Background of Area | Project Overview | Community Meeting | The Way Forward | ALL MULTIMEDIA

The three areas our community journalism project covered were Sunnyside, Fort England and Hillsview. These areas are also historically significant, with some of Grahamstown’s oldest buildings found here. This area has a diverse variety of residents, with people of various class, nationality and ethnicity. It is predominantly made up of lower to middle class white residents, with a strong Afrikaans contingent.

However, this area also includes other various smaller communities, namely the many different nationalities that comprise the Beaufort street shop owners. There are also many student digs in the area, as well as Rhodes University staff.

Some of the significant social spaces include the various churches, Market Square, Brookshaw Home, PJ Olivier School, Victoria Girls High School, the Police Station, Carinus Art School, Jabez Centre and many pre-schools.

Security measures vary across the neighbourhood and are generally a reaction to incidents of opportunistic crime, such as theft of washing off lines, breaking car windows, muggings and theft through open windows. As a result the majority of houses have Hi-Tec Response, barbed wire fencing and dogs. Most residents didn’t see crime as a serious issue, preferring to deal with it personally.

In our work within the area we found that residents were quite isolated from each other, not always knowing who their neighbours were. It could be said that there is no significant sense of community that transcend smaller groupings around religion and nationality.