NEIGHBOURHOOD HIT
The ‘anti-mall’ shopping hub Bamboo Lifestyle Centre is dedicated to supporting the local community, serving as both a hangout and workshop, without a chain in sight. Downstairs, Kate Rogan’s Love store features international fiction and nonfiction, as well as a selection of regional authors. Convoy, a collaboration among six designers, stocks contemporary, mostly women-owned clothing and accessory brands. On the first floor, there is a couple-run jewellery studio, Tinsel Gallery, and an exhibition space called Upstairs @Bamboo, plus a café offering delicious beef-brisket rolls.
SLICK HOMEWARE
Award-winning duo Greg Gamble and Philippe van der Merwe champion smart custom furniture and promote emerging artists at Tonic Design. Expressionist paintings by Lucy Jane Turpin and steel sculptures from Michele Mathison are perfectly positioned above solid-marble coffee tables, lacquered servers, and brushed-stainless-steel and bouclé armchairs. In the affluent Hyde Park area, Always Welcome serves as a cooperative for South African-designed homeware. Highlights include Mash T’s woven lampshades and The Urbanative’s colourful, Ndebele-inspired steel trays.
VINTAGE TRACKS
A treasure trove for music lovers, Mr Vinyl offers records and mix tapes spanning all genres and decades from around the globe. The store features an impressive collection of turntables, album artworks, benches piled with recommendations, and rows of wooden crates filled with pre-owned LPs. Additionally, the store hosts test pressings, listening sessions, new launches, and live sets from local Johannesburg bands such as Blk Jks and Johnny Cradle, along with performances by DJ Abby Nurock and owner Bret Dugmore. Sharing the courtyard off Sunnyside’s Stanley Avenue is a fair-trade coffee shop, Bean There, and menswear label Odrin.
