Yeoville is an inner-city neighborhood of Johannesburg, located in the province of Gauteng, South Africa. Originally intended as a "well-to-do" neighborhood, it developed into a white working-class and lower-middle-class area as the city expanded northwards and public rail access improved.
Yeoville was proclaimed as a suburb in 1890 (four years after the discovery of gold led to the founding of Johannesburg) by Thomas Yeo Sherwell, who came from Yeovil in the United Kingdom. The area was advertised as a "sanitarium for the rich" in which the air was purer because it was up on a ridge overlooking the dirty, smoke-filled mining town that had sprung from nothing out of the (then) Transvaal bushveld.
However, the rich did not buy into the suburb. Instead, it became a multiclass area, one to which many poorer people living below the ridge in Doornfontein aspired. It was also a place that attracted many of the waves of migrants from abroad that came to South Africa seeking a new life.
Early Development and Jewish Influence
From the 1920s onwards, Yeoville became a significant enclave of German Jewish and Eastern European Jewish immigrants. By the 1970s, the suburb had a predominantly Jewish character, with a number of synagogues in the area and Jewish delicatessens and bakeries in the main business street.
Notable architectural styles can be found throughout the area. In 1904, House Hains was built and designed by James Cope Christie, and it is now a designated provincial heritage site. Beacon Royal was built in 1934 on Grafton Road by Obel & Obel, a pair of Jewish architect brothers, Louis Theodore Obel and Mark Obel, who were also responsible for Astor Mansions and the Circle Court. It has a blue plaque, recognizing its heritage value.
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The Apartheid Era and Transition
Yeoville was designated as a "white area" under the Group Areas Act during the apartheid era. It became a "grey area" in the 1980s, as a limited number of non-white residents began to rent in the area. From the end of the 1970s, a growing number of nightclubs and galleries opened in Yeoville, or relocated from Hillbrow.
The 1980s was a time of political turmoil in South Africa. Rockey St (always mistakenly located in people's minds in Yeoville while it was actually in Bellevue) and indeed the entire area, became something of a liberated zone as black and white met and ate and listened to music together in defiance of prevailing apartheid laws.
As Hillbrow entered into a period of decline from the late 1970s, several nightclubs and art galleries relocated to Yeoville. However, Yeoville's position as a premier nighttime spot began to wane in the 1990s as Melville began to attract Yeoville's clientele.
EVOLUTION OF CITY │ JOHANNESBURG
Post-Apartheid Challenges and Changes
The end of apartheid had a profound impact on Yeoville and Bellevue. In the early 1990s, Rockey Street remained a hotbed of radicals, activists, artists, and musicians. However, in the hiatus period between 1990 and 1994, as South Africa's political opponents went through alternating bouts of negotiation and confrontation, and after 1994, urban management went into decline.
Added to this, there began a dramatic demographic shift, with the population of Yeoville changing from 85% white in 1990 to 90% black in 1998. The flight of whites out of the area in some ways gave the lie to the apparently liberated nature of the area in the 1980s.
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In 1995, the murder of a Jamaican restaurateur, Ridley Wright placed increased attention on the presence of drug dealers in the neighborhood. A significant factor in the decline and divestment in the area has been the decision taken by banks to redline the neighborhood. In effect, this down not allow 100% bonds for Yeoville businesses and homes. This has led to waning property values.
Since 2000, the population has grown exponentially. Yeoville is once again a community of migrants, mostly economic migrants from all over the country and the rest of Africa.
Time Square: A Microcosm of Yeoville's Evolution
Time Square, for those who know Yeoville Bellevue, has always been a controversial place. Until the early 1980s, the building was a block of flats. Then, trying to take advantage of Yeoville Bellevue’s change from a quiet suburban village to an internationally-known nightspot, the owners applied for approval to turn the ground floor into businesses.
This development outraged people living in the building. The then owners - and remember we are talking about the 1980s when Yeoville Bellevue was very much a white area in terms of apartheid regulations - ignored this clause in the agreement and almost immediately allowed some of the upper floors to be used for business purposes.
Sometime in the 2000s, the owners of Time Square threw in the towel and sold the building. Last week, we reported in Yeovue News (our local paper) that the police had visited Times Square and given an ultimatum to the various roleplayers in the building: clean up your act or we will deal with you. This included, amongst other things, sorting out their security, cleaning up their toilets, and getting rid of the vendors on the pavement in front of the building.
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Today the Community Policing Forum met with some of the business tenants, the building manager and the head of security. All those in the meeting agreed that the situation was bad. The building manager, the security company and the tenants said that things had reached a point where it was very difficult to have any control over what went on in the building.
Community Efforts and Future Prospects
Community organizations and individuals have been working since 1995 to try to arrest the decay and influence the socio-economic future of the area. As a result of their efforts, Yeoville is currently undergoing some major upgrading including the physical regeneration of Rockey Raleigh Street through the replacement of all paving and the installation of two-tier lights to make the streets brighter and safer. The park has been upgraded and the library is being moved to bigger and better premises. CCTV cameras have been installed on five intersections as an attempt to reduce incidences of crime.
Due to sometimes over-inflated house prices elsewhere in Johannesburg, Yeoville is slowly attracting middle-income groups again which is beginning to put the brakes on urban decay. The local authority has recognized that Yeoville and Bellevue, together with the rest of the inner city, are in need of special attention.
In 2007, the City of Johannesburg signed an Inner City Charter with property owners, business people and community organizations, committing themselves to improved urban management and bylaw enforcement. Unfortunately agreements were not met and Yeoville continued its downward spiral as government neglect further contributed to its high crime and poverty rate as well as poor service delivery notably with water, electricity and sewage.
The state of Yeoville today has slightly improved as some community members took matters into their own hands and cleaned up its streets and the Yeoville Community board on which flat vacancies were advertised was taken down and there are no longer street hawkers in the busy Raleigh Street.
Despite these challenges, community activists remain hopeful about Yeoville’s future.
| Year | White Population (%) | Black Population (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 85 | - |
| 1998 | - | 90 |
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