- Cities
- South Africa
- Johannesburg
- Sophiatown
How walkable is Sophiatown?
By Oscar Higson-SpenceUpdated
Sophiatown has a walkability score of 54 out of 100 across the 1 km around its centre, which makes it somewhat walkable: some errands can be done on foot. It is the 5th most walkable of 5 neighbourhoods ranked in Johannesburg, which scores 61 as a whole.
What's within walking distance
154 shops, restaurants, parks and other everyday places are mapped within a 30 minute walk of the centre of Sophiatown. The nearest grocery is Sophiatown Shopping Centre, about 7 minutes away on foot. It earns full or nearly full points for banks, parks and schools. It is weakest for coffee, books & libraries and culture & entertainment.
- Shoprite Checkers7 min
- Shoprite South Africa9 min
- Wesside Pizza11 min
- South Bakels11 min
- PEP Johannesburg Triomf7 min
- Liquor City8 min
- Search Park9 min
- Albertville Park19 min
- Super Nanny Academy9 min
- Little Corner House Montessori Nursery on Victoria13 min
- Newlands Library25 min
- Saint Barnabas College29 min
Measured from the mapped centre of Sophiatown at -26.1750, 27.9764. Walking times assume 80 m per minute along an estimated street route.
Street layout
Within 800 m of the centre there are about 53 street intersections per km², and blocks average 134 m long. Sparser streets or longer blocks reduce the score by 3%, since they make walks longer than the straight-line distance suggests.
Walkability across Sophiatown
- 90+
- 70–89
- 50–69
- 25–49
- 0–24
Each hexagon is the score at a point across the 1 km around the centre of Sophiatown. Rings mark 500 m and 1 km from the centre. Gaps are water or land without streets.
Nearby neighbourhoods in Johannesburg
| Neighbourhood | Distance | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Parktown | 5.2 km | 68 |
| Braamfontein | 6.3 km | 92 |
| Hillbrow | 7.3 km | 94 |
| Jeppestown | 9.9 km | 77 |
See every neighbourhood ranked on the Johannesburg page.
Questions about walking in Sophiatown
Is Sophiatown walkable?
Partly. Sophiatown in Johannesburg has a walkability score of 54 out of 100 across the 1 km around its centre, which makes it somewhat walkable: some errands can be done on foot.
Is Sophiatown more walkable than the rest of Johannesburg?
Sophiatown is less walkable than Johannesburg as a whole: it scores 54, against 61 for the 5 km around Johannesburg's centre. It ranks 5th of the 5 Johannesburg neighbourhoods on How Walkable.
What are the most walkable neighbourhoods in Johannesburg?
Of the 5 Johannesburg neighbourhoods on How Walkable, the most walkable are Hillbrow (94), Braamfontein (92) and Jeppestown (77).
How is the walkability score of Sophiatown calculated?
The score counts groceries, restaurants, shops, cafés, banks, parks, schools, libraries and cultural venues within a 30 minute walk, gives nearer places more weight, and deducts up to 20% where streets are sparse or blocks are long. For Sophiatown it is the average of 61 points spread evenly across the 1 km around its mapped centre, leaving out water and land without streets, using open map data from Overture Maps and OpenStreetMap.
Scores follow a published walkability method, explained in the methodology. Neighbourhood position from Overture Maps, name from Wikidata.