Johannesburg police, CID... 1940's

[Boere]

As close as I can remember.
As far as I know the only Security Police were there, they were pretty secretive at the time, no in and out unless connected.
M2 was built, at a guess, late 60's early 70's, I still used the old Joburg road as a teenager before N1 and M2 were built.
Will
PS I actually think Grays was with an "e"

[braw]

It is Gray without the e and they stated construction of the M1 during the mid 70,s. The M2 if I can recall was constructed as Boere says mid 60,s early 70,s

[rimstim]

Hey

Thank you all. Your posts have proven most illuminating.

I have two more questions. I need - for purposes of my story - to make use of an area (suburb etc) which was under construction in the late 30's, early 40's - an area that was only beginning to be developed around this time. Was there such a development at this stage?

As far as I know, Sandton was only really developed in the 1970's - in fact, Sandton City was built in the year of my birth 1973. Is this true? What about Rosebank? Or Rivonia? Illovo?

Also, which part of Joburg city would have contained low cost housing (apartments/flats) during this time? Any ideas?

Thank you so much for all the great info thus far!

BTW, I'm using this information in a novella shortly to be published under the name "THE THIRD CHAMBER". It's sci-fi meets murder mystery and is situated in 1940's Joburg. I will post more info closer to the publication date - hopefully later this month. If you're interested in a copy, lemme know and I will send you a coupon so you can download it for free from Smashwords.com.

[Nookie]

Randburg was one of the areas being developed in the 1930's.  Low cost housing was available in Fordsburg.

Two sites that you might find very interesting are deltaenviro.org.za (dealing with the installation of sewerage lines in the 1930-1940's) and joburg-archive.co.za which deals with Fordsburg (page 25).

Hope this helps.

[rimstim]

Hey Nookie

Excellent!! That's exactly the information I am looking for.

Thank you so much. You guys are a veritable treasure trove!!

I'll check out those sites!

Vern

[Hackstaple]

The city area of Johannesburg contained a great many residential areas of flats and small houses. most notably Hillbrow, Berea, Braamfontein [all flats] and at a mile or so out there were small houses in Bez Valley and Melville.

In the thirties Sandton, Rivonia were farming areas.
Rosebank is part of the original farm known as Rosemill Orchards owned by a Mr Lorenco. Plots in the area were first sold by auctioneer Richard Currie in 1896. In 1919 the City Council renamed the streets in honour of British Admirals of World War I. Rosebank and Dunkeld were two of the first suburbs to have trolley-bus transport