A Chronicle Etched in Stone: Remembering the Grand Rissik Street Post Office

Though not the nascent cradle of Johannesburg’s postal service, the edifice gracing Rissik Street has stood sentinel since the year 1888. It was then that a more modest structure, which had previously borne the mantle of the town’s post office, yielded to the march of time and progress, making way for the grander vision that arose in its stead.

The present building, a testament to the architectural sensibilities of Sytze Wierda – a Hollander who also served as President Paul Kruger’s architect – took form in the year 1887. For a time, it proudly pierced the skyline as the tallest structure in our burgeoning town. With the swift expansion that characterized early Johannesburg, the year 1905 witnessed the addition of another storey, crowned by the now-iconic clock tower.

Alas, this once-proud landmark now languishes in a state of profound distress. Its windows, like vacant eyes, are boarded against the harsh realities of neglect. Vandalism has left its indelible mark, the most recent indignity being the theft of its very hands and inner workings, callously discarded from its height and dragged from within its hallowed walls.

It is a poignant irony that this building, proclaimed a national monument in 1978, has stood silent and empty since 1996, when the Post Office, its former custodian, departed. Yet, even before its abandonment, the gentle hand of maintenance had long ceased its ministrations. Hope, however, flickers on the horizon, for whispers of restoration plans offer a glimmer of redemption for this cherished piece of Johannesburg’s narrative.