About Johannesburg

Johannesburg – a truly remarkable 21^st century city

Welcome to Buckingham Guest House’s informative website! Each month, we will be reviewing a sight, destination, restaurant, cultural institution or other kind of attraction in our wonderfully historic and vibrant city.

The exciting and truly extraordinary variety of major-league ‘sights’ in and around Johannesburg is matched only by the fact that many are important not only from a South African perspective, but also a global one. Here lies the world’s greatest gold reserve; the world’s largest meteorite impact site; the world’s most famous apartheid city, Soweto; and a museum, Constitution Hill, that is devoted to commemorating South Africa’s intensely public road to democracy and globally admired constitution. In similar vein, the Apartheid Museum, opened in 2002, takes on the crucial role of recording the events of a globally important political and human rights issue.

Johannesburg is also home to a thrilling post-apartheid asset, a major museum looking at the topic of Africa’s 27 000 year old tradition of rock art, which is an internationally recognised cultural treasure. Still in an artistic vein, the city’s often overlooked municipal art gallery has a marvelous array of European art, including a breath-taking bust by Auguste Rodin of a young Edwardian Johannesburger, testimony to the money that began to support artistic life and patronage even in the early days of the raw mining town. However, the Johannesburg Art Gallery also has other treasures, notably a magnificent array of African traditional objects, which bear testimony to life in pre-colonial times, a collection which forms a rich seam of study for a wide range of social scientists and art historians, both local and international.

The city has nurtured a cavalcade of major political and other public figures, ranging from people like Jan Christiaan Smuts, one of the thinkers and legal minds behind first the League of Nations and then the United Nations, to Gandhi and the brilliant coterie of Mandela, Sisulu and Tambo at mid-century, and later F W de Klerk, ‘the last apartheid president’. Then there are people such as the indomitable Helen Suzman, for decades the lone voice of opposition in parliament, amongst others, not to mention Oscar winning actress Charlize Theron, and hotel magnate Sol Kerzner.

Then, for anyone with a science bent, the remarkable system of caves just outside the city is a magnet. A number of academic institutions in the city limits house departments devoted to the study of human origins, and sensational new fossils continue to be found in the ‘Cradle of Humankind’ fossil-rich world heritage site nearby.

Johannesburg certainly is not dull, nor is it lacking in numbers of rewarding visitor attractions – to say nothing of a great selection of bars, eateries, coffee shops, book and music emporia and malls to nurture body and soul. ‘Jozi’ is no longer the ugly duckling of cities, but a glittering, sophisticated destination that is looking to the future as well as cherishing its marvellously rich past.

Here is a quick reference list of Johannesburg’s ‘Top Ten’ sites and attractions, listed alphabetically. Each month we will be reviewing a different site on the blog.

The Apartheid Museum 011 496 1822
Constitution Hill and the Constitutional Court 011 381 3100
The Cradle of Humankind 014 577 9000
Gold Reef City 011 248 6800
The Johannesburg Art Gallery 011 725 3130
Newtown Cultural Precinct
This is a part of the city that is easy to access and explore on foot
The Origins Centre – 011 717 4700
The South African Military History Museum. 011 646 5513
Soweto. Your guesthouse host will assist with tour bookings
The Vredefort Meteorite Structure, 1 hour from Johannesburg - the area has many tour operators and guest lodges

Newtown cultural precinct, Melrose Arch restaurant district & Soweto Soccer City

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