The Hillbrow Tower (formerly JG Strijdom Tower) is a tall

tower A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specific ...

located in the suburb of Hillbrow in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

, South Africa. At , it has been the tallest structure and tower in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

for 50 years, and it was also the tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere until 1978, when surpassed by the 270 m Mount Isa Chimney in

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. Construction of the tower began in June 1968 and was completed three years later, in April 1971. Construction cost 2 million

Rand The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is finan ...

(at the time, US$2.8 million). The tower was initially known as the JG Strijdom Tower, after JG (Hans) Strijdom, South African Prime Minister from 1954 to 1958. On 31 May 2005 it was renamed the ''Telkom Jo'burg Tower''. The tower was constructed for South African Posts & Telecommunications, which later became Telkom,James Barber, Angela Fung, Sandeep Toshniwal, Becky Voorheis, and Campbell R. Harvey
Telkom, South Africa"
''Winter'' (1999). Retrieved 2011/03/17. South Africa's government run and the country's largest

telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that ...

company. As the general height of buildings rose in the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

, it became necessary that the height of the new telecom tower stayed above the height of the buildings surrounding it.

Tourist attraction

The Hillbrow Tower has been closed to visitors since 1981, primarily due to security reasons. Before the closure, the Hillbrow tower was one of the largest tourist draws in Johannesburg. The public was able to enter six public floors at the top of the tower. One of the floors housed a popular

revolving restaurant A revolving restaurant or rotating restaurant is usually a tower restaurant eating space designed to rest atop a broad circular revolving platform that operates as a large turntable. The building remains stationary and the diners are carried on ...

named Heinrich's Restaurant, as well as another non-rotating restaurant known as the Grill Room and the observation floor which was at 197 m height. During the

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

, a huge

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

was fitted to the tower to celebrate the event. In 2013, television programme ''

Carte Blanche A blank cheque in the literal sense is a cheque that has no monetary value written in, but is already signed. In the figurative sense, it is used to describe a situation in which an agreement has been made that is open-ended or vague, and therefo ...

'' broadcast from what used to be the revolving restaurant. The Hillbrow Tower is one of two iconic towers that are often used to identify the Johannesburg skyline. The second tower, the

Sentech Tower The Sentech Tower, previously named the Albert Hertzog Tower and commonly known as the Brixton Tower, is a concrete television tower in the Brixton suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa, near the top of the Brixton Ridge. It is a well-known and ...

(old Albert Hertzog Tower), is used for television and radio transmissions.

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References

External links

Hillbrow Tower
* {{Structurae, id=20015663, title=Hillbrow Tower Buildings and structures in Johannesburg Towers completed in 1971 Towers in South Africa

Tourist attraction

Gallery

See also

References

External links