JOHANNESBURG One of Johannesburgs ghosts is known as Mr Chips, a worker at the potato sheds in Newton, who was killed by a falling sack of potatoes. He is said to haunt Museum Africa’s costume collection section, where he is heard ruffling the clothes and re-arranging shelves. The potato shed buildings were built in 1912 as part of the original Indian market between Carr Street and Museum Africa. The Johannesburg Fresh Produce Market relocated from the city centre to Newtown in 1913. In 1974 the market was relocated to larger premises in City Deep. The old Florence Nightingale Nursing Home has a blonde Afrikaans nurse with maroon epaulettes. She would speak to patients and change their drips correctly. She still roams the building at the corner of Constitution Hill. The Breytenbach Theatre in Gerhard Moerdyk Street started out as a German club. The building was later used by Emily HOBHOUSE for a weaving and crafts school. During the flu epidemic of 1918, it was a temporary hospital. It was later used as a film and artists studio before staging its first production in 1958. The cellar below the stage once housed the bodies of those who died in 1918, including that of a nurse named Heather. She was in charge of the children admitted in 1918 and eventually caught the disease herself. After her death, she never left her post, patiently waiting to care for any sick child that needs her. Daisy de Melker was the first serial killer to be convicted in South Africa. In the 1920s, she killed two husbands and a son, for insurance money. She poisoned them with arsenic or strychnine. She was hanged in 1932. Her home in Club Street, Turffontein is still standing and sometimes she can be seen there, peering out the upstairs window. Passers-by have noticed the curtain moving and a ghostly hand appearing at about 6pm. The Supreme Courts Court 3 is also haunted by her, where she was sentenced. The View, a Parktown Ridge mansion, was once the home of Sir Thomas and Lady Annie CULLINAN. She is often seen at the top of the stairs in a beautiful dress and the sounds of footsteps have been heard on the first floor. The sound of someone climbing a staircase can also be heard, but the staircase has long since been removed. Aurora in Central Avenue, Houghton, is haunted by Bubbles SCHROEDER. She was popular with high society. She was found dead in a blue gum plantation near Wanderers Sports Club in August 1949. Her ghost can be heard walking around the building and howling. Foxwood House is an historic boutique hotel in Houghton. Built in 1924, it was one of the first houses in the area. It is filled with antique family heirlooms, such as the radio gramophone which has been in the same spot since 1936. Apart from mysterious footsteps, several guests claim to have seen a lady with a child on the balcony and some have sworn they’ve seen Paul KRUGER. Some more ghost stories....
Posted on: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 13:07:14 +0000
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