In the article below, Oscar Norwich, Johannesburg historian and collector, explores a few early gaols in Johannesburg and then reveals the history behind the Johannesburg Fort. The piece first appeared in the 1983 edition of the old Johannesburg Historical Foundation's journal 'Between the Chains'. Thank you to the Norwich family for their kind permission to publish this article.
BOOK REVIEWS
Michael Stevenson’s Samuel Daniell: A Life of an Artist in Southern Africa and Ceylon, 1799–1811 stands as a work of rare distinction: sumptuous in production, meticulous in scholarship, and deeply rewarding in intellectual substance.
BLUE PLAQUES
This marks the site where South Africa's first champion tree stood, declared in 2004. The tree was over 100 years old, with a girth of 4m, but a severe pruning in 2005 killed the tree. The giant oak was a meeting place for the community in old Sophiatown, before forced removals by the apartheid government between 1955-61.