When the old Scala cinema opened on Fourth Avenue in 1929, Melville's kids dubbed it the Flea Pit, and this week, 97 years later, Scala got her groove back! Welcome to Melville Untold. Here to tape the Melville show, preferably from the front row.

In this week’s newsletter,

— Aubrey Moloto, Caroline Koma

Two months ago, the corner of Fourth Avenue was practically writing its own obituary. Bambanani had given notice after 18 years, 40 jobs hung in the balance, and the building that had been feeding and entertaining this neighbourhood since 1929 was set to go dark. Tsooh!

And it was not loadshedding for once! On Saturday, 4 July, the lights came back. Call it Melville's own Independence Day: the Yanks get their fireworks on the 4th, and we got our corner back! We were there, with Danny, Jovana, Bianca, Rachel, Tyler and many other Melvillains itching to get our first look at the new Scala. Our very own homecoming.

The Many Lives Of Scala

Any good movie has a backstory, so let’s rewind the tapes. This building has more past lives than a Bounty Hunters feral. If you’ve been following along, you’ll remember that in May, we traced the whole story of 87 Fourth Avenue: it opened as The Scala Kinema around 1929, part of Isidore Schlesinger's African Consolidated Theatres, its name borrowed from Milan's famous La Scala. Later generations of Melville kids knew it less romantically as the Bug House or the Flea Pit. It went on to live as The Casino,  The Mixer, kaffiehuis, a TV studio and a gym before Bambanani moved in and made it the neighbourhood's family room.

Then Came The Fight

When Bambanani announced it would close, the sticking point was not rent or appetite. It was paperwork: a requirement to formally register 70 parking bays over the 27 Boxes property before the old cinema could be licensed as a theatre, this in a precinct where roughly 250 bays already exist. “This is not a real-world constraint,” owner Caryn Cohen said at the time. “It is an administrative delay that could take up to 18 months. Bambanani does not have 18 months.” The Save Bambanani petition followed, and the hood signed in numbers.

The petition did not just make noise; it changed her mind.

So What Is Scala?

Not the theatre, not yet (more on that in a moment). Caryn has opened the front half of the old cinema as what she calls an evening house: a candlelit, European-bistro. A direct answer to the question: what do you do with a beautiful room while approvals grind on. “I’ve just opened the front half so that the corner is not dead in Melville,” she told us, “so there’s life, so something can start to happen while I try and get this theatre concept going.”

The format is simple and fittingly, a bit theatrical. The Scala Experience starts everyone with a house salad, baguette and herbed butter. You pick your main: rump, chicken breast, sole, or a cauliflower steak if you don’t do meat, all carried by a secret house sauce she is rather proud of, with a lemon peri-peri butter for the fish crowd. Decadent desserts, proper cocktails, music low enough to talk over. “It’s kind of based on the bistros of Europe,” she says. Think supper club energy without the membership card.

And The Name?

We'll probably be dining out on this one for a while. When Caryn went looking for a name, nothing stuck until she read our history of the building's cinema years.

"I was looking and looking for names, and none of them sounded right. Then you sent that piece on the history of Joburg's theatres. I didn't want La Scala, that's Italian, and I didn't want The Scala. So I decided on Scala. It fit the space perfectly."

I will be honest: knowing a story we published helped name the next chapter of a 97-year-old building is one of my proudest moments in Snaps On Seventh history!

The Bigger Picture

Scala is not the destination; it’s the bridge. If the evening house trades well enough to cover the turnover Bambanani lost, Caryn will bring the restaurant back. "I might be able to reopen Bambanani and have these two spaces," she says. "Bambanani in the day and Scala at night." She would love that reopening to happen in the next few weeks. And the theatre itself? Still waiting on the licence, still the dream: comedy nights, up-and-coming theatre, intimate live music, tapas served in the seats. "But we're not there now," she says plainly.

She is clear-eyed about why she is doing all of this here, in Melville, when the easier move was to lock the doors:

What Happens Next

A corner like this remains an institution the hard and boring way: bums on seats, week after week. Book an evening at Scala, take someone who remembers the Flea Pit, and reply and tell us what you thought. And one more thing for the long-memoried: we have still never found a single photograph of the Scala in its cinema years. If you have one in a shoebox, or a story from those Saturday matinees, email [email protected].

Enjoyed this week’s digest? Consider buying us a coffee – It keeps the newsletter going.

This Week in Melville: 15 to 26 July, the once-offs worth planning around. View full calendar

And in case you missed it:

McCoy Mrubata and Gary Wittner brought the house down at Die Pienk Kerk on Saturday, the Brewed Awakening coffee rave had Sánguche packed by 08:00, and Merle Grace had the Koppies lecture hut spellbound on Sunday.

Plus the regulars: karaoke five nights a week, quiz nights, Wednesday jazz, Monday comedy, the run club, Saturday markets and Koppies Sundays, all live on the Melville Pulse.
VIEW FULL CALENDAR-

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

The next Mile is Thursday 6 August, and it’s an ode to Women’s Month: Ladies First, with the women of the Mile taking the spotlight (poster coming soon).

Word is clearly out: 15 artists, studios and venues have already applied for this one since the start of July. Artists, there’s still time to get your application in before entries close.

Tickets are live, and tickets help keep this thing running, so bring your friends, bring your loved ones, bring your family. Got people visiting Joburg? Take them on the tour. Run a guesthouse? Tell your guests about the private Thursday tour of the Mile; we’ll send the bus!

Book via Quicket or [email protected]. And young artists: the Teen Exhibition call at 27 Boxes is still open.

Visit the official Melville Art Mile website to apply, learn more or get involved

Follow the gig guide and bookmark the events calendar!

The Pet Winter Swag Competition is officially on, and between us, we need more entries!

The Ville is clearly full of beautifully dressed family members; we see them on every pavement, so send them in! First prize is worth R2,500, second prize R1,500, plus a branded blankie from Raw Pet Food Deli for third.

Enter via [email protected] or in person at the deli.

Raw Pet Food Deli in Parkhurst is exactly that: a deli for dogs, not a pet shop. The owner, Debbie Smith, started it in her garage during COVID and now runs sixteen freezers of raw meals designed by a pet nutritionist and a holistic vet.

The blanket drive is her idea and her mission: “These havens for dogs are always desperate for help. I can’t give financially, but I can help in other ways.” Drop off a NEW blanket when you enter your pet (Pep and the Crazy Store sell warm ones for almost nothing), and come back next Wednesday for the meat of this story. Pun intended.

The newest spot on the strip is a sandwich deli and wine bar that doesn't take itself too seriously.

Salute Café has opened next door to  Good Omens (see Issue 66). They share the terrace, and two of the three owners, Shane and Chris, with Dino completing the trio, are the same family behind Bad Manners in Newtown.

The offer: great wine, coffee, charcuterie boards and Italian-leaning sandwiches from a deli counter Melville was dying for.

The ambition is simple and, frankly, correct: "Joburg lacks something that's just dedicated to wine and coffee and cheese and meat and your homely foods." Salute Cafe brings exactly that vibe, complete with weekend Football on the big screen.

Thursday 12:00 to 23:00 | Friday 12:00 to 23:00 | Saturday 09:00 to 23:00, Sunday 09:00 to 18:00.

As we welcome one esoteric store to the hood, we say goodbye, for the second time, to a legendary one, Angel Shack On 7th, aka Dom’s Angel Shack. It was with a heavy heart earlier this week when Dominique Alder announced that they’d be closing their doors at the end of July, and for real this time.

There's a mammoth clearance sale, “everything must go”, so go on down to 7th and give Angel Shack some love, restock on your incense and crystals, and if you run a business and have an opening, consider employing their staff.

So as we say goodbye to Angel Shack on 7th with a heavy heart, it’s hello Realms Of Ra with a full one - Welcome to 7th Street!

Melville made the morning telly: Die Pienk Kerk's Yanni Briel was on SABC Morning Live, telling the country how a 1903 church on Chatou Road became one of its most loved stages.

And on Saturday, that same stage hosted McCoy Mrubata and Gary Wittner, twenty years of musical partnership that has played SFJAZZ in San Francisco, wrapping a one-night-only show in Melville. Our hood keeps punching above its weight class; 2026, let’s go!

Rand Water's second maintenance phase hits our supply on Friday, 17 July, affecting the Brixton Reservoir and Tower system that feeds Melville. Official notices advise everyone to store enough water for 5 days or more.

So fill the kettle, the pots and every bottle you own tonight, and check on neighbours who can’t lug buckets. Details via The Citizen and the council notice boards. No drama this shutdown in Mellies, just prep.

Remember our main reserve water distribution points at the Satellite Station on 1st Avenue, the mosques, and keep your eyes peeled and ears open for the sounds of tankers!

No, you are not imagining it. Monday morning’s blackout (a tripped 88kV line that took out chunks of the north-west, 7th Street and 5th Avenue included) came on top of Bambanani’s separate outage on Fourth Avenue, now past the 11-day mark. The official word came from the Hursthill Service Delivery Centre: transformers at the Orlando, Delta and Ridge substations had tripped, and level-A operators were dispatched to investigate the 88kV line fault. The wider picture is citywide: the Daily Maverick reports more than 1,200 City Power outages since 1 July. City Power’s Isaac Mangena attributes the surge to infrastructure faults, cable theft, vandalism and ageing equipment, while denying that the utility has collapsed.

One warning from that reporting is worth repeating verbatim to every Melville WhatsApp group: never pay cash to anyone who pitches up offering to fix your power. Community Policing Forum chairs are already logging extortion complaints across the city. Report faults only through the official channels: City Power’s live outage updates channel on WhatsApp, citypower.mobi, or 011 490 7484 (call centre +27 80 020 2925; @CityPowerJhb on socials). Keep your reference number, and report anyone asking for money.

Also: if this month’s municipal bill made you sit down and hold your head, that is the 1st of July tariff hikes arriving, not an error.

An update straight from the Safe Streets Project team: “Thanks to everyone who came to the April workshop”. 

The working groups on security planning, financial modelling and aesthetics are meeting regularly to work through the practical detail of a rollout. On approvals, they are still waiting to hear back from the Johannesburg Roads Agency on the objections that were raised, and they have committed to keeping the process transparent. 

The latest news, an upcoming FAQ and the full presentation from the last session are on their website, or email [email protected].

Two things can be true about our hill at once, so here are both, plainly.

The hard one: A resident was recently accosted near the Arundel Road gate, and three separate fires were put out all on Koppies West last week. The committee's standing advice holds: walk in groups, favour the guided sessions, especially on the Melville Koppies West on the Westdene side and report anything suspicious to the committee and SAPS immediately. No panic, no rumours, just look after each other; this is Jozi.

The good one: the Koppies' trails are now properly mapped. My Greenside High School mates, Alex and Joshua Weiss, have plotted the routes on Outdooractive, with a map board going up at the reception hut, so your first solo visit is less like a Pokémon hunt (unless you're into that sort of thing...).

Meanwhile, another Greenside mate of mine, Zameer, and the CAP team in Emmerentia have been welding shut the broken fences at the Judith and Beyers corner; the City Parks guided hike is set for 9 August, and the winter maintenance fund still needs pavers and bricks ([email protected], 066 571 9539).

I hate to brag again, but it looks like Greenside Alumni are doing the most for the Parks right now! Interesting.

Get involved: become a volunteer, donate, or make sure The Friends Of Melville Koppies are a beneficiary on your MySchool Card

One more reason to keep those freshly mapped paths in mind. The same Forge guys, Alex and Josh Weiss, are bringing back the Trail Fund Project for a second year, and this time it comes off the screen and onto the hill. Last year's virtual race raised R9,000 for Koppies upkeep.

This year is simpler: one 10KM race on two Sunday mornings, 13 and 20 September, starting at Fingers Crossed coffee on Levubu Road in Emmarentia and looping through the Melville Koppies Nature Reserve and the Johannesburg Botanical Garden. Your Fingers Crossed armband doubles as your entry to the Koppies that day (no queue at the gate), and every cent goes back into the trails underfoot and helping the parks.

There's a prize for the fastest man, one for the fastest lady, and a lucky draw, with Fingers Crossed putting up A KILO of beans. So save the dates, lace up, and watch this space closer to September.

Early bird tickets are available until 31 August at a crazy 50% off!

Melville businesses want to get involved? Reply to this email, and we'll connect you with Forge, the organisers of the race or check out their website.

Our suburb is turning 130, and the community is planning something MASSIVE. Long before the coffee shops and galleries, Randsteam was the Amawasha laundry hub for the early mining camps – These are the sorts of stories the M130 community wants to build the whole heritage celebration history around: blue plaques, a wall of remembrance, guided Koppies walks and more.

The My Melville Memories vault is finally open! If you have a photo of the old 7th Street trams, a story from a turret house, a Baseline memory or a shot of Melville before it was Melville, the hood needs it.

We’re writing our own history before it slips away. Go and add yours, then send the link to the oldest Melvillian you know. And if you want to help make the 130th happen, the committee wants you! Join the Melville 130 committee here.

Saturday 18 July is Mandela Day, the 67 minutes we each give back for Madiba’s 67 years of service, and it’s always embraced well in Mellies: apparently…dont take our word for it yet…the story goes that a young Nelson Mandela once worked those same Amawasha laundry lines. Fitting, then, that this hood does give back better than most. If you are hunting for your 67 minutes, take your pick. 

Pick one, show up, and tell us how it went! Send more ideas if you’re doing something else.

Melville got a lovely write-up this week: the Northcliff Melville Times profiled the Hotel Hope Ministries charity shop, the little shop on our streets where, as they put it, strangers become regulars. Exactly the kind of quiet, good-hearted corner that makes this place what it is. Worth a read and a visit. 

Hotel Hope will also be doing their annual Mandela Day drives. Check out their pages to learn more.

Mellies resident, director and South African film icon Twiggy Matiwana is having a year. Barely a fortnight after her film Dear Sis Dolly landed on Ster-Kinekor and Nu Metro screens (a warm, funny tribute to Drum magazine’s legendary agony aunt), she is back for a second premiere this month.

 A Season in Hellbrow, a Wits Creative Writing and Windybrow Arts Centre reworking of Rimbaud’s Une saison en enfer that she co-created and filmed, has its first showing at Wits on 29 July (5pm, Humanities Graduate Centre) before a run at the Market Theatre in August. Two premieres in one July.

 We see you, Twiggy, get em!

That's it from the Ville this week! If this week’s newsletter made your week easier, prouder or better fed, here is how to keep it going: buy us a coffee.

Reply with your tips and grumbles, and forward this to one person who loves Melville.

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Until next Wednesday, Melville,

Stay grounded, stay generous, stay glowing.

Mata ne! ✌️