Home › Johannesburg › Constitution Hill
Constitution Hill, Johannesburg - Things to Do at Constitution Hill

Things to Do at Constitution Hill

Complete Guide to Constitution Hill in Johannesburg

About Constitution Hill

Constitution Hill squats on a Johannesburg ridge, a 119-year prison turned into the nation's highest court. Step through the gate and the mood drops: the same ochre walls that once locked Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi now frame a square where kids chase pigeons. The clash is deliberate, loud, memorable. The place caged people from 1892 to 1983; the scars stay visible. Crumbling holding cells, iron hinges polished by shackled hands, the blackness of Number Four's communal pens, nothing is prettified. Exhibitions push you into the discomfort. Sit with it. The Constitutional Court, finished in 2004, rose from the jail's rubble. Salvaged bricks form its walls. Apartheid fragments now prop up the charter that buried it. Most guests budget an hour. They linger for three. Worth it.

What to See & Do

Number Four

Number Four, the Black men's wing, punches hardest. One modest living room sized cell held forty men. The air still feels thick. Mandela and Gandhi both passed through. Graffiti slices across the plaster, raw words no panel can translate. Read them. Feel them.

Women's Jail

The Women's Jail is tighter, quieter. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela served time here. Corridigned for two, stuffed with eight. Mortar and dust hang in the air. Recorded voices of former prisoners bounce down the corridor. The sound hugs you.

The Old Fort

The Old Fort arrived first, built 1892 for white males. Today it charts the whole arc: colonial lock-up, apartheid dungeon, constitutional beacon. Stone walls swallow the Highveld heat. Step inside. The temperature drops five degrees.

The Constitutional Court

South Africa's apex court welcomes visitors when judges rest. Even non-lawyers should enter. Art by Kentridge, Siopis, and others climbs the walls. Salvaged bricks frame the light. The gallery feels like a town hall, not a temple. When court sits, claim a seat. Nowhere else in the country lets you watch democracy argue in real time.

The Awaiting Trial Block

The Awaiting Trial Block is the bleakest maze. Hundreds of coffin-sized cells stack above a single yard. Prisoners waited years for a hearing. The architecture shouts the injustice. No quick, clean takeaway here.

Practical Information

Opening Hours

Open Tuesday to Sunday, 9am to 5pm. Closed Mondays. Guided tours leave through the morning and early afternoon. First tour equals smaller groups.

Tickets & Pricing

Admission covers every block: Number Four, Women's Jail, Old Fort. Price sits at the cheap end of Johannesburg attractions. A guided tour costs a few rand extra and turns bricks into stories. Citizens and residents pay less.

Best Time to Visit

Arrive at 9am. School buses pull in at ten. Summer storms (October to March) strike after lunch; winter (June to August) delivers dry air and golden stone. Morning light wins.

Suggested Duration

Budget two to three hours for a self-guided circuit. A full guided walk of Number Four, Women's Jail, and Old Fort runs 90 minutes. Court sessions need extra time. Arrive early, clear security, sit quietly.

Getting There

Constitution Hill sits in Braamfontein at the edge of central Johannesburg, close enough to reach without much effort from most parts of the city. The Rea Vaya BRT connects the site to Park Station and routes toward Soweto. The Braamfontein stops are a short walk from the entrance. From Sandton or the northern suburbs, the Gautrain to Park Station followed by a ride-hailing trip is the most straightforward option, the fare from Park Station is modest by any measure. Parking is available on-site if you're driving, though arriving this way means missing the short walk through Braamfontein's coffee shops and independent bookstores, which are worth the detour.

Things to Do Nearby

Braamfontein neighborhood
Directly adjacent to the site, Braamfontein has become Johannesburg's most interesting urban neighborhood, the kind of place where galleries occupy old warehouse spaces and the weekend market on Juta Street smells of woodsmoke and jerk chicken. It pairs naturally with a Constitution Hill visit as a reminder that Johannesburg's present is as worth attention as its past.
Apartheid Museum
About 15 minutes south by car near Gold Reef City, the Apartheid Museum has a complete chronological narrative of South Africa's apartheid era, complementary to Constitution Hill's more focused, site-specific story. Each deserves its own unhurried visit rather than combining them into a single exhausting day.
Newtown Cultural Precinct
A short drive west of Constitution Hill, Newtown houses the Market Theatre, which staged anti-apartheid productions during the years when Number Four was still operating, alongside Museum Africa and various smaller creative spaces. There's a historical thread connecting the two sites that makes the pairing feel deliberate rather than coincidental.
Hillbrow water tower viewpoint
The upper levels of Constitution Hill offer one of the cleaner vantage points over Hillbrow's tower-dense skyline, useful context for understanding Johannesburg's scale and density before descending back into the city. The view frames the prison's history against the city it helped shape.

Tips & Advice

The guided tour of Number Four is worth the extra cost over self-guided entry, several guides have personal or family connections to the site's history, and that proximity to the material adds something no exhibition text can replicate. Ask at the ticket desk when the next tour departs rather than planning around a fixed schedule.
Constitution Hill hosts regular public events, around Human Rights Day in late March and Heritage Day in September, live music echoing off the old prison walls in that courtyard is the kind of historically surreal experience that stays with you. Worth timing your visit around if you're in Johannesburg during either period.
Wear shoes suited to uneven ground. The site involves more walking and standing than the map suggests, and the paths between structures include cobblestone sections and steps that punish poor footwear choices after an hour.
Slow down in the Constitutional Court's corridors. The building houses one of the best public art collections in Johannesburg, individually commissioned, site-specific pieces by major South African artists, displayed in a working building rather than a gallery setting. Most visitors walk past them in a hurry to reach the courtroom.

Tours & Activities at Constitution Hill

Didn't see anything interesting yet?

Browse Viator's full catalog of tours, day trips, food experiences, and private guides in Constitution Hill.

See All Constitution Hill Tours on Viator