Melville is a bohemian suburb of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; 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, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. It is the location of many restaurants and taverns, which are mostly frequented by students from the nearby University of Johannesburg, located in

Auckland Park Auckland Park is a suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a large ...

, and the University of the Witwatersrand, located in Braamfontein. It is one of the city's most popular tourist destinations. The suburb is to the west of the Johannesburg CBD. It is located in Region B of the

City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality The City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality is a metropolitan municipality that manages the local governance of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is divided into several branches and departments in order to expedite services for the city. Z ...

History

Prior to the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand in 1886, the suburb lay on land of one of the original farms that make up Johannesburg, called ''Braamfontein''. The suburb was proclaimed on 5 October 1896, and is named after the land surveyor, Edward Harker Vincent Melvill. In the public sale notice, the suburb was described as a "picturesque and healthy spot in the vicinity of Johannesburg with a magnificent view of the wooded country to the north with the blue Pretoria ranges stretching like lines of steel against the horizon".

Geography

Melville is also well known for the Melville Koppies (an archeological site, with rolling hills of grassland with views over the city), and is near the historic suburb of

Sophiatown Sophiatown , also known as Sof'town or Kofifi, is a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. Sophiatown was a black cultural hub that was destroyed under apartheid, It produced some of South Africa's most famous writers, musicians, politicians a ...

Culture and contemporary life

The area, along with Parkhurst, Greenside, Parkview, Norwood and Emmarentia, is one of the many areas of the Northern Suburbs still to have high streets with cafes, restaurants and shops lining the streets rather than in enclosed

shopping centres A shopping center (American English) or shopping centre (Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof. The first known collec ...

. In Melville, the majority of these are located along 7th Street, although there are also several on other streets, such as 4th Avenue and Main Street (where there is also a supermarket). There are over 30 guest houses in the vicinity, and Melville is a popular stopover in Johannesburg for tourists. On 7th Street, in addition to restaurants, there are several bars and a tattoo studio; the street is a popular hang-out for the cosmopolitan crowd. The popular

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

, '' 7de Laan'', used views of 7th Street, Melville in its opening visuals.

References

External links

mymelville.co.zawhatsupinmelville.co.za
Johannesburg Region B Gay villages in South Africa Tourist attractions in Johannesburg {{Johannesburg-stub