It is a small suburb found on the eastern edge of the Johannesburg central business district (CBD), with the suburb of Troyeville to the north, Jeppestown to the south and Malvern to its east.

The suburb is situated on part of an old Witwatersrand farm called Doornfontein.

[2]: 114  This small suburb has it origin in the year of 1895 or early 1896 and was known either as Fairview or Fawcus Township.

[3]: 162  The land was owned by a man called George E. Fawcus who was married to a coloured woman and sometime after 1903, had made enough money off the land and so retired to Trinidad and Jamaica.

In Commissioner Street, Fairview is the modern fire station in front of which stands the original fire station tower whose foundation stone was laid in 1906 by Julius Jeppe.