Archives: Venues

Founded by Daphne Kuhn in 1994, originally in Rosebank, Theatre on the Square relocated to Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton in 1997 and has run there ever since. It’s an intimate venue seating around 200 people that has, over three decades, staged more than 3,000 plays, musicals, comedies, concerts and corporate events, including South African premieres of several international productions. It’s particularly known for running Gauteng’s only regular weekly daytime concert series, a Friday lunchtime classical programme, and sits right at the heart of the upscale Nelson Mandela Square dining and shopping precinct, making it an easy add-on for an evening out or a themed corporate function.

Opened in June 2015 on the site of the former Faan Smit Park, a municipal park that had fallen into disrepair, 27 Boxes is described as South Africa’s first shipping-container retail centre, with the redevelopment only approved in 2014 after years of community debate. Its lease requires roughly a third of the site to remain public park space, and today it houses boutique shops, restaurants, cafes, a bakery, a bookshop, a music store, art galleries and a nursery, plus a small upper-level park with a playground and indigenous gardens. It’s well known for its regular night market, and after a revitalisation that began around 2019 it has become a firm favourite in Melville for browsing, eating out and catching a market-day event.

Gold Reef City theme park opened in 1987 on the site of a disused gold mine that closed in 1971, themed around the 1886 Witwatersrand gold rush and spread across some 45 acres south of the Johannesburg CBD. Inside the complex, the Lyric Theatre seats roughly 1,100 people, 784 in the stalls, 300 in the balcony and 12 across six ‘royal boxes,’ with every seat within 22 metres of the stage, and it’s fitted with a hearing-loop system and wheelchair-accessible seating. It regularly hosts touring musicals, comedy, jazz, dance and orchestral shows, with past acts including the likes of Msaki and Jesse Clegg, making it a solid mid-sized venue for anything from a touring production to a one-night concert.

Opened in 2006 and inaugurated by then-President Thabo Mbeki, Origins Centre is billed as the world’s only museum dedicated entirely to the history of modern humankind. Housed on Wits University’s West Campus, it draws on the university’s Rock Art Research Institute collection and palaeoanthropology holdings to display fossils, ancient stone tools, San heritage material and contemporary artworks that interpret the underlying archaeological research. Spanning roughly two million years of human innovation, it treats southern African rock art as among the world’s oldest continuous art forms, and runs school programmes, guided tours, an ‘Ochre’ workshop series and augmented-reality exhibits. With nine bookable spaces for functions, it also doubles as an atmospheric venue for talks, launches and small cultural events.

Established in 1902-03 to mark King Edward VII’s coronation, Coronation Park in Krugersdorp sits on or near the site of a Second Boer War concentration camp that held more than 4,000 people between April 1901 and November 1902. Municipal horticulturist Harry Sharp developed the park over 44 years, adding a labyrinth modelled on Hampton Court’s maze, rose gardens and rare plantings, while a bandstand hosted the Krugersdorp Town Band from 1909 to 1924. A swimming pool followed in 1932 and a Centenary Dam was added in the 1980s, and the park has long served as a community recreation spot, though a 2016 heritage listing flagged it as ‘Endangered’ due to neglect and redevelopment pressure. Its open lawns and historic character still make it a workable spot for outdoor community events.

The buildings that make up 44 Stanley date to the 1930s, originally serving as Automobile Association testing grounds and facilities in Johannesburg’s Milpark area. Developer Brian Green began converting the disused industrial site into a boutique precinct around 2003, and by 2023 it had reached roughly 20 years in operation. It now holds about 25 independent boutiques, galleries, restaurants and creative studios arranged around interlinked, walled courtyards with olive trees and fountains, deliberately designed as an alternative to a conventional shopping mall, with no underground parking and visitors parking on the surrounding streets. It also leases office and studio space, and its mix of small businesses and relaxed courtyard layout has made it a popular backdrop for markets, pop-ups and smaller events.

Opened on 14 February 1981 as the Roodepoort Civic Theatre, this venue was built into a full producing theatre under founding director Weiss Doubell, complete with its own orchestra, opera company and chorus branded Pro Musica. By 2008 it had staged around 400 opera performances and 500 symphony concerts, and its orchestra became the first South African orchestra to tour overseas after the cultural boycott ended, with a UNESCO-sponsored tour of France in 1992. It hosted South African debuts of several operas and singers, including tenor Johan Botha, and ran music and drama tuition for disadvantaged students from 1994 onward. Absorbed into Joburg City Theatres and renamed Roodepoort Theatre around 2013-14, it now offers a 328-seat main auditorium plus an 80-seat box theatre, making it a well-equipped mid-sized venue on the West Rand.

Opened on 3 March 2022 as part of Wits University’s centenary celebrations, the Chris Seabrooke Music Hall pairs a restored heritage building tied to early Johannesburg with a newly built, acoustically designed performance auditorium, designed by architects Cohen and Garson. Seating around 180 people, it’s named for and funded by Chris Seabrooke, a businessman and Wits alumnus, and is run by the Wits School of Arts. It regularly hosts concerts, student recitals, chamber music, jazz performances and festivals, and its intimate size and purpose-built acoustics make it a strong option for smaller, more intimate live music events in the heart of Braamfontein.

The Fox is a converted warehouse in Ferreirasdorp, right next to Newtown in Johannesburg’s inner city, used for concerts, conferences, exhibitions, fashion shows, product and car launches and banquets. Its main event space can hold up to 2,000 guests, while the attached Good Luck Bar takes up to 500, and there’s secure on-site parking for around 200 vehicles. The venue is known for its raw industrial character, exposed brick, steel and warehouse textures, that clients reconfigure to suit very different kinds of events, and it has built a reputation as a flexible, atmospheric space for concerts and other live entertainment in the city centre.