Contact Artefacts please if you have any comments or more information regarding this record.	Menu Home Upfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon		Bus Shelter Parktown, Johannesburg, Gauteng William Andrew MARTINSON: Architect

Date: 1992 Type: Bus Shelter Status: Extant Street: Valley Rd - at the intersection with Jan Smuts Ave   Click to view map Coordinates: 26°10'36.88" S 28°01'52.04" E

Designed and constructed by William MARTINSON. The primary structure of the bus shelter was a pair of substantial steel pipe columns, their upper ends joined with a substantial rolled hollow section steel beam. Steel fixing cleats were welded onto the faces of the pipe columns onto which the pairs of convex rolled half-trusses were bolted. The curved rafters and the curved brackets were formed of back-to-back rolled angles. The circular connecting 'rings' were fabricated from a single rolled angle. Rolled corrugated iron sheets are fixed to steel purlins and the ridge is capped with a folded galvanized iron capping. A set of circular precast concrete manhole rings form a stub column on the cross axis to the rear of the bus shelter. A commemorative granite plaque is set horizontally in exposed-aggregate concrete, which material closes the upper circular face of the stub-column. The wording of the plaque is transcribed below: BASED ON THE 1912 TRAM SHELTER IN BREE STREET, NEWTOWN, WHICH WAS DESIGNED AND BUILT IN THE TOWN ENGINEER'S DEPARTMENT THE PARKTOWN BUS SHELTER WAS ERECTED IN 1992 BY THE PARKTOWN ASSOCIATION TO COMMEMORATE THE CENTENARY OF PARKTOWN The scale of the Tram Shelter was substantially reduced for the Parktown Bus shelter, but the proportions, and the relationship of the centre points of each of the curved segments was strictly observed. An original Johannesburg City Council bus shelter bench was sourced and bolted in place on substantial concrete pads – to militate against the theft of the bench for its scrap value. To date this has proved successful. The two cast iron structural frames of the bench were designed to resemble portions of the trunks of small trees, with protruding 'pruned' branches and rough bark. The three planks spanning between the two frames are of a heavy painted hardwood bolted to the cast iron frames. Postscript The original Tram Shelter was sited in Bree St in Newtown, on the south side of the Market Building. The original 1912 tram shelter used rolled T-section members for the rafters and brackets and a heavy timber beam between the columns. The City Council obtained permission from the heritage authorities to demolish the tram shelter. This was however provided subject to its reconstruction - using the dismantled material - at a future date. Fortunately the structure was measured in detail and photographed by the writer prior to its demolition. Not surprisingly the original components of the shelter duly all disappeared. When the rejuvenation of the plaza adjacent to the old Market Building was mooted the measured drawings were used to recreate the Tram shelter – albeit with new materials. All truncated references not fully cited below are those of Joanna Walker's original text and cited in full in the 'Bibliography' entry of the Lexicon.