Pub 226 meters underground

Published on 26/02/2010

If you don’t suffer claustrophobia and you don’t mind dark places you can visit this pub 226 meters (741 feet) underground during the underground tour at Gold Reef City.

The pub is on level 5 of the mine known as Shaft 14 at Gold Reef City, six kilometers south of the city centre. The tour takes 35 minutes and will give you an idea of what it must have been like to work 12-hour shifts down the mine to earn a living.

When Shaft 14 was opened in 1897, just 11 years after Johannesburg was established, there was no electricity at the mine. Lighting underground was by means of candles, which posed a risk for explosions caused by methane gas. Combined with the darkness, the wetness, the heat, the closeness and the ear-shattering noise of the drills, it was a tough way to earn a living.

On level 5 of the mine, where the pub is located, there used to be a stable where 300 donkeys stayed for three months while pulling cocopans (small wagons) filled with gold-laden rocks for removal above ground.

The mine goes down 57 levels or 3,500 meters, and over its 90-year lifespan produced 1.4 million kilograms of gold, blasted out of the ground by 30,000 miners.

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