Page 110 - KBHA Bulletin 16
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129,000 and 127,000, respectively; in 1934 they rose to 211,500; in 1935: 213,500; in
1936: 189,500; in 1937: 205,000; and during the three months of 1938 60,000 were
admitted.
The significance of the Pier in the popular mind is well captured in the following
description:
“In season the Pier is the popular rendezvous; evenings it is thronged. Variety concerts,
bioscope entertainments and band performances by the Cape Town Orchestra provide a
programme every night in the week, whilst holiday-makers in holiday modes and mood
promenade the decks, enjoying the exhilarating scene. Across the black waters at night
come the reflections of the City lights, broken up into thousands of glittering facets by the
never-ending succession of wavelets that break in from the Bay. The distant mountains,
dimly lined against the sky, stand out cold and stark and mysterious, but all around you is
brightness and vivacity; the sounds of music, and the swish of water as the waves play
amongst the network of piles and girders below; the smell of the salt sea as the ozone-
laden breeze stimulates you into consciousness that you feel the better for its blowing; all
these experiences and many others concomitant to the occasion enter into the weft and
woof of the pleasure you derive and the health-giving conviction that grows upon you.
Capetown without its Promenade Pier is unthinkable.”
The Cape of Good Hope – Being the Official Handbook of the City of Cape Town, 1926:
127 – 130.
Destruction
The Pier was predestined to have a short life. It had not been a financial success and some
even considered it a white elephant, despite its fame. It then fell victim to the greater
needs of three parties who since the 1890s had been involved in a “triangular wrangle”
over how to resolve their expansionary requirements. (That term first appeared in 1907 in
a report by C E McLeod titled The Table Bay Foreshore – Comprehensive Scheme.) The
three parties were the Harbour Board, the Railway Authorities, and the Council – and the
solution to all their requirements pointed in the direction of the Bay:
