments on the African continent by 1962. It also became the country’s greatest transport concern outside of the South African Railways and Harbours.
The story ignites in December 1897, when a single blaze – a stable fire behind a novelty bar in Sauer Street – marked Johannesburg’s first recorded fire. The city was barely a year old. That moment sparked an urgent and relentless effort to protect the rapidly growing mining settlement from the ever-present threat of destruction. Just three years later, the Fire Department was officially established – born out of necessity, courage, and resilience.
Join your guide, Antoinette Morgan, for a fascinating bus tour to some of Joburg’s most important fire stations. Along the way, you’ll hear gripping accounts of famous and forgotten fires, dramatic explosions, and the men and machines that battled them. These are stories of chaos and courage, of lessons learned in smoke and ash, and of a service forged in the heat of crisis.
So, sit back, relax, and let us take you on a compelling journey through Johannesburg’s blazing past – where every spark tells a story.
The bus departs from the Sunnyside Park Hotel, where secure parking is available. You are welcome to bring refreshments on the bus (no alcohol allowed) or enjoy lunch at the hotel’s restaurant and bar after the tour.
Meeting Place
Sunnyside Park Hotel, Princess of Wales Terrace / Sunnyside Drive Cnr. Carse O Gowrie Road, Parktown
Contact Number
060 813 3239
Helpmekaar - Afrikaans comes to Johannesburg
Type of Tour
School Tour
Date
Saturday, 23rd May 2026
Time and Duration
14:00
2 Hours
Cost
JHF Members: R190
Non-Members: R295
Max no of people
40
Description
The lineage of Johannesburg’s first schools is broad and varied. What was notably absent in the early 1920s, however, were schools of stature that used Afrikaans as a medium of instruction.
It was in this context that Helpmekaar Kollege emerged. Established in 1921 in the Irene Church opposite the Union Grounds, it was founded by an Afrikaner community seeking educational independence for their children.
The laying of the foundation stone in 1925 by JBM Hertzog marked both a physical and symbolic assertion of Afrikaner presence in the city. Its enduring motto, “Komaan Helpmekaar/Come on, help each other”, was drawn from the poetry of Jan Celliers and encapsulates a spirit of mutual support which remains central to the school’s identity.
Parallel to this development, Rand Meisieskool took shape as a sister institution within the same cultural and linguistic milieu. This reinforced Braamfontein as a distinct centre of Afrikaans education in Johannesburg.
Both schools are filled with wonderful heritage buildings and features, including the particularly evocative cast-iron entrance gates at Rand Meisieskool. These gates were salvaged from Friedaura, one of the early Parktown mansions designed by Hermann Kallenbach. They were executed in a refined Art Nouveau idiom, embodying the craftsmanship and aesthetic ambitions of Johannesburg’s elite during the mining boom years.
Together, Helpmekaar and Rand Meisieskool invite a number of important questions. Why were two Afrikaans schools established in Braamfontein, rather than in the more affluent northern suburbs? And how have these institutions navigated the profound societal shifts following 1994?
Join Prof Kathy Munro and Joy Campkin-Smith as they explore these issues while strolling through the little-seen architectural treasures tucked away behind these two esteemed educational institutions.
Meeting Place
Cnr of Melle and Empire Roads, Parktown, parking is available at the school and access is from the second gate in Mello Street (opposite Helpmakaar College’s main gate)
Contact Number
060 813 3239
Beauvais - Tracey’s Folly
Type of Tour
House Tour
Date
Saturday, 30th May 2026
Time and Duration
10:00
2 Hours
Cost
JHF Members: R190
Non-Members: R295
Max no of people
30
Description
High up on the Linksfield Ridge, sits beautiful Beauvais, a 40-room three-story home built for diamond mining magnate Percival White Tracey. This elegant white house with its distinctive Cape Dutch gables boasts a deep wrap-around veranda, providing a magnificent panoramic view stretching from Northcliff tower in the west to the Kelvin Power station in the east.
Beauvais was designed by architect Allen Wilson. Tracey personally supervised its construction, driving his car along rough dirt tracks to the site on the ridge. The car often broke down and Tracey regularly had to be towed back home by a team of oxen. This led his family to nickname the house “Tracey’s Folly”.
Join your guides Clare and Arjen Van Zweiten as we explore the sensitively restored interior of the house – now the headquarters of Cargo Carriers. We’ll also learn more about the Tracey family and the subsequent owners of this iconic residence.
Please note there are several flights of steps inside the house so a reasonable degree of mobility is required.
Meeting Place
11a Grace Road, Observatory
Contact Number
060 813 3239