May
2017
In 1916 one of the most influential men of the time Hendrik van der Bijl saw his first concept of a steel foundry taking shape. The South African Iron and Steel Industry Act, No. 11 of 1928 was passed and production at the first plant in Pretoria West began in earnest and by the 4th April 1934 the first steel is tapped from the open-hearth furnace at the Pretoria Works. This was crucial to the town of Pretoria and the region as the country as a whole was emerging from the Great Depression from 1925 to around 1933, which was a global scale.
It was the vision of van der Bijl to uplift the community, create jobs and add to the then growing economy.
With this came the establishing of suburbs around Pretoria and in this case suburb like Westpark to cater for residential homes for employees at the ISCOR Pretoria West plant. Naturally there were supplementary industries that would benefit from the plant like (PMP) Pretoria Metal Pressings, the now Denel PMP Company which is an armaments manufacturing company.
The property market was in an upswing and demand for homes as close to the manufacturing hubs was of utmost importance as the country was still recovering from the depression.
From these facts it is thus obvious to deduce that suburbs like Westpark are well-established.
As with suburbs of this age the homes had to be approved by the municipal inspectors before a bond would be awarded against any property. This set exceptionally high building standards of the time making these homes durable and also large.
Naturally like any growing suburb there is always a degree of gentrification that takes place due to market changes which has been beneficial to Westpark as it kept the suburb on the list of sought after residential suburbs.
Today Westpark is a middle-class suburb that is still considered to be in a prime location with easy access to schools malls, commercial and industrial hubs.
