Luxury villas and modern apartment complexes stand side by side in Morningside, a wealthy suburb immediately north of the Sandton business district. With its relatively quiet streets yet very central location, it’s developed into one of the country’s most sought-after addresses. Morningside is officially part of Sandton, a suburb in the north of Johannesburg.
Morningside is a very mixed suburb, where half a dozen languages can be heard on the streets and a sense of modern multicultural South Africa can be celebrated. It’s mostly residential, with spacious detached houses and tree-lined boulevards. Lush gardens and Italian-inspired villas are standard, and the area is widely regarded as being one of the prettiest in the city. Shopping malls are dotted around and have become central hubs for the community, with dining, drinking, and entertainment options that stay open long after the shops have closed.
Morningside is two kilometres away from Sandton Station, which is situated on the excellent Gautrain railway. It’s often surprising how tranquil the suburb feels, given it’s within a five-minute drive of the most important financial centre in South Africa. Private taxis are readily available, and fares in and around Sandton are inexpensive. Local minibus taxis follow the M9 highway south to Rosebank and then central Johannesburg.
Morningside has always been an affluent suburb and a favourite for commuters working in Johannesburg’s CBD. Rather unusually, the CDB has now come to the commuters as businesses switched to Sandton in the 1990s.