Did you know that The Melville Turret Guest House was the first ever guest house in Melville? It's one of the few places that still has an actual turret here. No word on whether Rapunzel is taking bookings, though.

In this Week's Melville Untold…

• Before Supermarkets: How Melville Got Its Milk Delivered 🐄

• Getting Ready For The Happening 🎉

• The Pink Church On Chatou Is Opening For Business 💗

Let’s go. 

— Aubrey Moloto, Kele Jackson

The Digest

Before Supermarkets: How Melville Got Its Milk Delivered 🐄

It's history week! Let's rewind the tapes and go way back, deep into our hood's 129-year history to the early 20th century. Back then, Melville was still a young, semi-rural but blossoming suburb.

A time when Paul Kruger would choose to stay in Melville when attending government affairs in the city. He hated the Joburg inner city, labelling it a sort of "Sodom and Gomorrah." His preferred place to stay was Melville.

At the back end of Melville, in the open space between Rustenburg and Barry Hertzog near the waterfall, he was most comfortable. His convoy could camp as his cattle happily grazed in the open field where the football field is now. Back then, it was an outpost for cattle to graze.

Right across it, at the intersection between 8th Avenue and Rustenburg Road, was the heart of today's story - King's Dairy Farm, and just a little further up the road at the Bamboo Centre, Nel's Dairy shop.

The Bosman Family Legacy

We have no account of when King's Dairy was founded, but judging by stories told and placing it around the Paul Kruger days, it must have been in the late 1800s or early 20th century.

It was founded and run by Mr and Mrs Bosman, whose family has a documented history in South African agriculture dating back to 1810. They were primarily in wine farming, with various branches expanding into different agricultural pursuits.

The Bosmans, as the dairy managers, lived in a house on the same property behind the stable. This house is still standing at the bottom of 8th Avenue today; it's the property on the left as you turn into 8th coming from Rustenburg Road.

Across the road in the open field at the foot of the Koppies was where their cows would graze. Next to the house, where the Puma garage is now, was the King's Dairy shop with its entrance accessible by stairs from Rustenburg Road.

Revolutionary Delivery System

King's Dairy Farm was a local milk production facility serving products like fresh milk, cream, butter and eggs to the immediate community. They were known for their electric milk truck delivery system, which "silently delivered" products in the early morning. South Africa was a world leader in these environmentally friendly vehicles until the 1980s.

They used an innovative voucher system for deliveries: customers bought tokens from the dairy shop and left them in empty glass milk bottles on their stoep. The delivery driver would replace them with full bottles. The bottles eventually became the standard, but in the early days, households had a milk can that held half a gallon of milk (2.2 litres), which the dairy would fill. Later, milk was sold in pint or quart bottles with cardboard discs closing them off and eventually tinfoil caps.

Nel's Dairy Takes Over

We weren't able to trace when King's Dairy shop closed either, but at some point between the 1930s and 1950s, Nel's Dairy came into the Bamboo Centre. They had a store in the space where Love Books is now. The Bosmans still lived in the area, kept running the farm and supplied Nel's Dairy.

Nel's Dairy became a massive part of the community, continuing King's Dairy's legacy of delivering milk bottles with the famous electric truck. They added a fresh juice delivery option as well. Households would put a white token in the bottle for a milk refill and an orange for juice.

Community Memories

Speaking to Thys from the Kruisgemeente church in issue #8, he spoke very highly about Nel's Dairy and how important they were to the community. He recalled jumping on the back of the electric truck for a lift up the hills when they were running late for school, going to Melville Primary. We also spoke with sisters Dawn Van Zyl and Denise Alexander of B&B On 8th, who are also Melville natives with very fond memories. Dawn even worked at Nel's Dairy for a spell.

One of our sources, Johannesburg Heritage Foundation’s William Gaul, another Melvillian, talked about how he played with the Bosman's son, Freddy, growing up. These wonderful stories show what an integral part both dairies played in the fabric of the Melville community.

The End of an Era

By the late 1900s, supermarkets were growing and becoming the main source for all groceries and food produce for households. Melville lost its semi-rural vibe as urbanisation took over the northern suburbs.

This marked a massive decline in farmers' markets and specialised produce shops. The dairies' model, with its direct connection between producer and consumer, reusable glass bottles, and neighbourhood-scale operation, is a typical example of values that many communities now try to reintegrate through farmers' markets and community-supported agriculture.

Its legacy offers both historical perspective and potential inspiration for future community initiatives focused on local food, sustainable transportation, and neighbourhood resilience - Which Melville has plenty of!

Do you remember King’s or Nel’s Dairy? Reply to this email and share the nostalgia!

If you’re happy to know about Melville’s dairy past or to feel the pang of nostalgia after reading this week’s digest, why not tip us? Buy us a coffee

What’s Happenin’ 🤔

 What happens in Melville stays in memories for life. Or, at the very least, makes for a great story over breakfast the next day. Here's a guide to another memorable week in our hood.

Check out the events calendar for regular events - The Melville Pulse Events Calendar 

Melville Weather For The Week 🌸

Spring feels like it's finally here. The sun has come out to play more often. Let's hope it's not another false alarm because we're not emotionally ready to bring the winter jerseys back out again!

Wednesday 

27° 🌡️ 8°  | 🌤️ |  🌧️ 0% | SSW 11 km/h 💨

Thursday  

27° 🌡️ 8° | 🌤️ | 🌧️ 0% | ENE 7 km/h 💨

Friday 

28° 🌡️ 9° | 🌤️ | 🌧️ 0% | ESE 15 km/h 💨

Saturday 

27° 🌡️ 7° | ☀️ |  🌧️ 0% | NE 17 km/h 💨

Sunday

23° 🌡️ 9° | ☀️ | 🌧️ 0% | N 7 km/h 💨

Monday 

27° 🌡️ 8° | ☀️ |  🌧️ 0% | N 11 km/h 💨

Tuesday 

23° 🌡️ 8° | ⛅️ |  🌧️ 1% | SWS 9 km/h 💨

Live & Music Events Lowdown 🎸

There haven't been many music events in recent weeks. We still managed to squeeze a few in for you this week.

23/08 | Saturday | 6 pm | Chiesa PAZZO LUPI | KHNYSA and The Light ft. Lephoto Thapelo, Tshimo and Boitumelo Dibakoane | R180

22/08 | Friday | 7 pm | Coca Restaurant and Lounge | Coca’s All Girls PJ Party hosted by Xtracheese and 2prettyyde_babies | Free

21/08 | Thursday | 7 pm | Coca Restaurant and Lounge | A Random Groove | Free

For more updates as the week goes on, visit our instagram page @snapson7th or our new Melville Pulse event calendar

If our weather or comprehensive gig guide helped, consider buying us a coffee. 

Civil Matters 👷‍♀️

Brixton Water Tower Updates

This past Monday (18th August), our Ward 87 council team, represented by Councillor Kyle Jacobs and Jonathan Thompson, together with a shadow MMC for Infrastructure and Services and MP Stephen Moore, did an oversight visit to the Brixton Water Tower.

They inspected progress on upgrades to our water infrastructure systems. A video was released yesterday (Tuesday, 19th) with feedback and highlights (lowlights?) from their visit. The project’s timelines have slipped. It was originally scheduled for April 2025, but they’re now aiming to finish in September 2025. The team found that “the site had stalled.”

The contractors' tools are down, saying that they have not been paid by the City. If you were at the Melville Residents’ Association AGM last night, you would have heard the guest speaker Julia Fish of JoburgCAN break down this common non-payment issue between the City and Joburg Water.

Watch the video here: https://x.com/StephenMooreMP/status/1957719726714401093?t=-96HOf-UoMQ9ESfId2N_oA&s=08

City Parks & Melville: A Relationship That Works

There's been a lot of chatter about the City neglecting Melville more than other areas in different forums this year. Speaking to our council team in various articles, we've learnt this isn't the case. It's actually a much wider issue across the city. Councillor Jacobs even went as far as saying the scope of service delivery failings is nationwide.

For the second week in a row, we'd like to say something good about the City. (We know, we're as surprised as you are!) Speaking to Danny from Creass, our suburb's infrastructural services partner (contracted by MRA, MSI and also works with the MBA), he feels it's hard for municipal departments to go the extra mile when their residents' associations constantly antagonise them. They'll do their duty to capacity, but won't jump at the chance to do favours if there isn't mutual respect.

The JRA problems we've been having were due to having no depot manager for a long time. But our suburb has always enjoyed a fruitful working relationship with City Parks through Danny and Creass. Danny, being the respectful, easy-going guy he is, formed a relationship with City Parks management early on. He "reached an agreement to participate in a mutual assistance type of relationship" between CREASS and City Parks.

This means Creass can help cut grass and fallen branches in Melville. When we have a tree or branch blocking the road, Creass can respond, chop it up and open the road as quickly as possible whilst waiting for City Parks to remove the pieces.

Koppies Check-In ⛰

A Tribute To Revil John Mason

A wonderful article from 2020 has been dug up and is doing the rounds with the Koppies community. It's a tribute to archaeologist and Melville Koppies legend Revil Mason, who passed away on 23 August 2020 at 91 years of age.

Revil was a founding director of the Wits Archaeological Research Unit. He played a pivotal role in "laying the foundation for the practice of archaeology in South Africa." He was part of the team that excavated many early, middle and later Stone Age sites dating to almost 2.6 million years. Most importantly for us, they also excavated agriculturalist and herder (Iron Age) sites around Gauteng and North West provinces.

One of them is our Melville Koppies, where they excavated the mind-blowing smelting furnace used by the Tswana tribe to extract iron from rocks, amongst many other archeological treasures. The furnace is still on display up there. Melville's original artisanal forge, you could say?

If you haven't seen this marvel, this is one of the reasons why visiting Melville Koppies Central is a great experience. There's tonnes of history up there, excavated and preserved by Revil John Mason and many others who've been part of the Friends Of Melville Koppies over the years, like the phenomenal, late David Carstens.

Visiting the Koppies

Scan the QR code below to get involved with the Melville Koppies.

Melville Koppies East is open every day from 6am to 7pm and is dog-friendly with beautiful views. But the most incredible historic treasures lie in the reserve at Melville Koppies Central. The entrance is on Judith Road across from Marks Park. It's R100 entrance for adults, R50 for under 18s and free for under 5s.

To check out Melville Koppies West, you can join Tony, David, Tam and me (Aubrey) on our monthly Walk With Dogs Hike for only R40 per person, with informal security provided.

The fees help volunteers carry on the amazing work preserving the indigenous fauna and flora up there!

The Tail End 🐾 

Feed Pond Fish Less In Winter

Thanks to a pro tip from Cobi at Ziggy's, we learnt something new about pond fish that can help the community, dug a little deeper, and here's what we found.

Fish are cold-blooded. Their body temperature is regulated by their external environment, unlike us warm-blooded mammals. As the pond gets colder through winter, their metabolism, digestion and overall activity levels slow down nearly to a halt. So you need to feed pond fish according to their water temperature, not the calendar.

Here's a simple, actionable guide for our climate

Above 15°C:

• Status: Fish are active, and their metabolism is high.

• Action: Feed a high-protein summer formula 1-3 times a day. Only give them what they can eagerly consume in 3-5 minutes.

Between 10°C and 15°C (The Transition Zone):

• Status: This is the crucial autumn/early winter cool-down period. Their metabolism is slowing significantly.

• Action: Switch to a low-protein, high-carbohydrate food, like a wheat germ-based pellet. Feed only once a day, or every other day. Again, only what they can eat in a few minutes. Their appetite will be noticeably less.

Below 10°C (The "Stop Feeding" Zone):

• Status: Their digestive systems have virtually shut down. They're living off their fat reserves.

• Action: Stop feeding completely. Undigested food will rot in their gut, which can be fatal. They will not starve; this is their natural cycle

Feeding fish when the water is too cold is one of the most common and deadly mistakes pond owners make. They can die from internal rot, where their gut bacteria become dormant in the cold and food rots inside.

Uneaten food can also contaminate the water whilst decaying, releasing high levels of ammonia. In a nippy pond, the "good" bacteria that normally break down ammonia are also dormant, leading to a toxic ammonia spike that can burn fish gills and is often fatal. This is the main reason why fish die off as the water warms up in spring.

So, next time you're tempted to sprinkle some pellets on a cold winter's day, remember: you're not being nice, you're potentially making their spring a toxic nightmare. Put the fish food down, and maybe go check on the succulents?

Help Find Sandy A Home

Sandy is still looking for a home. Anyone need a new furry addition to the family?

Pet Winter Wear Competition

In the Pet Winter Wear competition, two cute sausages snoop onto the stage: welcome Bennie & Hennie, looking snazzy in their zebra print! 😍🦓 

Many votes came in for Bumpy this week. Could our latecomer edge it? Vote, vote, vote!

Art in Melville 🖼

Free Arts Sessions at Melville Mansions

The hive of activity at the pink building on 7th continues! There's another remarkable initiative by the Resource Gallery, along with their Pop Up Sunday Lunch events.

Resource is bringing local artists and creative industry service providers together to give free classes, focusing on different arts media.

Their first session on 2nd August was drama themed. The second session will be this Saturday, 23rd August, and the theme is music. The session includes:

• Music, imagery and healing led by Caley Garden, an HSPCA registered music therapist (18+)

• Singers are Athletes: A masterclass with Melville's favourite music teacher, Tatjana Grabow of the Tatjana Music Studio

• Guitar & Drum Lessons led by various musicians

• A Marimba Music Demo by Marimba Jam

If you've been procrastinating getting those rusty music skills up, your guitar has been giving you the side-eye from the corner of the room for long enough! Maybe you've been wanting to dip your toes into the music world? Head down to the Resource Gallery at the Melville Mansions this Saturday from 9am to 12:30pm.

Space is limited, so get there early. And get this... It's FREE. Contact [email protected] for enquiries.

Don't Forget Exhibitions & Art Event’s Happening This Week:

• Melville Mudroom's "Meaning Of Life Exhibition" at the Origin Centre at Wits University on Thursday

• "Raving in Johannesburg" opening at AA Gallery on Saturday

• AA Art Gallery's Life Drawing workshop together with the Tintanic Exhibition of Studio401

Extra Sprinkles 🍩 

The Melville Pocket Companion Brochure Has Arrived!

Earlier this year, we were approached by our local guest houses to build a curated guide to our hood with recommended services, service providers and experiences for their guests.

The problem was that many guests arrive in Melville, staying at guest houses, but end up leaving our beautiful hood to explore experiences elsewhere. Guest house owners are far too busy to vet places and wanted us, the community chroniclers, to create a guide booklet giving their guests not only options right at their doorstep, but the best our neighbourhood has to offer!

After research phases engaging with over 20 guest houses to stress-test our chosen options, we heard what some of their guests enjoyed and got ideas to help us build a brochure that could best serve their needs.

In the process, we learnt so much about our hood and connected with amazing guest house owners who all still deeply care about Melville. They want this guide to help keep visitors' business here and benefit our local superstar businesses.

Lo and behold, after more than four months of countless calls, meetings and emails, we finally released and distributed a digital and physical brochure called the Melville Pocket Companion that includes:

• Essential Services

• Eats & Drinks

• Arts & Culture

• Outdoor & Wellness

• Local Shopping

• Bars & Nightlife

• A customised map with all the places included marked

• A “Beyond The Suburb” listing of day trip experiences and tours outside Melville

The brochure is already available free for guests at some of our local guesthouses. It gets updated every 6 months. We'll be rolling it out to many more accommodation businesses over the next few weeks.

Thereafter, we'll look at how we can get it into the hands of the whole community and partner with businesses to have them available there as well.

The Happening Is Finally Happening!

We recently met up with Melissa Thorne, one of the organisers of The Happening. She engaged us on behalf of the Africa Burn team about getting the word out to the community to bring their stunning crafts and services to this year's The Happening street festival.

This year promises to be MASSIVE and even more of a community affair than the last one in 2023. The Happening organising committee is appealing to all Melville creatives, craftspeople, artisans and entrepreneurs to open a stall or get involved somehow at this year's event, "Happening" in October.

They'll have all the empty stores in 27 Boxes available for occupation on the day, close-off 1st Avenue, 2nd Avenue, 3rd Avenue and 4th all the way to 6th Street and allow only residents and cars through to park in the 27 Boxes underground parking. This leaves a massive space for stalls and activities.

Apply to occupy a space by filling in the relevant form:

• For the general public with an idea to do something: https://forms.gle/u8zPa2SrSCTgEM8M9

• For Artists wanting to perform or showcase: https://forms.gle/u8zPa2SrSCTgEM8M9

• For Vendors wanting to sell: https://forms.gle/xdufvPZN67JGTABM6

For more about the event, visit: www.thehappening.co.za. If you have questions, contact Melissa at [email protected].

The aim is to "fill the street with beauty, creativity and radical expression." So whether you're selling bespoke jewellery or planning an interpretive dance about the perils of parallel parking on 7th Street, they want to hear from you! We're super excited, are you?

Reply to this email and let us know your thoughts or ideas on what we should do!

The Pink Church On Chatou Is Opening For Business!

You know that gorgeous, old-timey, church building on the border of Richmond and Melville that's been sitting dormant for years? Well, it's finally getting a revival!

Its doors will open early in September as a new destination for cyclists to pit-stop and enjoy a morning brew. It's called The Pink Church restaurant and is to be "a fun coffee shop to visit," aiming to encourage more people to exercise on a bike, and "simply enjoy the Jozi outdoors." Because nothing says 'I earned this croissant' quite like conquering a Mellies hill on two wheels!

They're planning a "long-awaited" second Karoo Gothic exhibition to take place there in October, themed: "We are the Dancers," curated by Derek Smith.

We'll keep tabs on this scoop and bring you more details as they unfold. The church is located at 24 Chatou Road.

Thank you! 🙏

Thank you for going on a long journey into Melville's past with us!

If you're glad to have read this week's Melville Untold, why not tip us? Buy us a coffee.

If you're an accommodation business, contact Aubrey on 0818262904 or reply to this email to get the Melville Pocket Companion in your guests' hands. Contact us to advertise in the brochure, too!

Til next week, Melville,

Stay honourable, stay humble and stay Happening.

Da ✌️