10 Best Sights in City Center, Johannesburg

If there's a symbol of Johannesburg, it's Ponte City, a massive, hollow 54-story cylinder of apartments that you might recall from watching District 9. Built in 1975, and standing at a height of 568 feet with a flashing advertisement at the top, it was, until recently, the tallest residential building in Africa. Once the apex of grand living, it became a slum in the 1990s as the middle class fled to the suburbs. It has since been revitalized, with young professionals, students, and immigrants moving in.

The Dlala Nje Foundation, on the ground floor of the building, is a safe space and community center for the neighborhood’s youth. It is funded by the four fascinating tours offered by the Dlala Nje Experiences Business, which takes visitors on walking tours of the inner city’s misunderstood suburbs. Leave all your prejudices behind as you explore Hillbrow, Yeoville, and Berea on a culinary, shopping, or queer tour, where you can interact with locals, many of whom are small-business owners, to gain a refreshed perspective on this vastly diverse city.

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 nonprofits 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-chips shop with wooden benches arranged in the courtyard. Although 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.

On this street in the city center, among stores selling traditional African fabrics and household appliances, you'll find African herbalists' shops purveying a mind-boggling array of homeopathic and traditional cures for whatever ails you. If you're lucky, a sangoma (traditional healer) might throw the bones and tell you what the future holds. This is also the site of the old Johannesburg Stock Exchange building (the modern version is in Sandton) and the so-called Diamond Building, resembling a multifaceted diamond. You'll get the most out of visiting Diagonal Street on a guided walking tour—Local Places has great curated tours with a wealth of knowledge about the city center.

This three-story museum hosts excellent local and international exhibitions in 15 halls and has collections of 17th-century Dutch art, 18th-century French art, and paintings by great South African artists such as Jacob Hendrik Pierneef, Ezrom Legae, Walter Battiss, Irma Stern, Gerard Sekoto, and Anton van Wouw. It exhibits only 10% of its vast collection at a time. You can also admire a large selection of traditional African objects, such as headrests, tree carvings, and beadwork.

The parking and gallery itself are safe, but the area it's in is not, so don't walk around outside.

If you need proof that Jo'burg is revitalizing, Maboneng Precinct (along Main Street) is one example. The name translates to "a place of light" and as with most cities, it ebbs and flows and never quite remains the same. Although the weekend market that brought many visitors into town has moved, the neighborhood continues to find its way by tapping into what it is known for—creativity. Artwork is created in collaboration with artists from across the world, iconic architecture still exists from colonial times to the present, and it buzzes with art galleries, indie boutiques, coffee shops, restaurants, rooftop bars, and apartments. Highlights include the Kwa Mai-Mai Traditional Healers Market (best to visit with a guide), the Living Artists Emporium, or take in exceptional city views from the rooftop of Hallmark Hotel. It's best not to walk around Maboneng alone, so plan on arranging a guided tour. It can be a little overwhelming driving or walking there, especially with so many one-way streets, and the outlying areas can be a bit busy.

A symbol of the renewal process going on in the city, this modern, 931-foot-long bridge with sprawling cables spans the Braamfontein railway yard, connecting Braamfontein and the revamped Newtown Cultural Precinct to The Market Theater and Maboneng Precinct. The bridge is especially beautiful at night when it is colorfully illuminated (though walking across without a guide, even during the day, is not advised).

A giant world map that is handmade of aluminum wire depicts the migration of hominins at the entrance of Origins Centre. This modern museum (situated at the University of the Witwatersrand) explores the development and culture of modern humans over the past 100,000 years, and in particular rock art and stone tools—of which southern Africa has the oldest in the world. Origins is spacious and elegantly designed across three stories that house permanent and temporary exhibitions, which cater to schoolkids and visiting professors alike. It was renovated in 2021 and boasts interactive multimedia displays and photographs that are enhanced by a free Augmented Reality app (OriginsCentreAR), which can be used with the museum’s free Wi-Fi. Origin Shop, the museum’s gift shop, sells high-quality crafts made by the Khomani San in the Northern Cape as well as hard-to-source books on rock art in southern Africa. If you don’t make it to the museum, you can experience most of its exhibitions via its websites, thanks to Google Arts & Culture.

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 (11 am–7 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.

SABMiller is Africa's largest brewing company, and its unusual museum is dedicated to that great South African favorite—beer. A guided tour takes you on an interactive, multimedia trip back in time through the origins of beer, where you'll learn about the history of beer brewing in Africa and the process of beer making, including African brewing traditions. After a 75-minute tour you can enjoy two complimentary beers in the taproom (and take home a keepsake World of Beer glass).

At the home of the Standard Bank African art collection you can admire contemporary South African artwork. The gallery hosts high-quality, ever-changing local and international exhibitions, including the annual traveling World Press Photo show. Across the street, Standard Bank also hosts the entrance to a gold mine dating back to the city's earliest days; it was discovered when the headquarters was being built in the 1980s. You can take an elevator down to see it, along with a small exhibition of photos and maps.