The name ‘Sandton’ is taken from SANDown and BryansTON.
Sandton is currently Africa’s richest square mile – but it has not always been that way…
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10 000 years ago, the plains of Sandton were traversed by Stone Age hunters;
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1 000 years ago, tribesmen watered their herds at Sandton’s many streams and springs;
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400 years ago, the tribesmen ran an iron smelting economy;
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120 years ago, the richest gold field on earth was discovered;
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100 years ago, Sandton comprised Johannesburg’s lush market garden;
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50 years ago, Sandton was home to a world of rich estates and sandy horse trails. Sandtonians were dubbed the ‘mink and manure’ set. The hunt, which began at the Inanda Club, used to pass over the land on which Sandton City is now built. When promulgated in 1969, it was described by former Town Planner, B Bristow, as a ‘community of 30 000 whites and 15 000 horses’;
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30 years ago, the country’s premier shopping centre – Sandton City – was built. This was nearly called the Knoppieslaagte City Shopping Centre!
From that moment, Sandton, the sleepy village never looked back as it became Johannesburg’s premier commercial expansion point. The Construction Crane became the town’s symbolic bird. Today, Sandton is a monument not to the past, but to a glittering future. It is home to 300 000 residents and 10 000 businesses.
History courtesy of Walk and Talk Tours
www.walktours.co.za