Eikenlaan

●Eikenlaan is one of four Parktown houses in close proximity at the heart of Parktown with Outeniqua immediately across the road to the east with Beaulieu at the eastern end of the same block and Wanooka one block west. To the north stands North Lodge, a provincial heritage site. Outeniqua, and Beaulieu are part of the Wits Business School Campus and North Lodge is part of the Ernest Oppenheimer Hall of Residence for students. ●Eikenlaan retains its original stand size undeveloped so the relationship between house and garden can be visualized and experienced here. ●It is also the most accessible of all the Parktown houses because it is family restaurant open 364 days a year. The boundary is marked with palings so that the house is visible from both St Andrew’s Road and St David’s Place. ●The garden setting which is greatly enjoyed by the customers from very young to very old enhances the original domestic character. This should be further developed by reinstating the avenue of oaks, increased planting in the parking area and along the St Andrew’s Road boundary and screen planting along the boundaries west and north with the office blocks. ●The spaciousness of Eikenlaan which lay behind the development of Parktown as Johannesburg’s first garden suburb has been concealed at Wanooka and entirely lost at Outeniqua because new development abuts the old houses. ●It was built for James Goch, one of the first pioneers of Johannesburg. He arrived here in 1886 and set up a photographic studio which must have been one of the earliest facilities in the mining village. There is a photograph taken by Nicholls of Johannesburg in 1888 credited to the Goch Studio. Many of the photographs taken in the late Nineteenth Century made use of this studio. James Goch himself is credited with introducing flash photography, and being the first in South Africa to make use of this. ●The significance of the house and gardens has been recognized by the community as indicated by a heritage p laque erected by the Parktown and Westcliff Heritage Trust. (There is an error on the plaque which credits the architect as JS Donaldson). ●There is an interesting connection with the struggle. With the unbanning of the ANC and the South African Communist Party in February 1990 many exiles returned to South Africa, among them Ronnie Kasrils. In July that year Pik Botha told journalists of a “Red Plot” to foment rebellion and on 25 July Mac Maharaj was arrested. Kasrils realized he would be next so went into hiding, but on 26 July he was due to address a luncheon of the Foreign Correspondents Association at Mike’s Kitchen (Eikenlaan) in Parktown. To everyone’s surprise he arrived and was able to give his views before it was time to make a getaway. ●Mike’s Kitchen, a South African restaurant chain, started in Greenside in Johannesburg in 1972 as the first family restaurant, and has been a tenant in Parktown for 25 years.