A bar inside a neighbourhood's renaissance
The Living Room, Maboneng
The Living Room opened on Fox Street in Maboneng in 2014, on the roof of Hallmark House. The bar is interesting on its own terms — a rooftop garden full of plants in repurposed containers, low-amber lighting, a soundtrack heavy on local hip-hop and electronic — but most of what makes the visit work is the neighbourhood it sits in, and the neighbourhood's last fifteen years are the bar's actual context. Maboneng's renaissance, year by year.
2008
A developer buys an abandoned warehouse
Jonathan Liebmann buys a derelict warehouse on the eastern fringe of Johannesburg's CBD — an area then known mostly for its industrial decline, regular evening crime statistics, and the absence of any kind of restaurant or bar economy. The first redevelopment project, Arts on Main, opens in 2009.
2011
The Maboneng Precinct opens
A series of repurposed warehouses on and around Fox Street rebrand as the Maboneng Precinct — a working district of artist studios, design firms, small restaurants, and the first proper rooftop bars in the area. Residential apartments follow. The neighbourhood becomes Johannesburg's most-discussed urban regeneration project.
2014
The Living Room opens on Hallmark House
The Living Room opens as the rooftop bar above Hallmark House, then a recently-completed mixed-use building. The bar is one of the early arguments that Maboneng can sustain a Friday-night drinking scene, not just an art-walk daytime economy.
2017
The Marabi Club opens in the same building
The basement of Hallmark House opens as The Marabi Club. Two serious drinks venues in one building changes the local economy of Maboneng evenings; the area becomes a destination rather than a daytime visit.
2019-2022
The slowdown
The neighbourhood goes through a difficult period — economic pressure on the original Maboneng property company, COVID closures, several of the original tenants leaving. The Living Room stays open through this; the bar's steadiness is the reason it has the regular crowd it now does.
2026
Now
Maboneng has stabilised at a slightly smaller scale than the 2017 peak but with the bars, restaurants and design firms that genuinely belong. The Living Room is the rooftop where most foreign visitors first see the neighbourhood at dusk; the bar runs full from 6pm onwards on Friday and Saturday.
The bar's cocktail programme is honest rather than ambitious — a Marabi Spritz (a Pinotage-and-rooibos variation), a Hallmark Mule (Cape brandy, ginger beer, lime), classics done well. The pricing is mid-range Johannesburg. The visit is for the rooftop and the neighbourhood as much as for the drinks; pair with dinner downstairs at Hallmark House or at one of the Fox Street restaurants.
