Killarney, Gauteng

Killarney
Killarney Show map of Gauteng Killarney Show map of South Africa Killarney Show map of Africa  Killarney shown within Gauteng
Location within Greater Johannesburg  Killarney
Coordinates: 26°9′57″S 28°3′11″E / 26.16583°S 28.05306°E / -26.16583; 28.05306Coordinates: 26°9′57″S 28°3′11″E / 26.16583°S 28.05306°E / -26.16583; 28.05306
Country	South Africa
Province	Gauteng
Municipality	City of Johannesburg
Main Place	Johannesburg
Area
• Total	0.42 km2 (0.16 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Total	5,203
• Density	12,000/km2 (32,000/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)
• Black African	35.2%
• Coloured	2.3%
• Indian/Asian	26.6%
• White	31.4%
• Other	4.6%
First languages (2011)
• English	61.7%
• Zulu	6.8%
• Afrikaans	5.7%
• Tswana	5.2%
• Other	20.6%
Postal code (street)	2193

Killarney is a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. A relatively wealthy area, located west of the M1 freeway, Killarney is a densely built-up area, and it has numerous apartment blocks, as well as a large shopping mall, Killarney Mall.

Neighbouring suburbs include Houghton Estate, Riviera, and Parktown.

It is home to the first shopping mall in Johannesburg. It was formerly known as the Hollywood of Johannesburg, due it being the location of one of the first film studios in South Africa. Killarney currently is home to consulates, tall residential buildings (including some of Johannesburg's best examples of Art Deco architecture) and a golf course. There is a large Jewish, Muslim community in Killarney. Killarney is very and also has a large gay community.

In the early 1930s, the land in Killarney, an outlying northern suburb, belonged to I W Schlesinger’s African Realty Trust. ‘The Uncrowned King of Africa’ had bought the 43-hectare for £120,000. According to his plan, the majority of the sites were not to be built up. They were to remain a park area. Still, he demarcated a few areas for buildings.

US-born Schlesinger wanted to transplant American ways to South African soil, and particularly to his domain, Killarney. On the grounds currently occupied by the mall, he built African Film Studios, Johannesburg’s answer to Hollywood. This man, one of the richest in the country, preferred to live in a flat, New York-style. This might explain his decision to sell sites in the suburb for development of modern apartment blocks.

Daventry Court was probably the first multi-storied block of flats erected in Killarney in the 1930s.

In its adverts, African Realty Trust used to describe Killarney as ‘a garden, an orchard, a vineyard, an orangery, a shrubbery, a pinery, a paradise, a picnic spot, a health resort, a township and a home’. Schlesinger, who lived in Whitehall Court, wanted to preserve this character of the suburb and was very particular about tidiness. If the construction workers accidentally spilt sand or some rubble over the sites’ boundaries, he immediately received a letter from Schlesinger’s office: ‘Please, keep Killarney clean!’