Cyrildene

The suburb is situated on part of an old Witwatersrand farm called Doornfontein. It would be proclaimed as suburb on 18 May 1938 and was named after the land developer's son, Cyril Cooper.

Jewish community

In 1942, a Jewish congregation, Cyrildene - Observatory Extension Hebrew Congregation, was established, as the area was attracting a growing number of Jewish families from the central areas of the city. Prior to constructing a permanent home, services were held at private homes, a shop, Cyrildene Garage, with High Holiday services held at a marquee. Services and Talmud Torah classes were also held at the site of the present Athlone Girls High School in Observatory.

In 1950, the congregation build a communal hall and classrooms on Aida Avenue in Cyrildene. In 1965, the hall was converted into a permanent synagogue, and it was consecrated by Rabbi Bernard M. Casper. Several prominent members of the Jewish community have been involved with the congregation, including Solly Krok, furniture retailer, Eric Ellerine and Melbourne-based Rabbi Ralph Genende, Officer of the Order of Australia (AO).

Cyrildene was also home to a Jewish sporting club. A factor in the establishment of Jewish sporting clubs was antisemitism, with Jews barred from being admitted to several clubs in the city at the time.

In his seventeen-month period underground between 1961 and 1962, Nelson Mandela spent some of this time at a "safe house" in Cyrildene, the home of Jewish couple, Cyril and Raie Jones.

In 1971, Jews made up 63% of the resident population. During the 1990s, Jewish residents increasingly moved to more prosperous areas of Johannesburg or emigrated overseas.

Chinese community

In 1991, Cyrildene was subject to the Abolition of Racially Based Land Measures Act, 1991. This abolished the Group Areas Act, in place since the 1950s, and classes Cyrildene as a "whites only" area.

Unlike the old and now largely abandoned Chinatown in Newtown, which was largely made up of second or third generation South African Chinese, the new inhabitants of the Chinatown in Cyrildene are overwhelmingly first generation Chinese immigrants from mainland China. The Chinatown has a paifang (arch).

• L Ron Hubbard, lived in Cyrildene in the 1960s for a few months. The house is now used as a museum. It is also used as a recruitment centre of the Church of Scientology. The house, at 40 Hannaben Street, was built in 1951 for the a Greek timber merchant called Manos Broulidakis and was designed by Frank Ludwig Jarrett.