Ferreirasdorp

Ferreirasdorp
Ferreirasdorp Show map of Gauteng Ferreirasdorp Show map of South Africa Ferreirasdorp Show map of Africa  Ferreirasdorp shown within Gauteng
Location within Greater Johannesburg  Ferreirasdorp
Coordinates: 26°12′29″S 28°01′59″E / 26.208°S 28.033°E / -26.208; 28.033Coordinates: 26°12′29″S 28°01′59″E / 26.208°S 28.033°E / -26.208; 28.033
Country	South Africa
Province	Gauteng
Municipality	City of Johannesburg
Main Place	Johannesburg
Area[1]
• Total	0.42 km2 (0.16 sq mi)
Population (2011)[1]
• Total	625
• Density	1,500/km2 (3,900/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)[1]
• Black African	73.6%
• Coloured	3.4%
• Indian/Asian	20.5%
• White	2.2%
• Other	0.3%
First languages (2011)[1]
• English	25.0%
• Zulu	17.1%
• Tswana	12.3%
• Northern Sotho	10.2%
• Other	35.4%
Postal code (street)	2001
PO box	2048

Ferreirasdorp (or Ferreirastown)^[2] is an inner-city suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa located in Region F.

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

Ferreira's Gold Mine in 1886

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]

Ferreira's Camp in 1886

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]

As the city expanded, Ferreirasdorp quickly degenerated into a slum.^[16] 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.^[17] The name Ferreirasdorp itself ultimately became "synonymous with practically everything that is vile and violent" about Johannesburg.^[16]

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.^[18] 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.^[19] In 1986, exactly one hundred years after the mine (and Standard Bank) started in Johannesburg, Standard Bank built its head office over this mine.^[19]
• 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