The Johannesburg Country Club

Johannesburg is a new city, in fact, a toddler by world standards. Like a toddler, it has grown in fits and spurts, with almost nothing of the things that were there when it was a baby left over. One of those things, however, is the hundred year old massive oak trees of the Country Club in Auckland Park. At the turn of the century, Auckland Park was considered to be “in the country” relative to the city. Many of the gentry would spend their weekends at their country houses, the boating lake (where the Country Club is today) or at the horse racing track (which is what provided the space for the University of Johannesburg campus). When in 1888, a New Zealander, John Landau, developed the area, he saw many similarities to his home town Auckland, hence the name.

The Johannesburg Country Club is located in the heart of Auckland Park and was founded in 1906. As the city crept closer, their golf grounds moved to Woodmead with all the modern facilities that new golf clubs have, but the Auckland Park premises still has all the old world grandeur of the original club. It houses an impressive list of sporting facilities, including squash and tennis courts, bowling greens, croquet lawns, a gym, snooker room and the lovely cricket oval, famous for the tree standing proudly in second slip position (if you’re bowling from the club house end!)

It is an exclusive private club and one cannot simply drop in for tea. So when I made a delivery for my shop to a customer who was using one of the 15 (!) function rooms for a year-end function, I used the opportunity to go on a walk-about of the gardens. What a gorgeous and tranquil haven in the middle of Jo’burg – I walked around for two hours, watching a bit of croquet, chatting with a group of bowling ladies having lunch under the huge oak trees at the clubhouse and imagining the frustrated fielders and happy batsmen with the tree in play on the cricket field.

Johannesburg Country Club
1 Napier Road, Auckland Park
Click on their website for more info

Image credits: All photography by me