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Market Building - Second
Johannesburg, Gauteng

REID and McCOWAT: Architect

Date:1890
Type:Market
Status:Unknown
Street:Market Square

The first Market Building on Market Square was hardly three years old when it had to be replaced by a much larger complex which was placed along the length of the square (the first was athwart the square) and which, by its very extent of nearly a whole block, dominated the square before the Rissik Street Post Office was constructed. The first Market Building consisted of a hall with stalls on either side but the market hall of the second structure was concealed behind a two-storey ring of offices and shops. The central points of the longer facades and the corners of the building were accented by high gable sections, which imparted a Neo-Gothic impression. This was strengthened by the pointed divisions of the arched display windows on the ground floor and the brick profile ledges and patterns in the facade. In fact, the geometric patterns in black brick set in the red brick facades were unique in Johannesburg, whose residents made no secret of their admiration for the building. H Longland was effusive: 'These buildings are the finest, architecturally, of their kind, and the best appointed for their purpose in South Africa'. (van der Waal 1987:57)


Books that reference Market Building - Second

van der Waal, Gerhard-Mark. 1987. From Mining Camp to Metropolis - The buildings of Johannesburg 1886-1940. Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Council. pg 56