The heart of Camps Bay

The next time that you are in the Camps Bay area ask one of the locals where the "Heart of Camps Bay" is situated. They are sure to look at you with a frown and openly admit that they don't know.

To get a good view of the heart of Camps Bay travel to the Maidens Cove parking area between Camps Bay and Clifton which is near to the Glen Country Club. Look up at the cablecar station and you will then see the narrowest view of Table Mountain that can been seen from anywhere in Cape Town. Take a vertical view line below the cablecar station and move your eye in a downward fashion very slowly towrds the left. There you will see a HUGE ditch type structure come into view set in the mountain landscape. Look very carefully at the shape of the area and you will see that it forms the perfect shape of a heart (with ventricles too) . Voila you will have found the heart of Camps Bay. A fair warning is that you will not see what I am telling you unless you know what you are looking for and this will only happen if you follow the instructions that I have given you to the letter. Once you have seen the heart it will be with you forever. Let me know per return mail if you get to see this awesome part of the Camps Bay scenery.



Signal Hill

On a daily basis most Capetonians pass or see Signal Hill from wherever they are in the city. It always fascinates me to hear why Capetonians think the hill is called as such. Most say that it is because the noon gun fires a signal from hill. This answer would be incorrect.

The reason why the hill is called Signal Hill is because in bygone years a signalman was permanently stationed on the mountainside which has a great vantage point over the whole of Table Bay. The signalman's duty was to warn the castle of the approaching ships that were coming into the harbour. When ships were sighted a coded system of flags and cannon shots were used to provide the relevant information about the ship as well as it nationality. Amongst others a shot was fired for every ship that was spotted and a flag was hoisted at the same time of the shot being fired. When the ship was visually identifiable a red flag was hoisted if it was an enemy vessel attacking the harbour. This signal brought every man to the harbour so as to defend the shoreline.



District Number 6

Much has been written about District 6 in Cape Town but I wonder how many people know that District 6 originally was called District 12. In 1840 the town of Cape Town was demarcated into 12 districts and the area now known as District 6 was then named District 12. In 1867 it was decided to change the demarcation and the town was split into 6 districts. District 12 then became what today is known as District 6. During this period the area also was nicknamed Kanaladorp. In 1909  the City of the Cape Town was split into 8 wards and the District 6 area was renamed Castle Ward, however the name just did not stick and District 6 remained the preferred name for the public of Cape Town. Strictly speaking the area today is called Zonnebloem, but once again the name is not used by the local Capetonian public in preference to the name of District 6. It truly seems as if the spirit of District 6 will never die for the local Cape Town community. Now the question is whether anybody who reads this mail knows where the old District 5 is in todays makeup of our city?



District 5

For the past two weeks I have been writing about an area in Cape Town called District 6. When the Cape Town municipal area was demarcated into 6 districts in 1909 other areas of the city  also had District names. In that way the area today known as Loader street was known as District 5. It was in this fashionable area that most bankers and insurance men stayed. The area was renamed Loader street as this was the first road to be completely restored in District 5.



Forced removals in District 6

The forced removals of the local Cape Coloured population from District 6 in 1966 is what most people remember the area for. I wonder how many Capetonians know that the first forced removals, on the basis of colour from District 6, took place in as early as 1901. It was in this year that the African people (Black) staying in District 6 were forcibly removed to Ndabeni so as to allow for "poor whites" to stay in the area.



Articles submitted by: Selwyn Davidowitz
Email:cptn@mail.com

SATOUR accredited tourguide with an immense passion for Cape Town and its surrounds. To see more about Selwyn's services as a tourguide please click here .