Louis Botha Avenue (part of Johannesburg Metropolitan Route M11) is a major street in Johannesburg, South Africa. Originally part of the main road between central Johannesburg and Pretoria, it runs along through the north-eastern parts of the city from Hillbrow to Sandton, passing through numerous older suburbs, including Houghton and Orange Grove, before it becomes the Pretoria Main Road at Wynberg (bypassing the Alexandra Township) and continues to Midrand and Pretoria.
Route
Louis Botha Ave, which is part of the M11 metropolitan route, begins at the top of the Johannesburg CBD in the suburbs of Hillbrow and Berea at the Clarendon Place and Willie Street junction and then heads north-east passing between Houghton to the north and Yeoville and Bellevue to the south. In Houghton it passes close to the private boys schools of St John's College (1889) and King Edward VII school (1911). The route then enters the suburb of Orange Grove, passing the new Victory Theatre (2007), The roadway has its beginnings at the apex of triangular piece of unused government land at Randjelaagte in what is now the suburbs of Hillbrow and Berea. The apex is remembered by the Randjelaagte Beacon at the top of Clarendon Place. The road then headed north-east along the boundaries of the old Witwatersrand farms Klipfontein to the north and Doornfontein to the south before peeling away through the former as it drops down from the ridge crossing the small Lemoen Spruit (Orange Grove Spruit) and into the northern valley. At the bottom of the ridge the road would pass the Lemoen Plaas a farm where travelers would rest. On 3 July 1917, the Federation of Ratepayers Association recommended to the City of Johannesburg that two main roads in Johannesburg be named after Louis Botha and Jan Smuts, in honour of their service to the British Empire during World War I. The council voted and Morgan Road and Pretoria Main Road became Louis Botha Avenue. In 2014, construction began on the expansion of Johannesburg's Rea Vaya bus rapid transit system to Louis Botha Avenue.