Bedfordview is an affluent suburb in western Ekurhuleni, sharing an administrative boundary with the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, Gauteng, South Africa.
The site of Bedfordview was largely taken up by the farm Elandsfontein, created in 1853 by Gerhardus van der Linden and was administered as part of the District of Potchefstroom in the South African Republic.
[3] One of these farms was owned by Sir George Herbert Farrar, a randlord who played a prominent role in planning the infamous Jameson Raid, one of the main causes of the Second Anglo-Boer War.
British cavalry was based in Bedfordview during the war and apparently planted the oak trees along Van Buuren Ave.
Bill Stewart, the headmaster at the school, recalled that sewage would run down Van Buuren Road from Malvern East and that the piggeries and other farms caused swarms of flies.
There was talk that the area should become part of a municipality in order to deal with the matter, and residents were asked whether they would prefer to join Johannesburg or Germiston.
This was in turn merged with other East Rand towns to form the City of Ekurhuleni, which incorporated the old municipalities of Alberton, Bedfordview, Benoni, Boksburg, Brakpan, Edenvale, Germiston, Kempton Park, Nigel, and Springs.