Forgotten Johannesburg part 5 | Bertrams, Hillbrow, Yeoville | Hood Tour / Life in South Africa
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- Опубликовано: 31 июл 2023
- The latest instalment in my Forgotten Johannesburg series. Where I take the viewer to lesser known parts of my city, Johannesburg, South Africa and explore the area while speaking to locals and highlighting some noteworthy places as well as the history therof.
The latest instalment takes us to Eastern Johannesburg, starting with Hillbrow, the most densely populated and notorious neighborhood of the city, and into Bertrams, and old council estate, neighboring Hillbrow, which is home to a significant population of poor white Afrikaaners who are mostly overlooked in "The New South Africa", as well as being home to a variety of all walks of life and various friendly and welcoming people.
I end the video off by taking a walk through Yeoville, another innercity neighborhood famous for crime and urban decay, but also home to some very nice people.
I recorded this video a few months ago and in various instalments, hence the varying beard length throughout the video. 
Развлечения
I'm in the States and I'm 59 years old. My mom was from Jo"Burg and was of British heritage. She grew up in Yeoville and migrated to the States in 1959. When I was a kid we used to travel to South Africa every few years to visit the relatives. We went there for the first time in 1971 when I was six years old. It sure was a great place back then. Yeoville was such a nice, peaceful neighborhood. When I look at it now on RUclips or on Google maps I just can't believe how it's been destroyed. I never imagined it would ever look like it does now. My roots are in that area. We can thank the ANC for the demise of a once great country.
Not only the ruling party...but the millions of undocumented and illegal foreign nationals bringings drugs in.
Things have changed a lot over the years. I lived in Hillbrow for through most of my childhood. My grandparents lived in a beautiful block of big, fancy flats right at the top of Nugget Hill in Hillbrow. I used to paddle in the little water features in Nugget park on weekends with my grandpa watching on. He sadly was murdered there in 1996 shortly after the population of Hillbrow exploded. He was the caretaker of that building and times were still such that caretakers would visit flats to collect late rent payments. His murderer is believed to have been a policeman who lived in a flat above his who had invited his extended family to live in the flat with him and there were twelve of them living in a two-befroom flat. He left my grandmother behind and she had to leave that block of flats after that for obvious reasons. In the years that followed, HIllbrow became a bit of an overpopulated dead zone with a post-apocalyptic vibe. It was a neighbourhood of flats pretty much exclusively and those buildings rather quickly lost their management to apathy and a fear of the sort of fate that my grandpa met with. Those flats were captured in a way by squatters. In time, hardly any of them had electricity of workinig plumbing anymore. In more recent years, security companies have moved into the area and reclaimed the buildings from those large and once pretty dangerous pitch dark virtual fortresses occupied solely by squatters and now, gradually, those blocks are being renovated and restored. I drove past my grandparents' old block a few years ago. It was unrecognisable, which was sad. I couldn't find a single thing there to look upon that was able to conjure any of my fond childhood memories, so deteriorated it had become. That said, it had been a very glamorous building back in its day, and that day has seen its end, sad though that may be. People say that lving there is becoming easier and more controlled - that crime is less predominant than it had been for about 20 years after the borders qwere opened and the pass laws abolished - both good things that the country just wasn't infrastructurally ready for yet. But if one wants to do a big drug deal, I hear that is still the place to go. It'll come right one day.
Yeoville remained a haunt of mine until the end of the '90s. I stopped going there after Eddies Tattoo and piercing studio closed. Haven't been there since. This was a really cool video to watch. Thanks!
Lived in Bertrams from 1956 to 1962 as a young boy. It was by far the happiest time of my childhood. Thanks for video. It brought back many wonderful memories being the youngest of 11 children being brought up by my widowed mother in a council house.
I sure wish I could have seen it in those days. Must have been nice.
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God Bless.
Michael.
Nice video which from uk 🇬🇧 must love ❤️
I am so passionate abt saving our cities.We can't just let them decay like this.I spent a lot of my time in Bez Valley.
🥺.
I used to live in joburg in the 80's in the heart of the city itself and those surrounding areas didnt look like that at all😮
I had loads of friends in
Berea yeoville Bertram's bez valley hiillbrow ponti. We used to walk the streets, picnic in joubert park etc and it was all quite safe and clean and upmarket.
Sjoe..
Its sad to see the terrible transformation.
Cant believe what im seeing.
*corrections* The one uncle in the red shirt mentions houses built in the 16th and 17th century, although according to my knowledge, the first structures in Johannesburg went up in the 1800's, also I mention flats being built in the 18th century at one point when I clearly meant to say 1800's, also there is no evidence to support the theory of Italian prisoners of war building stone structures in Johannesburg, although this is a widely believed local legend that I found to be very interesting.
*Also* apologies for the sound situation, I have subsequentially invested in a lapel microphone, but did not have it in this video.
You actually said the buildings were made 'from' Italian prisoners of war! I know the white South African once considered his race above all others, but that's a bit of a stretch.
You crazy for walking through Hillbrow with a camera haha. But from my view, Joburg is such a cool place with so much hidden potential. I lived in Hillbrow for 6 months about a year ago and it was a really great experience. I'm a gay white guy from Benoni so I stood out like a sore thumb, but the people are so friendly and even protective. I shared an apartment with two people who I'd never met before (I paid R1500 rent) and Lethu, one of my housemates was the sweetest person who used to bring me a plate of food every now and then when she was testing a new recipe. I got a job at a Non-profit organisation across the street from my building soon after moving in and every morning when I crossed the street, the vendor that set up there would greet me and ask how I was doing. I lived close to Joubert Park so I would sometimes go chill in the sun and admire the buildings around me, and the beautiful old greenhouse to the one side of the park. Experiencing that area is so different from anywhere else in South Africa, the feeling of 200 years of ups and downs. I've since moved to New Doornfontein but honestly, I felt more at home in Hillbrow. I think Joburg is the perfect place to come for anyone (especially those from privileged backgrounds) who are struggling to find opportunity or a sense of purpose. While there are dangers, and I have been mugged before in Hillbrow, the dangers are generally over exaggerated and because of that, the entrance barrier is minimal. I'm currently staying in a big old bachelor loft apartment with beautiful views paying R4000 a month. While there are limitations (like, I wouldn't generally walk the streets at night), I can do everything I need to do, walking to the shops, etc. without a worry. I just wish more young professionals would take up the opportunity because there are still so many problems to be solved and I hope that it happens via the internal community and not some outside entity coming in displacing people and demolishing the history.
Kudos bru.
That's an amazing story. Gay or not you have serious cajones.
Two years ago + the insurance company I worked for could not get surveyors to go into Hilbrow, Yeoville to assess buildings....they refused for fear of safety. The tall round building behind you - Ponti - I used to drve past it on my way to work - stopped prior to locked down already. The Chinese flooding in will by in similar areas but in groups and have their own police stations. Those houses were subsidised housing which one could live in as long as you worked for the owner. The high rise flats were for families who could not afford houses and specifically built close to city centre in order to save on travelling costs. The red brick houses were the bricks used at the time and are everywhere - go check Pretoria and other towns. Our army bungalows were built with the same kind of brickmdating back to second world war. That area looks better than the once famous Carlton Hotel and surrounds 🙃
I have just bumped into this youtube video and you have made me cry. I always wondered why my spirit keeps pulling me to that side of Joburg and did walk and took lots of pictures along the mainroad from Eastgate to avoid issues. I did not know there are still so many White brothers there. I am shocked and I am in tears, for I understand what is happening to all of us. It is Jesus Christ who knows, and we pray He comes through for all of us South Africans. Politicians and media have destroyed this country, so did Big Business, ie White Capital. God help us all. Yep, even conservatives r proving liars pursuant of agendas that be. Its a strange world. Even we got hurt deeply by World Cup 2010 and I am shocked to learn on that side it went as far as ppl being kicked out for ANC and Soccer bosses to make lots of money!!! Wow.
👌👌
Show us footage of the "gangsters"
He lives right opposite that rubbish 😂, its too much serious
Little Lagos
That's my hood
spent a night there before by Kyle n Vince
htey must clean the streets groet van holland mijn familie was daar in de 70,s and 8o,s hillbrow.
King is too much 😂he must stop watching too many American gangster rap😂😂😂 that's not how we talk, and thats not a hood
White ppl used to live nicely during apartheid