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For a limited time only, a newly built apartment nestled
in the centre of Cape Town's most stylish and hospitable area,
De Waterkant is on the market for sale or rent. If you love
Cape Town, and De Waterkant, buy it! To buy or rent one of
these town house apartments, enquire on this site. These exclusive
luxury apartments have all the modern facilities you could
wish for. This is a unique oportunity to rent a luxury self
catering apartment in the heart of Green Point, one of Cape
Town's most upbeat and hip areas.
De Waterkant lives again with new arrivals and visitors returning
daily to Cape Town's heartland, once a bustling dockside suburb
teaming with all the 1950s had to offer. Now trendy and fashionable,
older generations reflect on their days in the area before
the elevated freeway cut them off from the docks, and the
group areas act scattered them across the Cape flats. 40 years
have passed since black families rented rooms from their Malay
landlords and lived in this cosmopolitan dockside suburb.
The local school in Prestwich Street was attended by a colourful
mix of black, Malay and European children, descendants of
the slaves and immigrants from all corners of the globe. After
school the children slipped into the docklands to watch the
fisherman at work, swim at the Mouille Point Beach or play
on the rocky shoreline. On their way home they passed the
beachfront hotels in Mouille Point, where they would beg treats
from the staff.
Dockside workers would come into the area after a day's work
seeking relaxation after their toil, and find it in the homely
pubs, which operated in a cloak and dagger manner against
the wishes of their staunch Malay landlords and the ever-present
police. Dances were held at the corner of Dixon and Jarvis
street in a basement, now housing the Castro pool lounge.
A gramophone provided the music, and on special occasions
makeshift bands attended and requests for popular tunes were
made upon entering. Ladies would indicate upon their arrival
how many suitors they would be prepared to dance with and
their dance cards were noted accordingly. The basement venue
was the hive of social activity.
De Waterkant Village is the only Cape quarter that architecturally
survived through the years of apartheid. In the sixties, the
city suburbs were divided in districts, and coloured and black
areas were bulldozed and the population was deported to the
Southern suburbs (Cape Flats) beyond the borders of the city,
according to the group areas act. Although Edward Austen,
a white inhabitant of De Waterkant, which was then called
District 5, could not prevent the deportation of his coloured
neighbours, he made a deal with the white government. He bought
all the houses in De Waterkant and promised the coloured people
that he would give them back their properties the moment the
white regime was dismissed. That's why Mr Allie, after thirty
years, could return to his former area and was given back
his supermarket in Waterkant Village.
De Waterkant Village has a special and mostly unknown place
in Cape Town's history, but it deserves a visit. The trendy
and high developed places such as the lunchrooms, bars, fashionable
furniture shops and beautifully decorated architecture, as
well as the long historical, political and social development
of the area makes the Waterkant Village very interesting.
Fortunately the area was given a renewed lease of life with
the advent of democracy and development of the neighbouring
V&A Waterfront and City Centre.
De Waterkant
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Waterkant 2 | De
Waterkant 3 | De
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