Journal Article

“Honey, Milk and Bile”: a social history of Hillbrow, 1894–2016

Stadler, Jonathan, Dugmore, Charles

2017

Overview

This commentary constructs a social history of Hillbrow, an inner-city suburb in Johannesburg, South Africa, based on a review of relevant published historical, anthropological and sociological texts. We highlight the significant continuities in the social structure of the suburb, despite the radical transformations that have occurred over the last 120 years. Originally envisaged as a healthy residential area, distinct from the industrial activity of early Johannesburg, Hillbrow was a prime location for health infrastructure to serve the city. By the late 1960s, the suburb had been transformed by the rapid construction of high rise office and apartment buildings, providing temporary low cost accommodation for young people, migrants and immigrants. In the 1980s, Hillbrow defied the apartheid state policy of racial separation of residential areas, and earned the reputation of a liberated zone of tolerance and inclusion. By the 1990s, affected by inner-city decay and the collapse of services for many apartment buildings, the suburb became associated with crime, sex work, and ungovernability. More recently, the revitalisation of the Hillbrow Health Precinct has created a more optimistic narrative of the suburb as a site for research and interventions that has the potential to have a positive impact on the health of its residents. The concentration of innovative public health interventions in Hillbrow today, particularly in the high quality health services and multidisciplinary research of the Hillbrow Health Precinct, creates the possibility for renewal of this troubled inner-city suburb.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: 20th century / Acquired immune deficiency syndrome / AIDS / Analysis / Apartheid / Apartment buildings / Apartments / Bile / Biostatistics / Buildings / Cities - history / Collapse / Commentary / Crime / Demographic aspects / Desegregation / Domestic service / Emigrants and Immigrants / Environmental Health / Epidemiology / Health / Health promotion / Health services / Health Services - history / High rise buildings / History, 19th Century / History, 20th Century / History, 21st Century / HIV / Honey / Households / Housing / Human immunodeficiency virus / Human rights / Humans / Immigrants / Informal economy / Inner city / Medicine / Medicine & Public Health / Milk / Mining accidents & safety / Mining industry / Multidisciplinary research / Pneumonia / Politics / Public Health / Race relations / Regeneration / Residential areas / Rural areas / Sex industry / Social conditions / Social Discrimination / Social History / Social Problems - history / Social sciences and history / Sociology / South Africa / South Africa, Hillbrow / State policy / Suburban areas / Transients and Migrants / Typhoid / Urban areas / Urban Population - history / Urbanization / Urbanization - history / Vaccine / Violence / Women / Workers / Xenophobia / Young adults