The area, whose name means "thorn fountain", was originally the southern part of a farm owned by Frederick Jacobus Bezuidenhout, and was proclaimed a public diggings after the discovery of
gold on the
Witwatersrand in 1886. The suburb was laid out in the late 1880s by Thomas Yeo, and became the first residential suburb of Johannesburg. In 1897 the freehold of the suburb was bought by the Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Company (JCI), owned by the mining magnate
Barney Barnato. The suburb (and
Berea) were developed by the company and the district became known as "Millionaire's Row". The JCI also built Norman House, a striking mansion home for Barnato. The property was situated near to the
Irene Church with its front entrance on End Street.
Yiddish was widely spoken and there was a predominantly
Eastern European Jewish character and identification with both
Zionism and
Yiddishkeit. In 1967, Adam Leslie, a Jewish theatrical personality took over a small theatre on End Street that had been designed by
Sir Herbert Baker for Lady Farrar, wife of Sir
George Farrar. The building had previously housed the South African College of Music, with a foundation stone laid in 1906. Leslie converted the building into a music hall with 200 seats and hosted musical revues. The music hall closed after Leslie sold the building in 1975 due to personal health issues.
Mannie Manim, co-founder of the
Market Theatre was responsible for transforming an old Doornfontein house into the
Arena Theatre. At the Arena, Manim formed a theatrical group, The Company with
Danny Keogh,
Barney Simon, Vanessa Cooke and Janice Honeyman. The theatre was eventually demolished as the
Technikon Witwatersrand expanded. ==Features==