‘n Evolusie van die kern sakebuurt van Potchefstroom in 1880

Abstract

Due to the British employing an extensive administrative policy concerning commerce and property tax, coupled with the attention focussed on Potchefstroom by the Transvaal War, a large and varied number of sources are available from which a detailed picture of the central commercial area of the town in 1880 can be reconstructed to indicate the evolution of this part of Potchefstroom. As no provision was made for a business area in the original planning of Potchefstroom one developed organically after the settlement of foreign traders after the Sand River Convention of 1852. From the original trading focal point around the Old Market it spread southwards towards the New Market Square when that was established in 1855. This resulted in a commercial quarter comprising the Old and New Market Squares and the stretch of Kerk Street connecting them. By 1880 the demand for stands for the building of shops and offices had resulted in the sub-division of the large original erven and the proliferation of purpose built structures. By then some 67 different commercial undertakings fronting on the indicated streets and squares can be identified. Their value varying between £250 and £5000. A detailed directory of the buildings comprising the central commercial area is given in this article as indicators of the evolution of the core commercial area of Potchefstroom in 1880 due to British activity