Thornton Road possesses high social and historical significance – representing a powerful space of resistance politics in the 1980s. Various sites along Thornton Road hold memories. The Trojan Horse incident symbolised the growing desperation of the apartheid government and the increased brutality with which they responded to unrest and protest within townships. Thornton Road is representative of mass action and a gathering place of antiapartheid protests, particularly student protests. Thornton Road holds importance in the community, in the pattern of South Africa's history and has a strong and special association with the life or work of a person, group, or organisation of importance in the history of South Africa. Thornton Road bears significance for social and cultural reasons in representing defiance and the passion for the liberation struggle.
