Braamfontein

This guide to Braamfontein in Johannesburg opens on the afternoon of February 19, 1896, when a railway shunter nudged a freight train loaded with dynamite crates left waiting in a siding. You'll hear how the ground under the district disappeared and how the shock reached towns well over a hundred kilometres away, and about the dispute over how many people the blast claimed. It follows how the neighbourhood's office towers, university and bars grew up on the ground it left behind.