Yeoville

Yeoville is an inner city neighbourhood of Johannesburg, in the province of Gauteng, South Africa. It is located in Region F (previously Region 8). Originally intended as a "well-to-do" neighbourhood, it instead developed into a white working class and lower middle class area as the city expanded northwards and public rail access improved. From the 1920s onwards, it became a significant enclave of German Jewish and Eastern European Jewish immigrants. It 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 night clubs and galleries opened in Yeoville, or relocated from Hillbrow. This led to the neighbourhood, becoming the leading nightspot in the city.The white population began to decline in the 1970s, and this white flight accelerated in the early to mid 1990s, with most residents migrating to the northern suburbs. Today, it is widely known and celebrated for its diverse, pan-African population but notorious for its high levels of crime, poverty and degradation.

It is part of Greater Yeoville, a greater territory combining Bellevue, Bellevue East and Yeoville itself and its size, crime, poverty and population density levels is somewhat comparable to nearby Hillbrow. Yeoville is home to Yeoville Boys Primary School, Yeoville Market and Yeoville recreational centre.

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 which attracted many of the waves of migrants from abroad that came to South Africa seeking a new life.

The area contains diverse architectural styles, 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, recognising its heritage value. Another notable apartment building is Eltruda Court on Kenmere Road. It was designed by architects Gerson Davids and G.K. Haas and completed in 1950.

Since the early 1920s, the suburb was home to a growing and stable community of Jewish residents. Yeoville was distinct in that it emerged as an enclave for German Jewish immigrants. These immigrants were usually highly-educated, had held top professional positions in Germany. Many also practiced Reform Judaism in Germany, which they introduced to Johannesburg. Herbert House on South Street was the first boarding house of the SA Jewish Board of Education. It served Jewish students from country districts and border countries from the 1940s until its closure in 1964. In August 1967, Yeoville Synagogue was the target of a burglary. In the same period, the suburb's ultra-orthodox synagogue was also targeted and the sanctuary was desecrated. The archives were broken into and record books stolen along with other items.

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. Harry Schwarz, a well known Jewish lawyer and politician was Member of Parliament for Yeoville from 1974 to 1991. In 1986, Tony Leon was elected to the Johannesburg City Council for Yeoville. Ronnie Kasrils, a cabinet minister in post-apartheid governments, was also born and raised in the suburb. Kasrils had his bar mitzvah at Yeoville Synagogue. The politician Joe Slovo also spent part of his childhood living in Yeoville, having moved from Doornfontein. Both Kasrils and Slovo attended Yeoville Boys Primary School, as did the cricketer Ali Bacher. The political activists, Esther Barsel and her husband Hymie Barsel also lived in the suburb.

A number of Jewish artists also lived in Yeoville. The singer, Johnny Clegg, grew up in the suburb. Sinclair Beiles, a beat poet settled in Yeoville and was part of the 1980s artistic milieu at the time. In the 1980s, the area south of Raleigh Street attracted students and those working in the arts. The area north of Raleigh Street was mostly populated by Orthodox Jewish families. Synagogues, Kosher stores and religious schools served this community. For a number of years, the community was also served by Chabad Lubavitch rabbi, Rabbi Yossie and Rebbetzin Raisy Hecht. Rabbi Yossie, a New York native, was a disciple of the Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

In 1939, notable architect, Harold Le Roith built the San Remo apartment building in the neighbourhood. It was distinct for its curved staircase and porthole windows.