Braamfontein

Wedged between the M1 freeway and the original Johannesburg CBD, Braamfontein grew up around the University of the Witwatersrand and Park Station. By the late 1990s it had been hollowed out, but a wave of regeneration led by the South Point property group and the Johannesburg Development Agency turned dormant office blocks into student housing, galleries and cafés.

Today the heart of the suburb is Juta Street and De Beer Street. On Saturdays the Neighbourgoods Market on the corner of Juta turns the rooftop of a converted parking garage into one of the city's best food and design markets — South African craft beer, biltong, vintage clothing and a steady stream of live music. Down the road, 70 Juta is a cluster of independent stores, while the Stevenson, Goodman and SMAC galleries punch above their weight in the contemporary African art scene.

Braamfontein is also the seat of South African justice. The Constitutional Court at Constitution Hill is a five-minute walk away, built into the bricks of the old Old Fort prison where Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela were both held. The court is open to the public, free to enter, and one of the most architecturally significant buildings in the country.

Street art is the unofficial décor. Murals by Faith47, Falko, Mars and rolling international visitors cover everything from substation walls to entire apartment blocks, and a slow walk between Juta, Smit and De Korte streets turns into an outdoor gallery. Our guides know the artists and the back-stories.

Braamfontein is best done on foot with a local — the surrounding CBD can be intimidating without context, and the rewards are concentrated in a few blocks. We weave it into the Johannesburg City Tour as a contrast piece: the original gold-rush downtown alongside the city's most articulate attempt at reinventing itself.