Ferreirasdorp
Ferreirasdorp (or Ferreirastown)[2] is an inner-city suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa located in Region F of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality.
Ferreirasdorp | |
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![]() ![]() Ferreirasdorp ![]() ![]() Ferreirasdorp | |
Coordinates: 26.208°S 28.033°E | |
Country | South Africa |
Province | Gauteng |
Municipality | City of Johannesburg |
Main Place | Johannesburg |
Established | 1886 |
Area | |
• Total | 0.42 km2 (0.16 sq mi) |
Population (2011)[1] | |
• Total | 625 |
• Density | 1,500/km2 (3,900/sq mi) |
Racial makeup (2011) | |
• Black African | 73.6% |
• Coloured | 3.4% |
• Indian/Asian | 20.5% |
• White | 2.2% |
• Other | 0.3% |
First languages (2011) | |
• English | 25.0% |
• Zulu | 17.1% |
• Tswana | 12.3% |
• Northern Sotho | 10.2% |
• Other | 35.4% |
Time zone | UTC+2 (SAST) |
Postal code (street) | 2001 |
PO box | 2048 |
First known as Ferreira's Camp (Afrikaans: Ferreiraskamp) and later Ferreira's Township, it is the oldest part of Johannesburg.[3][4] Sometimes referred to as the "cradle of Johannesburg", it is where the first gold diggings started, and where the first diggers initially settled.[5] The city grew around the mining camp in the Ferreirasdorp area,[6] and Johannesburg’s Main Street developed from a rough track where the present Albert Street led off towards Ferreira’s Camp.[7]
The suburb is named after Colonel Ignatius Ferreira, leader of the original group of diggers who settled in this area in 1886.[8]
History
![](../I/Ferreira's_Gold_Mine_in_1886.jpg.webp)
The suburb's origins lie in the Turffontein farm set up by Colonel Ignatius Ferreira, a Boer adventurer from Cape Colony.[9] Ferreira had acquired a dozen claims in the vicinity and opened the reef in a cutting. The ore from both sides had a high gold content.[9] The first tent on the site was erected in 1886, two months before gold digging started in earnest.[10]
In 1886 Hans Sauer, who combined a medical practice with prospecting on Cecil Rhodes’s behalf, was guided from Ferreira’s Camp to the main group of gold reefs by a son of the widow Petronella Oosthuizen, the owner of a farm at Langlaagte, on which the main gold reefs had first been discovered.[7]
Following reports of new gold finds in the Witwatersrand, Rhodes and Rudd set off for Ferreira's camp.[9] Already at the time of Rhodes' visit, a little crowd of diggers were at work, and in the week that had passed since Sauer had been away, an Englishwoman had run up a reed and mud building called Walker's Hotel.[11]
Within a fortnight of Rhodes' arrival in July 1886, Ferreira's camp was crowded with tents and wagons from across southern Africa.[9] The tent town eventually became known as Ferreira’s Camp.[10] In July, the Diamond Fields Advertiser was already reporting that the population of Ferreira's Town was 300 persons.[8]
Gold was discovered in September 1886.[12] On September 8, 1886, Landrost Carl von Brandis read President Paul Kruger’s proclamation, confirming the gold fields of the Rand as public diggings.[6] When, in November 1886, a portion of the farm Randjeslaagte had been laid out as a village and named Johannesburg, the Government took over Ferreira's camp and had it properly surveyed and named Ferreira's Township.[13]
![](../I/Ferreiraskamp%252C_winter_1886.jpg.webp)
The first building to go up in Johannesburg, the Central Hotel, was located in Ferreira’s Camp.[10] The first barber shop in Johannesburg, the first bar, the first pub and the first brothel were all opened in Ferreira's Camp.[14] So were the first circus, Fillis's Circus (in September 1886); the first café, Café Francais (in 1886), and the first school (in November 1886).[14] It was also the location of the first bank branch on the Witwatersrand gold fields, when Standard Bank started doing business in a tent in Ferreira's Camp, in 1886.[15] On 11 October 1887, Ferreirasdorp was incorporated into Johannesburg.[16]: 116
As the city expanded, Ferreirasdorp quickly degenerated into a slum.[17] By the 1890s, the western side of Commissioner street, where the Johannesburg Central Police Station is now located, had developed a reputation for its brothels and the gangs that controlled them.[18] The name Ferreirasdorp itself ultimately became "synonymous with practically everything that is vile and violent" about Johannesburg.[17]
By the turn of the century, many contemporary sources referred to the western part of Ferreirasdorp as the 'Cantonese quarter'.[3] The area became home to a large coloured community, and in 1898 a site was set aside for a church (St. Alban’s Anglican Mission Church) to service the coloured Anglican community.[2] In 1925, the Communist Party of South Africa opened a school offering night classes to blacks, but it was closed during the party purges of the 1930s.[19] In the 1960s, under the Group Areas Act, the coloured community was forcibly moved.[2]
Heritage sites
A number of cultural heritage sites are present in the area:[5]
- The location of the Ferreira’s Camp, i.e. the area bounded by Commissioner, Ferreira, Alexander and Frederick Streets.[5]
- The location of the Ferreira’s wagon (apparently in the vicinity of today's Wesleyan Girls Hostel).[5]
- Ferreira’s Mine stope, preserved within the Standard Bank precinct as one of Johannesburg’s first sub-surface digging mines.[5] Standard Bank was the first bank to establish itself in Johannesburg, in October 1886.[20] In 1986, exactly one hundred years after the mine (and Standard Bank) started in Johannesburg, Standard Bank built its head office over this mine.[20]
- St. Alban's Mission Church, founded in 1898 to serve the local Coloured Anglican community, designed by F.L.H. Fleming.[5]
- Chancellor House, where Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo had their first law practice.[5]
References
- "Sub Place Ferreirasdorp". Census 2011.
- "Ferreirasdorp (Ferreirastown)". Newtown Heritage Trail. Archived from the original on 2 May 2014. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
- Melanie Yap (1996). Colour, Confusion and Concessions: The History of the Chinese in South Africa. Hong Kong University Press. p. 84. ISBN 978-962-209-424-6. Retrieved 2013-05-07.
- "Chinatown Precinct Plan" (PDF). City of Johannesburg. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 10 May 2013.
The oldest part of Johannesburg was first known as Ferreira's Camp and later Ferreiradorp.
- "Westgate Station Precinct Spatial Development Framework and Implementation Plan" (PDF). City of Johannesburg (Archive). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
- "Birth of Our Traffic Jams". IOL.co.za. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
- "Pietermaritzburg Gold" (PDF). pp. 24–26. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
- "The city without water". City of Johannesburg. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
- Meredith, Martin (2008-09-22). Diamonds, gold, and war: the British, the Boers, and the making of South Africa. PublicAffairs. pp. 177–179. ISBN 978-1-58648-641-9. Retrieved 2013-05-07.
- "Discover your city". City of Johannesburg. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
- Ian Duncan Colvin (1922). The life of Jameson. p. 8.
- "Ferreira's wagon rolls in". City of Johannesburg. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
- Gerald Anton Leyds (1964). A History of Johannesburg: The Early Years. Nasionale Boekhandel Beperk. pp. (from snippet view). Retrieved 2013-05-07.
- "Joburg's firsts". City of Johannesburg. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
- "Standard Bank becomes the first bank to opens its doors on the Witwatersrand". South African History Online. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
- Musiker, Naomi; Musiker, Reuben (2000). A Concise Historical Dictionary of Greater Johannesburg. Cape Town: Francolin. ISBN 1868590712.
- Murray, Martin J. (2011-06-20). City of Extremes: The Spatial Politics of Johannesburg. Duke University Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-8223-4768-2. Retrieved 2013-05-07.
- "Brothels and gangs marked Jozi's first formal street". The Star | IOL.co.za. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
- Les Switzer (1997). South Africa's Alternative Press: Voices of Protest and Resistance, 1880s-1960s. Cambridge University Press. pp. 333–. ISBN 978-0-521-55351-3. Retrieved 2013-05-07.
- "Ferreira's mine stope in downtown Jozi". Artslink.co.za. Retrieved 7 May 2013.