Park station concourse 1927 - 1932
In 1927 plans to excavate and lower the station by four metres
to gain access to the platforms by means of subway tunnels, as
suggested by Moodie in 1904, were implemented. From De Villiers
Street, north to Noord, east to Hoek and west to Joubert Streets,
earth was removed with pick, shovel, cart and wagon; all 100 000
cubic metres of it.
If the entrance to the new station and the South Station Building
in general was less than attractive, the public concourse made
up for it many times over. The concourse, designed by Moerdijk,
was magnificent; it resembled vast Roman baths. Here was a meeting
place, used mainly by whites, which had real character, style
and vibrant life. Looking down the marble stairs to below the
De Villiers Street level, the view was a panorama of high brick
arches, a concrete dome-shaped vault, atriums letting in our blue
skies, green marble columns flanking the huge steel and glass
doors of booking office and dining rooms. For several decades
the Blue Room remained an exclusive restaurant.
The concourse was adorned by a series of 32 murals by the artist
JH Pierneef, commissioned by the Railway Administration in 1929,
depicting typical South African scenes and towns. They are the
finest single collection of the artist's work. During the 1980's
these were removed from the concourse for safekeeping in the Johannesburg
Art Gallery, where they still are today.
An innovation at the station was the building of ramps to provide
vehicular access to the mainline platforms. The SAR came up with
the novel idea of an underground entrance for cars at Harrison
Street, where the mainline trains arrived, and an exit up a steep
steel bridge onto Wanderers Street. The west end shows the Harrison
Street entrance.
During the Depression of the 1930's scores of people migrated
from the rural areas of South Africa to Johannesburg to seek their
fortune or merely to survive. Anna Scheepers, organiser and later
president of the Garment Workers Union, recalled how in the 1930's
they met young white girls who wanted to work in the clothing
industry on Park Station.
'Most of our workers came from the country and there was nowhere
to go and it was strange how they learnt. Sometimes they were
on the station here and they do not know which way to turn…
but if they contact the union we will fetch them, give them food,
try to find work for them, find lodgings for them and so on. It
was part of our duty to help the under-privileged people.' She
promised many young girls, 'I will be at Johannesburg Station
myself or else I will send someone to meet you there.'
Black women who had no recourse to a trade union used family
and friends to ease their arrival in Johannesburg. In 1939 Martha
Massina boarded the train for Johannesburg. 'I took the train
from Middelburg at three o'clock in the night and I came to Park
Station somewhere around six o'clock that night. It was thirteen
shillings. My friend was waiting at the station and she took me
to Auckland Park. And I stay with her and she look a job (sic)
for me with the boeremense and I got a job in Aucland Park. I
work for three pounds a month. It was a lot of money.'
Many migrants to the city were not as lucky. They had to brave
the bewilderingly huge Park Station and the city of Johannesburg
on their own. Alan Paton in his novel Cry the Beloved Country
depicts the confusion of a newcomer to Johannesburg, not met by
a relative or friend.
'One of the men point for him.
- Johannesburg, umfundisi…… There is this railway station
to come, this great place with all its tunnels under the ground.
The train stops, under a great roof, and there are thousands of
people. Steps go down into the earth, and here is the tunnel under
the ground. Black people, white people, some going, some coming,
so many that the tunnel is full. He goes carefully that he may
not bump anybody, holding tightly on to his bag. He comes out
into a great hall, and the stream goes up the steps, and here
he is out in the street…..'
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