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Paarlshoop | |
|---|---|
  Paarlshoop Paarlshoop's location in Gauteng | |
| Coordinates:26°12′06″S28°02′27″E / 26.20167°S 28.04083°E /-26.20167; 28.04083 | |
| Country | South Africa |
| Province | Gauteng |
| City | Johannesburg |
| Established | October 5, 1938 |
| Area | |
• Total | 1.00 km2 (0.39 sq mi) |
| Population (2011)[1] | |
• Total | 1,890 |
| • Density | 1,890/km2 (4,900/sq mi) |
| Races | |
| • White | 5.6% |
| • Asian | 7.7% |
| • Cape Coloureds | 15.3% |
| • Black | 70.5% |
| • Other | 0.9% |
| Languages | |
| • English | 20.7% |
| • Zulu | 16.1% |
| • Afrikaans | 15.1% |
| • Tswana | 13.9% |
| • Other | 34.2% |
Paarlshoop is a suburb ofJohannesburg,South Africa, around 4 km west of City Hall. It bordersLanglaagte to the north andHomestead Park to the northeast. The name comes from the village of Paarlshoop, the oldest private township on theWitwatersrand.
Paarlshoop's name comes indirectly from the city ofPaarl in theBoland but more directly from Paarlkamp, which along with Ferreiraskamp (onTurffontein Farm) and Meyerskamp (later called Natalkamp, onDoornfontein Farm) was one of the three first miners' camps on the Rand. Paarlkamp was also called Afrikanerkamp due to the large number ofAfrikaners in the Paarl area, home to the organization known as theGenootskap van Regte Afrikaners. Paarlkamp was built on Langlaagte farm, where the main gold vein was found in June 1886. During the resultingWitwatersrand Gold Rush, several people from Paarl, includingStephanus Jacobus du Toit, formed the Paarl-Pretoria Gold Mining Association. On October 23, 1886,D.F. du Toit and H.J. Schoeman got the Association's permission to build a town on Langlaagte, which had been purchased by G.C. Oosthuizen for 5,000 on September 26 of that year. Since the land was part of the agriculturally zoned area - under article 20 of Law no. 8, 1885 - it was not earmarked for mining. The application letter made it clear that the sites were already in use before W.H. Auret Pritchard surveyed them on October 23. TheState Secretary of the South African Republic confirmed that this was not the government's concern, since the land was private. On January 16, 1887, theauction house of H.J. Morkel and W.M. du Toit put the homesteads for sale. Paarlshoop - literally "Paarl's hope" - thus became a heavily Afrikaner town, the first city built on the Rand, since the sites were surveyed in front ofRandjeslaagte. By the end of September 1886, the camp had already swollen to a population of 100, and in October it housed abutcher,bakery, smithy, and ageneral store. Most citizens lived in tents and wagons.
The Rev.Abraham Kriel built the Langlaagte orphanage on a campus alongside today's church to house war orphans immediately after theSecond Boer War. Today it is known as the Abraham Kriel Kinderhuis in his honor. The area was officially proclaimed a suburb on October 5, 1938, when it represented No. 38 on Langlaagte.
