Situated in Johannesburg’s inner-city, Newtown forms the
heart of the city’s regeneration and reinvention of itself. Newtown is a fairly
large area that lies sandwiched between the railway lines to the north, the M2
highway in the south and bounded in the east and west by West Street and Quinn
Street respectively.
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| Museum Africa, Newtown |
What makes Newtown so accessible is the Nelson Mandela
Bridge, which links Braamfontein to Newtown, is able to carry some 3000 cars an
hour and forms the new gateway into the city from the north. Newtown is now a
mixed-use area with a vibrant and unique character, particularly if you take
its cultural facilities into account.
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| Nelson Mandela Bridge |
Newtown is home to the renowned Market
Theatre, which played such an important role in South African theatre during
the apartheid era, committed as it was to non-racial theatre right from 1974,
where a run-down Edwardian market hall was converted into a cultural arena that
provided a platform for some of the country’s best actors and playwrights.
Today the complex is home to three theatres and two art
galleries, and on Saturday mornings a flea market continues at the theatre.
Kippies, located in the former Songwriters’ Club in Newtown, is named after the
legendary saxophonist Kippie Moeketsi and serves as a venue to live jazz as it
has for years, despite its closure for two years.
Just around the corner from the market complex is the
Oriental Plaza where every shopkeeper owns his shop and the vibrant colour of
the busy complex is a sheer delight. Rolls of fabric spew out on to tables,
pots, pans and crockery, kiosks with hair accessories, electronics, leather
goods, fashion and the smell of incense, samoosas and chilli merge charmingly.
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