Parkview’s Tyrone Avenue, one of my favorite suburban Joburg main streets, is a jumble of quirky shopfronts, restaurants, and arcades. There are so many closely packed establishments on Tyrone that it’s easy to walk past places without really seeing them. I’d been doing that for years with the Old Lake Market.
The market is actually quite a large, prominent building. It used to be a movie theatre, called the Lake Cinema, which opened in 1940. The building, which has Johannesburg heritage status, was sold in the early 1980s and turned into a furniture market.
Today the Old Lake Market has all kinds of magical shops: second-hand clothing shops (great for my new thrifting obsession), craft shops, book shops, collectible shops, and a nice-looking café that I still need to go back and try.
Last week I grabbed my camera and took a stroll through the market, chatting to a few of the shop owners.
A Stroll Through the Old Lake Market
Cape Cottage Furniture, the largest tenant in the market, occupies a cavernous space at the back of the building packed with wood furniture in various stages of creation and restoration. Simon Peacock presides over the organized chaos.
Simon restores furniture and also builds new pieces using repurposed wood rescued from Oregon pine floorboards. There is a ton of nice stuff at Cape Cottage Furniture and I’ll definitely go back soon in shopping mode.
Behind Cape Cottage Furniture is a tiny room (more like a cubicle), where a man named Munya sits behind his sewing machine.
I chatted with Munya for less than five minutes and was instantly charmed. I can’t vouch for his tailoring services yet but I look forward to trying them out.
Down the hall I found the Old Limpopo Curiosity Shop, owned by book and antiquity dealer Mark Inman.
Mark’s book shop, together with his antique map and print shop across the hall, is heaven for people who love old things. Mark himself seems to possess an overflowing reservoir of knowledge about everything.
I had an interesting chat with Nhlanhla Mabaso, who owns a ceramics and home decor shop in the market called Polka Holdings.
Nhlanhla worked as a salesperson here for several years, until the pandemic hit and the owner decided to close the business down. But Nhlanhla, who desperately needed to hold onto her job, convinced her boss to hand the shop over to her. She’s been running it herself ever since.
One of my favorite spots in the market is a gift shop right at the front. I’m not sure of the name but it belongs to a lady named Karen, who makes interesting gifts with African-print fabrics.
I didn’t meet Karen — a friend of hers was covering for her when I went in. But the shop sells African-print picture frames, flower pots, umbrellas, notebooks, holiday ornaments, storage boxes, bunting, and everything else you can make/cover with fabric. It’s a great place to buy gifts and the shop’s proceeds go to a child and youth centre called the Guild Cottage.
I still need to go back to Old Lake to check out the clock and watch repair shop (a rare find in 2021), the beauty salon, the dance studio, and a couple more second-hand shops and clothing shops that I didn’t manage to visit last week.
The Old Lake Market — a diverse collective of entrepreneurs selling mostly repurposed goods and useful services in a quirky, historic setting — represents all the best things about this city. Go check it out.
The Old Lake Market is at 66 Tyrone Avenue, Parkview.
Ah, The Lake bughouse. I can remember “Grand Prix” among many Saturday matinees. James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Yves Montand, Brian Bedford, Jessica Walter, Françoise Hardy, Antonio Sabàto and Toshiro Mifune (playing Soichiro Honda). There were also cameos featuring the real Phil Hill, Graham Hill, Juan Manuel Fangio, Jim Clark, Jochen Rindt and Jack Brabham (breath), Dan Gurney, Ludovico Scarfiotti, Richie Ginther, Joakim Bonnier, Bruce McLaren and Jo Siffert.
It must have been a lovely place to watch movies.
I saw “Grand Prix” at the Cinerama. Curved screen with 3 projectors! Growing up in Parktown North and going to Parkview Primary up the road, the Lake was a popular place to go to, as well as the Parisa and the Odeon in Rosebank.
There are roads and shops I’ve gone by for years and never entered. When I finally check them out, I’m like, “This is great! Why didn’t I try this years ago?!”
Yep, totally. There are still shops in Melville that I’ve never been into after 11 years here, and it’s literally my JOB.
The Foyer Coffee Shop has an excellent special on delicious homemade hamburgers on Thursdays (AKA Burger Thursdays). Best chips ever!
Ahhhhh, that sounds amazing! I will definitely go back to check that out soon.
Growing up in Parkview in the 1950s, the Lake was our local cinema and certainly not a bughouse. Many happy hours were spent there. Cheap seats to the front were 7pence for children, one and twopence for adults. The more expensive seats (Royal Circle?) were two shillings. Saturday mornings were for kids and comics would be swopped before the show. Shows changed twice a week, new posters would go up outside and still photos, in frames in glass cases on the walls. All the major films would find their way there via a prescribed circuit of suburban cinemas. Cinema paradiso…
Sounds great. I actually don’t know what the term bughouse means ????
Bug house was a popular name in the 50’s for a cinema. The implication being there were bugs but it never had any basis in reality judging from my visits many of the cinemas of the day. More of a joke name.
Ahhhhh, thank you for clearing this up! Seems to be a controversial term.
I was a comic swopper there, too!
In the late 1940’s into the 1950’s, my uncle Albert Ryley was the head projectionist at the Lake Cinema and it wasn’t a bughouse! In fact it was, for many years, a very respectable and popular suburban cinema with lovely comfortable seating and excellent viewing of many memorable films. In later years, I and my family had regular seats booked every Saturday night right up to the early 1970’s when we moved away from the area.
That’s really cool — thanks so much for sharing your memories!
The Heritage Portal in their very interesting weekly or so emails linked to this story. The Heritage Portal publishes relevant articles from heritage activists, enthusiasts, professionals, officials and other stakeholders.
http://www.theheritageportal.co.za/content/how-contribute-heritage-portal
Oh yes, I’m a huge fan of the Heritage Portal!
Sadly because covid I cant do my hobby ????
I am looking for contact details for Mark Inman, book dealer. Can anyonnnnnne help?
Hi Eleanor, I don’t have his number but he is on Instagram as @thebookandmaparchive. I hope that helps.
Hi I am his sister 🙂 his number is SouthAfrica mobile 076 390 68 96