Article Source: http://www.cape-town.info
Architectural
Heritage
It is indeed fortunate that three men of outstanding architectural talents
were brought together at the Cape. Anton Anreith, a young sculptor and
woodcarver from Freiburg, arrived as a soldier in the Company's service in 1777.
Four years later Louis Michel Thibault, a Parisian architect, appeared on the
scene as an officer in the French garrison.
In 1789 they were joined by Hermann Schutte, a young architect and builder from
Bremen. The trio settled at the Cape, and it is due to their influence that the
period of prosperity and building activity in town and country, which marked the
late 18th and early 19th century, has left us such a rich heritage of
architectural beauty.
British Rule
Gradually the little settlement in Table Valley began to assume the character
of a town. No longer was it referred to as Cabo de Goede Hoop, De Caab or De
Kaapse Vlek, but during the last quarter of the eighteenth century it acquired
the name of De Kaap or Cape Town.
During the war between Britain and Holland (1780-1783) a British fleet sailed
to take possession of the Cape, but was attacked and disabled by the French. The
French then landed two regiments at the Cape to assist the Dutch in the defence
of the Colony. Part of the large hospital on the outskirts of town was assigned
to them as barracks. After 1795 the building was wholly occupied by troops and
in time the adjoining Ziekenstraat became more appropriately known as Barrack
Street, a name it still bears.
When the revolutionary armies of France invaded Holland, William of Orange
escaped to England and issued instructions that the Cape should temporarily be
handed over to the British for protection against the French. Accordingly, in
1795, a British force arrived at the Cape. The Dutch resisted and, after a brief
battle (the Battle of Muizenberg), retired before superior forces.
The change of authority brought with it other changes that many felt were
long overdue. Many of the monopolies and other restrictions on trade, by which
the Company had promoted its own pecuniary interests at the expense of the
colonists, were swept away. A large garrison again provided a ready market for
farm produce and thirsty patrons for the houses that had already given Cape Town
its reputation as The Tavern of the Seas.
The British remained in possession until 1803, when the Colony was
relinquished to the Dutch by the terms of the Treaty of Amiens. Within three
months of the restoration of the colony, war had again broken out between
Britain and Holland. In 1806, a British fleet of sixty-one ships dropped anchor
at Robben Island and landed 6 000 troops at Blaauwberg.
The Battle of Blaauwberg followed and Dutch resistance crumbled. In 1814 the
Cape Colony was formally ceded to Britain by a convention under which Dutch
vessels were to remain entitled to resort freely to the Cape of Good Hope for
the purposes of refreshment and repairs.
In 1814, Lord Charles Somerset became Governor, and the following year he
inaugurated the first mail-packet service between England and Cape Town. This
was the beginning of the Union-Castle Company's connection with South Africa.
The Union and Castle lines amalgamated in 1900.
Outside the town, satellite villages formed around churches and inns along
the road to False Bay. At the eastern foot of Wynberg Hill was the village of
Wynberg. With its white-walled thatched cottages set among gardens and fruit
trees, it possessed at one time much of the atmosphere of an English country
village and became for a while the favourite resort of officials of the British
East India Company recuperating at the Cape.
At Simon's Bay, an extensive fishing village began to expand. A whaling
station had been established, a Residency had been built, and the growing
settlement had assumed the name of Simon's Town. The naval establishment had
been transferred there from Table Bay in 1814 and it had acquired an atmosphere
more reminiscent of Portsmouth or Plymouth than characteristic of the Cape.
In 1824, Cape Town's first newspaper, The Commercial Advertiser was
published. It was printed in English and Dutch. In 1830, Sir Lowry Cole laid the
foundation stone of St. George's Church, now called St. George's Cathedral, the
first English Church in South Africa.
The first civil hospital in southern Africa was built on the western edge of
the town, largely through the public-spirited action of Dr. Samuel S. Bailey, a
naval surgeon who had served with Admiral Lord Nelson at Trafalgar. Subsequently
enlarged, it became the old Somerset Hospital to a later generation.
Schools also appeared and in 1829 the South African College was opened in
Long Street. In 1841 a site at the upper end of the gardens was ceded to the
College.
One of the first duties of Sir Benjamin D'Urban, appointed Governor in 1834,
was to give effect to the Act for the emancipation of slaves passed by the
British Parliament in 1833. Some 39,000 slaves, mostly in the western districts
of the Colony, were granted their freedom. The British Government provided
inadequate compensation for slave-owners and many were reduced from affluence to
bankruptcy.
News was brought to Governor D'Urban at a convivial New Year's Eve gathering
of the irruption of the Bantu tribes over the eastern border of the Colony. He
instructed Colonel Harry Smith (later Governor Sir Harry Smith) to make for
Grahamstown to organise the border forces. Colonel Smith left, on horseback, at
daybreak and arrived at Grahamstown six days later, having ridden one hundred
miles each day, at fourteen miles an hour throughout, a wonderful equestrian
feat.
The British Government made an attempt in 1849 to form a penal settlement at
the Cape, but when the ship Neptune arrived at Simon's Bay, with 282 convicts
aboard, the citizens declined to supply anything to persons having dealings with
her. So strictly was this pledge observed that no food whatever was obtainable,
either for the convicts or for the troops.
During the riots which ensued, Newspaper Editor John Fairbairn's house at Sea
Point was wrecked by a crowd who had lost their employment through the boycott.
In the end the colonists were victorious, and on 21 February 1850, the Neptune
set sail for Tasmania. In recognition of the services of C. B. Adderley who had
championed the colonists in this manner in the British House of Commons, the
name of Cape Town's main street was changed to Adderley Street.
A New Age
Cape Town became a municipality in 1840. A liberal constitution was granted
to the Cape Colony in 1853 and the first elected Parliament met on 30 June 1854.
On 28 November 1872 a complete self-government for the Cape Colony was
promulgated by a proclamation of Sir Henry Barkley, who laid the first
foundation stone of the present Houses of Parliament in 1875.
In the second half of the century the building of railways, the opening of
diamond and gold mines in the interior, and all their manifold and far-reaching
economic consequences added enormously to the commercial importance of Cape
Town. The sleepy settlement awoke and began to grow as never before. A railway
was completed to Stellenbosch and Wellington in 1863. The discovery of diamonds
in Griqualand West a few years later demanded its extension to the distant
diamond fields. In 1885 it had barely reached Kimberley when the Witwatersrand
goldfields presented a still more distant goal. Within the next decade the
opening of gold mines in Southern Rhodesia lured the railhead still farther
northward. Cape Town was transformed within a generation from a roadstead on
Table Bay, to one of the major ports serving a rapidly developing
sub-continent.
During the mid 19th century, harbour improvements were
urgently needed. The port in Table Bay possessed only four jetties, and
recurrent wrecks in the bay were grim reminders of its exposure to
north-westerly gales. The storms of 1857 and 1865 accounted for 24 shipwrecks
off the Cape coast. The work was started in 1860 and was completed in 1870 when
the Alfred Dock was inaugurated by Prince Alfred. Completion of the Robinson
Graving Dock twelve years later equipped the port to repair the largest vessels
of the time, and the extension of the harbour works to form the outer Victoria
Basin by the end of the century endowed Table Bay with a commodious modern
harbour. The waterfront became increasingly cluttered with a miscellaneous
collection of skin-drying, wool-processing, fish-smoking, soap making and
boat-building establishments.
At Simon's Town, new fortifications and the Selborne Dock were constructed
and the little town was transformed into a modern naval base. The demand for
fresh farm produce made potential farm land too valuable to be left idle. Farms
were developed over the Cape Flats where dairy and poultry farming was most
common, as well as vegetable and flower farming.
Before 1914 South Africa depended mainly upon overseas countries for most of
the manufactured articles in daily use. As such imports were not so readily
available in wartime, the First and Second World Wars provided powerful
incentives to develop South African industries. Moreover, after 1918 and
especially after 1945, many overseas manufacturers found it economically
advantageous to establish branch factories in the Union. Expanding overseas
trade necessitated the building of a new 200-acre basin in the harbour. But its
inadequacy to meet the needs of the port was soon recognised and plans to modify
and incorporate it in the basin now known as the Duncan Dock were being
formulated even before the new basin was completed. The construction of the
Duncan Dock, begun in 1938, proceeded and was practically completed by 1945 when
the 1 200 foot long Sturrock Graving Dock was opened.
War & Apartheid
South Africans fought alongside the Allies in both world wars, but Afrikaner
opposition to British support continued throughout. The opponents of involvement
were very much in the minority and whites from both language groups volunteered
in large numbers, as did those of mixed descent. South Africans fought in German
South West Africa (now Namibia) during the First World War. Other areas of
operation were East Africa and western Europe where, at Delville Wood, 3152
South Africans held their positions against massive bombardment and counter
attack. 755 survived unwounded. During the Second World War, South Africans
again fought against the Nazis in East Africa, in the Western Desert and in
Europe, forging a path up the spine of Italy in one of the toughest campaigns of
the war.
The years between the forming of the Union in 1910 and the historical
parliamentary election of 1948 witnessed the growth of South Africa into a
powerful industrial nation. The National Party won its first election under the
leadership of D. F. Malan in 1948. Its rise to power marked the beginnings of
the apartheid era. For the first time Afrikaners were in the driving seat and
legal segregation on racial lines became the main thrust of policy.
Apartheid stunted the economic growth of the country. The world shunned it
and sanctions brought South Africa to its knees. Cape Town suffered enormously
as ships no longer docked at the port, and instead, by-passed the Cape. Many
Capetonians emigrated to other parts of the world, taking with them the
expertise so desperately needed in a growing economy.
During the last decade, violence and bloodshed have brought a nation to the
turning-point of reconciliation. The 1994 election saw the inauguration of the
first black State President, Nelson Mandela, who headed a government of national
unity.
Read More
