Hillbrow, one square kilometre of inner-city high rise in Johannesburg, was one of the first whites-only neighbourhoods to experience desegregation in defiance of the Group Areas Act. In this book Alan Morris analyses the movement of blacks into the area from the late 1970s and its impact on the neighbourhood.

Drawing on an extensive household survey and more than 150 in-depth interviews, Morris illustrates that for most of the residents, many of whom were lower middle class, Hillbrow did not represent, as many perceived it, an insalubrious locality rife with crime. They saw it as a neighbourhood that allowed for a significantly better quality of life.

Alan Morris teaches in the School of Social Science and Policy at the University of New South Wales Sydney.