Revived and refreshed I then had a wander around the thriving and busy Victorian and Alfred Waterfront complex of shops and restaurants. Once again there is a very good and comprehensive Gateway Guide that can be downloaded from www.gatewayguides.co.za
Just a brief historical introduction: the Dutch Navigator, Van Spilbergen discovered a natural harbour in 1601 some 140km up the coast from Cape Town and by 1503 this had become an important replenishing station for ships on the voyage to the East.
The first permanent structure was built in Cape Town in 1652 since it had no natural protection. Not all ships would moor at the original jetty but would prefer to anchor off-shore but with the treacherous winds and currents in this area this was a high-risk strategy. It is reported that in bad weather ship owners would pay vast amounts of money to local fisherman to row out with an extra anchor. This was a very dangerous undertaking and many lost their lives in this tricky waters so the high fees were justified.
Ships had been lost in the notorious winter storms in Cape Town Bay for many years, their anchors broken they drifted on to the rocky shores. A particularly bad storm in 1737 prompted the then Governor of the Cape to begin the construction of a breakwater. Although partially successful many ships were still lost but no further attempts were made to defend them until the British Second Occupation in 1806. The British stayed in control until ceding Cape Town to the South African Union in 1910. Various attempts were made to provide better shelter for shipping but it wasn’t until 1856 that Captain James Vetch came up with plans for a permanent harbour. The following year 16 large and 7 smaller ships were taken to the bottom of the bay by a major storm but still work on the harbour remained dormant. Guess what got things moving? The news that Lloyd’s of London would refuse to cover any ship that anchored in Cape Town Bay in the winter!! In 1860 the 16-year-old son, Prince Alfred, of Queen Victoria pulled a silver trigger that released a wagonload of rocks into the sea marking the start of the harbour that flourishes here today.
The harbour was not finally completed until 1975 and the Waterfront complex has an even more convoluted history that I will not go into here but see the Gateway Guide if you are interested. Suffice to say that in 2006 the ownership of the Waterfront was transferred to the Dubai World’s Istithmar PISC and other consortium investors and rapid redevelopment took place and is still taking place to create a very pleasant and extensive pedestrian precincts.
The Clock Tower
This three storey, octagonal, gothic style, Victorian Tower was completed in 1883. It was originally the Port Captain’s office in the new harbour and included a tide gauge mechanism. The room on each floor had a different purpose: The first was ‘snug reading room for shipmasters, the second was the mess’ and the third was made up of mirrors on all the walls so that ships could be seen from all angles.
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