Victoria Yards is a working creative community in Lorentzville, set in a former steam laundry that opened in 1913. The industrial buildings now hold artist studios, design workshops, and small businesses, with urban farming plots growing vegetables between the structures. You walk past open studio doors where tenants make ceramics, screen prints, and clothing, and the gardens supply a weekly harvest.

The space runs on collaboration: tours are led by the artists and makers who work here, showing you their studios and processes rather than following a script. On the first Sunday of each month, the yards host a market where tenants sell handmade goods and food from the garden. The original laundry buildings still define the layout, with high-ceilinged spaces adapted for workshops and events.

Urban farming is central to the project. Crops grow in the available ground, and the harvest supports both the tenants and local food programs. The community includes NGOs focused on skills training and a free clinic run by the University of Johannesburg. What was once a laundry supplying prisons and hospitals is now a place where the work is art, farming, and making.