2 Best Sights in Johannesburg, South Africa

Victoria Yards is an urban renewal project on the fringe of the inner city that has reimagined abandoned warehouses into a mixed-use lifestyle complex. It supports the surrounding community through its three on-site non-profits and urban farming project, while locals and tourists explore the 50-odd artists’ workshops, decor showrooms, galleries, and fashion outlets housed in its brick face buildings. The driving force behind Victoria Yards is sustainability with tenants making designer bags from vibrant shweshwe fabric (a printed cotton fabric) and plastic waste, homeware made from recycled industrial parts, upcycled pre-loved clothing, and a sorbet stand that buys overripe, unsold fruit from community street-side sellers to make frozen desserts.

If your appetite gets the better of you on a visit, there’s an old-school "tuck shop," coffee roastery, and bakery that stands shoulder-to-shoulder to a small-batch gin distillery, as well as a bar, and a traditional walk-in fish and chip shop with wooden benches arranged in the courtyard. While it’s open 7 days a week, the First Sunday Market (first Sunday of the month, 10 am–4 pm) hosts a collection of additional vendors who sell everything from collectibles, antiques, and handmade African curios to food and drink. There is free, undercover parking available, as well as overflow on-street parking with parking guards, making it safe to visit on your own.

Braamfontein’s Juta Street Precinct has been reignited with the establishment of The Playground (at the site of what was Neighborhoods Market pre-pandemic). Housed in an underground parking lot with a rooftop and wraparound wooden deck accented by a living green wall, the venue hosts an artisan market on weekends (9 am–6 pm). It's characterized by good food, with a selection of gourmet stalls and street food vendors, coupled with cocktails and a showcase of local artists’ design, art, and fashion wares. Live music and DJ sets emanate from this performance venue on Sundays.

The Playground looks out onto a towering mural of Nelson Mandela by graffiti artist Shepard Fairey titled The purple shall govern. It references an anti-apartheid march on September 2, 1989, during which police sprayed protestors with water cannons containing purple dye to distinguish them easily. And while you’re here, just across the street, beneath the mural, is an intimate rooftop bar called The Beach where you can dig your feet into beach sand while reclining on a lounger in the shade of an umbrella.