Victoria Yards

Victoria Yards occupies a set of former industrial buildings in Lorentzville, a hard part of eastern Johannesburg, and its distinguishing feature is that the regeneration was designed to include the surrounding neighbourhood rather than wall it off. Around thirty tenants work there - artists including well-known names, ceramicists, a bicycle workshop, clothing makers, a distillery, a coffee roaster - and the site runs training and employment programmes for people from Bertrams and Lorentzville next door, with vegetable gardens through the courtyards that supply the on-site restaurants. First Sundays open the whole complex with markets and studios accessible. Murals cover the walls. It invites the same gentrification questions as any such project, and its answer is the local employment and food programmes, which are substantial rather than decorative - visitors can see the difference from the neighbouring blocks in either direction.

Highlights

• The working studios - about thirty tenants from artists to a bicycle workshop.
• The courtyard gardens - vegetable planting through the site supplying its restaurants.
• The training programmes - employment schemes drawing on the neighbourhood next door.
• The First Sunday - a monthly open day with markets and accessible studios.

When to go

First Sunday of the month for the full site; weekdays for individual studios. Half a day.

Good to know

The surrounding area needs ordinary Johannesburg care - drive in, park inside, do not wander the blocks around it without local guidance. Many studios are closed outside the First Sunday. It is small; half a day is plenty.

Nearby

Maboneng is west; central Johannesburg is a short drive.