Zoo Lake
Artificial lake and park born from a nineteen-four deed requiring access for all races, a rarity under apartheid.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Zoo Lake in Johannesburg starts with a strange legal quirk: a 1904 deed handing the city two hundred acres on one condition, that it stay open to people of every race. You'll hear how that clause held through the tightening years of apartheid, when the rest of the city was split into segregated zones, and about the 1956 evening when the ballerina Margot Fonteyn danced at the water's edge. Look for the fountain at the lake's center, added for a 1937 coronation, as you listen.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
The Market Theatre
Converted early twentieth century produce market turned non-racial theatre that defied apartheid segregation laws.
Melville
Bohemian inner-city suburb of tree-lined streets, indie cafes, and a rocky Iron Age hill overlooking it all.
Newtown
Former fruit market turned theatre and arts district where apartheid-era audiences defied segregation laws.
Emmarentia Dam
Earth and stone dam built by unemployed war veterans, now ringed by reed beds, sailboats and picnic lawns.
Apartheid Museum
Museum recreating apartheid-era segregation through a randomly assigned entrance, before tracing the system's rise and fall.
Chancellor House
Restored three-storey law office where South Africa's first black-run legal practice once fought apartheid pass laws.