Fairview, Gauteng

Fairview
Fairview Fairview
Coordinates: 26°12′10″S 28°04′02″E
Country	South Africa
Province	Gauteng
Municipality	City of Johannesburg
Main Place	Johannesburg
Established	1895
Area
• Total	0.21 km2 (0.08 sq mi)
Population  (2011)
• Total	1,716
• Density	8,200/km2 (21,000/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)
• Black African	93.6%
• Coloured	2.3%
• Indian/Asian	1.3%
• White	2.6%
• Other	0.2%
First languages (2011)
• Zulu	41.8%
• English	10.7%
• Tsonga	7.2%
• Southern Ndebele	5.5%
• Other	34.8%
Time zone	UTC+2 (SAST)
Postal code (street)	2094
PO box	n/a
Area code	011

Fairview is a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is a small suburb found on the eastern edge of the Johannesburg central business district (CBD), with the suburb of Troyeville to the north, Jeppestown to the south and Malvern to its east. Commissioner Street, the main street in the CBD, has its eastern end in the suburb. It is located in Region F of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality.

History

The suburb is situated on part of an old Witwatersrand farm called Doornfontein. This small suburb has it origin in the year of 1895 or early 1896 and was known either as Fairview or Fawcus Township. The land was owned by a man called George E. Fawcus who was married to a coloured woman and sometime after 1903, had made enough money off the land and so retired to Trinidad and Jamaica. He would sell the suburb to J.G. van Boeschoten and J. Lorenz. In the Johannesburg newspaper, The Star, stands were being advertised for sale during November 1896 for an average price of £300 but some were priced as high as £450. On the return of Fawcus' wife from the Caribbean in 1912 after her husband's death, she attempted to have the suburb renamed to Fawcus Township but was not successful.

Heritage

There are several heritage sites in the suburb. In Commissioner Street, Fairview is the modern fire station in front of which stands the original fire station tower whose foundation stone was laid in 1906 by Julius Jeppe. Another heritage site is a Dutch Reformed Church in Op de Bergen Street and further down the same street, examples of early miners residences.