Ster Land Cinema Claim Street, Johannesburg

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Taken on: June 26, 2022

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Ster Land Cinema Claim Street, Johannesburg

Ster City (or Ster Land) opened in 1969 on the corner of Claim and Plein Street and was Johannesburg’s first multi-cinema complex. It originally had 3 cinemas – Ster Cine 1000 with 886 seats, Ster Cine 700 with 659 seats, and Ster Cine 300 with 255 seats. There was also the Cine 100 which was apparently high upstairs and used to preview films to critics. In the 1980s, several small cinemas opened on the ground floor.

On the 30th of July 1987, a car bomb went off in Quartz Street between Drill Hall and Ster City. It injured 26 and damaged both buildings. ANC MK member Hein Grosskopf planted the bomb.

The complex closed sometime in the 1990s. It was also used for some time to show adult films, presumably under new ownership. At some point in the late 1990s or early 2000s it was abandoned. Vagrants took over and stripped anything of value from the building, down to the copper lining in the floors.

Today, the building is undergoing a transformation into flats. There are already shop owners operating on street level. The new owners let me in to take some pictures of what is left. Part building site and part untouched since the vagrant eviction, it’s dark and treacherous inside - Notes by Marc Latilla.

Contributed by Greg Lynch -