Lost Johannesburg

Title: Lost Johannesburg
Author: Arnold Benjamin
Publisher: MacMillan South Africa Publishers
Johannesburg, South Africa 1979
ISBN 0869540815 / ISBN 0-86954-081-5
Original hardcover and dustjacket, 21 x 30 cm, 102 pages, throughout b/w photos

Condition:

Good. Few litte traces of usage.
Rare in Europe.

About: Lost Johannesburg

Lost Johannesburg is a unique record of the city that has vanished - of notable buildings, landmarks and places obliterated in a mere ninety-odd years. Johannesburg's short history has been marked by constant cycles of restless destruction and rebuilding. In their course the city has lost much of its character, individuality and sense of the past. Arnold Benjamins pictorial memoir, a representative choice coloured by some personal nostalgia, covers old theatres, hotels, clubs, office buildings, flats, restaurants and shopping precincts. Among others it deals with the much-loved late-Victorian Standard Theatre, whose demolition occasioned Johannesburg's first public demonstration over a building.

With some of Parktown's stately mansions, the old Carlton Hotel, the remarkable Palace Buildings (1889-1957) and the original Wanderers Club, a city-centre sports stadium now submerged under railway platforms. It includes some important landmarks lost in very recent years, and several entire areas - such as Sophiatown, Alexandra Township and Pageview - whose unique character has been destroyed or damaged through ideology rather than the profit motive. Lost Johannesburg is a book of value to all those concerned with the changing shape, past and present, of South Africa's cities.

Arnold Benjamin (????-????) was a Johannesburg journalist whose interest in architectural history and preservation was sharpened by periods spent living in London and New York. He was a co-author of the Johannesburg illustrated history Park Town 1892-1972, and also wrote on less serious aspects of the urban scene: his books of topical humour include Prune Juice Sholl Set You Free and two other books on graffiti. Then an assistant editor and columnist on the Star, he had travelled widely in Africa and beyond as a foreign correspondent. (We of www.namibiana.de would like to learn more about his biography, kindly email us, if you can help)

Terence Alan „Spike“ Milligan (1918-2002), well known both as comic and conservationist, contributed the foreword. He had taken a lively interest in local environmental concerns during his visits to South Africa.

Content: Lost Johannesburg

Acknowledgements
Foreword
Introduction
The Standard Theatre
Palace Building
Hohenheim, Parktown
The Old Carlton
Joel House, Barnato Park
Sophiatown
The Langham Hotel
Unit Security House
Pen-y-Bryn, Parktown
The Three Empire Theatres
The Old Wanderers
The Bijou Theatre
The Plaza Cinema
The Frascati Beer Hall
Orange Grove Hotel
The Standard Bank, Commissioner Street
Marshall Square Police Station
The Old Arcade
Majestic Mansions
Alexandra Township
Clarendon Circle
Murray Gordon Mansions
Rissik Street Post Office
The Phoenix Restaurant and the East African Pavilion
The Afrikaner Club
The Metro Cinema
Pageview / 'Vrededorp'
Diagonal Street
The Killarney Mall, Mark I
The Union Club
The Newtown Market
Photographic sources