Arts, Culture & Heritage
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Blue Plaque Sites

Circle Court

Table of Contents

Address

Intersection of Twist Street, Louis Botha Avenue and Empire Road, Hillbrow.
2016

Inscription

Designed by the brothers Louis Theodore and Mark Obel in 1936, both architects who favoured Art Deco design, Circle Court is an impressive building, carefully adapted to its non Ð symmetrical site, once towering over the intersection from which its name derives. Clarendon Circle was a famous landmark Ð a large traffic circle surrounding an island of grass and palms Ð replaced by traffic lights in 1959. LT Obel lived in the building and died here in 1956.

Photo courtesy: Kabelo Mokoena (Sunday Times)

Explore Joburg

A culmination of research gathered over many years, the Online Johannesburg Heritage Register is being launched on Nelson Mandela Day 18 July 2025.

Among the many heritage sites featured is Chancellor House, the downtown offices of Mandela and Tambo Attorneys in the 1950s. After having been vacant and shuttered for more than a decade, this iconic building is being revived and brought to life once again as offices for the Community Development Department, which oversees the City’s Arts, Culture & Heritage Services.

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