Park station and the old csar headquarters building

During the South African War, Johannesburg, rather than Pretoria, was the centre from which railway and military operations in the ZAR and OFS were planned and executed. Following the capture of Johannesburg and Pretoria in June 1900, the Imperial Military Railways (IMR), which was run by Cape government railway recruits and officers from regiments such as the Royal Engineers under its director, Sir Percy Girourard, operated from Johannesburg.

In July 1902 the rail management of the two conquered Boer Republics returned to civil administration and was call the Central South African Railways (CSAR). In just eight years the new administration transformed these systems into the most modern railway operation in Southern Africa.

One of the first considerations of the new management was a new station for Johannesburg and railway headquarters for the new colonies, the Transvaal Colony and the Orange River Colony.

By 1902, barely five years after the building of the new station in 1897, Park Station was again feeling the pressure of the city's traffic growth: the city needed more than a station - it required a central railway complex for administrative, operating and engineering staff. On 10 June 1904 the powerful Railway Committee of the Inter-Colonial Council approved funds for the building of a headquarters which was destined to become an integral part of all future Park Station developments. It was erected on a piece of land between Rissik and Joubert streets, facing Noord Street. The first section of the new building, called the Area Manager's Office, was completed in 1905.

Why was the most important state departments of the time managed from Johannesburg and not the capital, Pretoria? The answer is that neither Sir Percy nor the British governor, Sir Alfred Milner, particularly liked Pretoria.

It speaks volumes for the CSAR's civil engineering department that a member, Thomas A Moodie, won the competition for the design of the new facility.

In 1906 the CSAR published its 'suggested scheme for completion of railway offices and station, Johannesburg' which shows Moodies's sketch as he envisaged the entire scheme. His ideas were far reaching: two subways running parallel to Rissik and Joubert streets, to connect with the Wanderers Grounds on the north (Hancock Street) and a bridge connecting Noord Street passengers with the Park Station canopy (island platform). It also proposed two further wings on Rissik/De Villiers (built in 1916) and Joubert/De Villiers streets (completed 1907). Included was a one way traffic system for cabs turning in and out in front of the station headquarters complex. Moodie's station was not built, but many of his ideas came to fruition in the 1932 station.

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