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The Bedfordview Ridge & Light Field Guide

How the sun crosses this ridge through the year, what a hundred and sixty metres of altitude changes about heat and glare, and what we'd fit on each elevation — with the honest catch written next to every recommendation. Free to read, no sign-up.

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A double-volume Bedfordview ridge lounge with a sunscreen roller blind lowered halfway across a full-height glass wall, the Johannesburg skyline still legible through the open weave at sunset
A low-openness sunscreen on west-facing ridge glass — glare cut, skyline kept

Where To Start

A hundred and sixty metres changes the whole answer.

"Here the specification follows your altitude and your aspect — not your postcode."The short version

Bedfordview sits at 1,639 m above sea level. Linksfield Ridge, along its north-western edge, tops out around 1,800 m. Those hundred and sixty-odd metres are why a house at the top sees the Carlton Centre, Ponte City, the Hillbrow Tower and the Sentech Tower in one view, and a house four streets below sees none of them.

A ridge running east–west puts the long face of most view homes north or south, while the view people build for — the city, the sunset — sits off to the west. Glass aimed at it takes a low sun straight on.

The older streets are a different problem: double-storey homes on generous stands, renovated rather than replaced, with deep reveals and window-by-window openings under a canopy that does real work. On the ridge and inside the estates, the unit of specification is not the window. It is the whole elevation.

The Light Here

26 degrees south, 1,639 metres up.

Bedfordview has no weather station of its own, so these sun-path figures are Johannesburg-wide, from a reference point nine kilometres west on the same latitude. All are sourced below.

  1. Overhead in December, low and due north in June

    At the December solstice the midday sun reaches roughly 87° — near vertical, so the roof takes the load, not the north wall. In June it sits at about 40°, due north, all day.

  2. In midsummer the sun rises and sets behind you

    Midsummer sunrise is on a bearing of about 116° and sunset about 243°, both south of the east–west line, with 13 h 47 m of daylight between 05:13 and 19:00. By June they swing to 69° and 295°.

  3. Wet summers, bone-dry winters

    Bedfordview is Köppen Cwb and takes about 755 mm of rain a year, nearly all in summer: December averages roughly 135 mm across 14 rain days, July about 3.5 mm across one — with winter minima near 0 °C.

  4. Hail season, and the hour it lands

    Hail concentrates along the Highveld, is most frequent from mid-November through February and peaks between 13:00 and 17:00 — exactly when an awning is out and unwatched. Gauteng averages about 35 events a year.

  5. Altitude buys you extra ultraviolet

    Ultraviolet intensity climbs roughly 10% per 1,000 m of elevation, and this suburb sits over 1,600 m up. Ultraviolet breaks the bonds in dyes: it fades a rug, a floor and eventually the blind itself.

External venetian blinds mounted in guide rails on the outside of a west-facing Bedfordview facade, their aluminium slats tilted against low late-afternoon sun

Heat is cheaper to stop outside than to absorb inside.

An interior blockout kills the glare, but the pane behind it still heats and radiates long after the sun has gone. Anything outside the glass never lets that begin.

Elevation By Elevation

Four aspects, four different problems.

Walk the house once with the compass on your phone. On a ridge, aspect decides more than what the room is used for.

  1. North — spend on geometry before you spend on fabric

    North glass takes a near-vertical sun in summer and a low one in winter, so it is the one elevation where a horizontal projection works: an overhanging upper floor, a deep eave, a veranda. That is the orientation logic SANS 10400-XA:2021 applies to new buildings; it doesn't bind an existing house, but the physics is identical.

  2. West — the elevation that earns the budget

    The sun sets between 243° and 295° across the year and by then it is low: it arrives under the eave and straight at the glass, so overhead projections do almost nothing. On a stand cut into the ridge there is no neighbour and no tree in the way either.

  3. East — the same geometry, half the penalty

    The mirror image, from 05:13 in midsummer, but the building is still cool from the night — so glare and waking at first light matter more than heat.

  4. South — flat light, and often the honest answer is nothing

    Both midsummer sunrise (116°) and sunset (243°) sit south of the east–west line, so a south wall takes low sun early and late in December and none in winter. Usually the neighbour's side, so privacy rather than sun decides it.

What We'd Fit, And Why

The reasoning — and the honest catch with each.

Each of these beats its obvious alternative on a particular elevation, and each costs you something. Tap Add and it carries down to the form below.

Roller blinds — sunscreen, blockout or day/night

Best on: view-facing living rooms · bedrooms · overlooked rooms

Why here. A 3–5% openness sunscreen keeps the skyline legible through the weave while cutting glare and the ultraviolet that fades floors at this altitude. Blockout answers a 05:13 sunrise. Day/night slides banded fabric for privacy without raising anything.

The catch. Sunscreen reverses after dark and gives away more than you expect on a stand visible from half the city. Blockout is only as dark as its edges.

Vertical & panel blinds

Best on: wide sliding walls

Why here. Vanes and sliding panels cover a four-metre opening edge to edge and stack clear of the glass — one specification for a whole wall rather than four blinds fighting each other.

The catch. Vanes swing about in the draught through an open door, and a panel blind needs wall to stack onto. Where a glass wall meets a corner, a wide motorised roller wins.

Close detail of a cellular honeycomb blind at the edge of a window in a Bedfordview home, its repeating hexagonal fabric air cells visible in cross-section against the glass

Cellular / honeycomb blinds

Best on: top-floor and double-volume rooms

Why here. The fabric folds into cells that hold still air against the pane, softening both ends of a swing from an 87° January sun to near-zero July minima — without altering the window at all.

The catch. It is on the wrong side of the glass for summer heat: it only slows what already came through. Against a hard west sun an external product beats it.

A dark stained timber venetian blind in the deep reveal of an established Bedfordview home, slats tilted so late afternoon sun stripes the timber floor

Timber & aluminium venetian blinds

Best on: studies and character rooms · wet rooms in aluminium

Why here. Low western sun is a sideways problem, and a tilting slat answers it sideways: close the angle and the room stays bright while the direct beam stops. A roller has one move; a slat has two.

The catch. A venetian stacks deeper than a roller, so it eats more glass when raised. And timber dislikes steam, which is why wet rooms get aluminium.

External venetians & roller shutters

Best on: hard west glass with nothing above it

Why here. Both stop the sun outside the glass, which keeps a room cooler than absorbing it inside. External venetians still tilt, so the view survives them; roller shutters close fully and roll away into a compact headbox.

The catch. In relative terms, the dearest answers here. Both want a motor, both need a wind and hail strategy from October to March, and both are exterior alterations.

Shading, not security. Our roller shutters are made for sun, heat, glare and privacy control on the outside of the glass. They are not security-rated shutters — that is a different product, which we can quote on request.

Motorisation, skylight & concealed systems

Best on: anything high, angled or outdoors

Why here. On a double-volume wall, a blind nobody can reach is a blind nobody adjusts, and motors remove cords entirely. Shaped blinds are made to a gable's exact geometry; a concealed system hides the hardware in a ceiling slot.

The catch. Motors need power, and a cable route that doesn't chase a finished wall is a real question in a renovated house. A concealed recess is easy while a ceiling is open.

A folding-arm awning extended over a ridge-top Bedfordview terrace with no posts in the way, a summer storm building over the distant Johannesburg skyline

Folding-arm awnings & zip screens

Best on: the terrace, the pool side, the braai

Why here. An awning shades the terrace with nothing in the way of the table, and retracts the moment you want the June sun back. A zip screen holds fabric under tension in side channels.

The catch. An elevated stand catches far more wind than the streets below, and wind and hail ratings are engineering limits — so we specify a motor and a wind sensor.

Optional

Want this guide marked up for your own house?

Tell us which rooms are the problem and we'll send it back with notes against your actual elevations — which answers we'd start with, and which we'd leave alone. No visit, no obligation.

POPIA: these details are used only to send you the marked-up guide and, if you ask for it, to arrange a consultation call-back. No marketing lists, and never shared with a third party.

Before You Fix Anything Outside

Two municipalities, several estates, one sixty-year rule.

Bedfordview, Senderwood and Bedford Gardens fall under Ekurhuleni. Linksfield and Linksfield Ridge fall under the City of Johannesburg. Meyersdal is Ekurhuleni again, on the Alberton side. One call-out area, three sets of municipal paperwork.

Age is the trigger, not listing

Bedfordview was named on 24 February 1926 and Linksfield Ridge proclaimed in 1922, so the earliest houses in both are past sixty. Section 34(1) of the National Heritage Resources Act 25 of 1999 says no person may alter or demolish a structure older than sixty years without a permit from the provincial heritage resources authority — and "alter" is defined broadly, as any action affecting a place's structure or appearance.

And then there are the committees

Several newer developments around Bedfordview and Meyersdal run their own architectural guidelines, with an Aesthetics Committee whose approval covers alterations as well as new building. There is no Bedfordview-wide design code; it is estate by estate.

So: blinds fitted inside a room change neither the structure nor how the house reads from the street. Anything mounted outside does. We fit blinds, not heritage permits — we raise it at the measure and design the interior option so there is a good answer either way.

Before Anything Gets Ordered

Five things only a tape measure at the window can settle.

The honest limit of any guide. Everything above narrows the field; these five decide it — and all five are what the free measure is for.

  1. True reveal depth, and whether the opening is square

    On renovated stock, reveals vary wall to wall in one room and a replacement frame rarely lands square. Depth decides whether an inside mount is possible at all.

  2. What the frame is made of, and what it will carry

    Timber, steel casement, aluminium and a plastered return each take a fixing differently, and structural frameless glazing takes none. Then we fix to a slab or a bulkhead instead.

  3. How exposed that elevation really is

    Two houses on the same ridge — one behind a gable, one open to the west — are different specifications. Wind exposure is judged on the terrace, not off a plan.

  4. Where the power for a motor can actually go

    Motorising a four-metre wall is simple in principle and fiddly in a finished house: the cable must arrive without chasing a wall you've just painted.

  5. What the view is worth to you at four o'clock

    The judgement no guide can make for you. How much softening of the skyline you'll accept for how much heat is settled against your own glass, at four o'clock.

Two Ways Forward

Have us come and measure — or just get a range first.

Both start on the one short form below.

Recommended

The free expert measure & written quote

A consultant comes to you with fabric and slat samples, walks the elevations at the hour that matters, measures every opening and leaves a written quote itemised per window. No obligation.

We take five or six measure appointments a week across Bedfordview and the ridge, so the diary fills early.

Book my free measure

Optional

Want a ballpark first?

Pop in rough sizes and we'll send a budget range by the next working day. Not sure how to measure? Leave it out — our consultant measures for free either way.

Open the window list

The Close

Book your free expert measure.

One short form. If you'd also like a budget range, add rough window sizes underneath it — entirely optional, and nobody will chase you for it.

What you're interested in (anything you added from the guide is already ticked)
Optional: add rough window sizes for a budget range

Rough really is fine — a tape across the outside of the frame is enough for a range, and we'll send a budget range by the next working day. If measuring is not your idea of a Saturday, skip this entirely: the free measure gives you exact per-window pricing anyway.

Your window list — room, width, drop, mount and product for each window
Room Width (mm) Drop (mm) Inside or outside the reveal Product Remove

Nothing on the list yet — and that is completely fine.

POPIA: your details are used only to arrange this consultation call-back and, if you've added sizes, to send your budget range. They are never shared with any third party.

Sources

Where the numbers on this page come from.

Every climate, sun-path, topography, history and regulatory figure above is taken from the following. Where a figure was disputed or could not be verified, we left it out rather than round it into a sentence.

Reading this from a neighbouring window? The same sun-path reasoning applies across Senderwood, Linksfield Ridge, Bedford Gardens and Meyersdal — it is the housing stock and the exposure that change.