Page 113 - KBHA Bulletin 16

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prevailed upon to leave his seat and sing, his good humour being rewarded with an
encore.
NO FIREWORKS

An interlude of community singing ushered in Brahms’ “Hungarian Dance”,
conducted by Mr. Geoffrey Miller, and the programme was nicely rounded off with
“1812”, but “without the fireworks of 1914”, humorously interjected Mr. Pickerill. There
was no objection, he added, to the Pier being burned down, but they did want to save the
bandstand!
So ended the last Pier concert. But not the last public gathering on the Pier. On
Thursday night there will be a carnival and fireworks display. Mr. Pickerill’s fear may yet
be realised. At least it would be a more dignified fate for the Pier to be consumed by
flames rather than shattered under the wrecker’s pickaxe.

The Cape Argus, 28 March, 1938.

Two months later, on 10 May 1938 at 20h00, the Prime Minister, J B M Hertzog,

officially launched the dredging operations. Demolition teams moved in and reduced the

Pier to just the deck surface which was then used as a building yard and trans-shipment
point for materials and equipment needed for the dredging and construction work. In

March 1940 the Tower, the symbolic centre-piece of the Pier, having been weakened by

blasting, was attached by cables to three tugs and pulled into the water. (Fig. 3.25.)

The reclamation of the Foreshore and the construction of the new Docks should have
been completed by July 1941 but the war caused the contract to be extended to July 1945.

The dockworks were of immense value during the war years when convoys carrying huge
quantities of materials and tens of thousands of troops passed through to warfronts in

North Africa and Asia, and returned on their journeys home after VE and VJ day.

In the post-war years, the vast expanse of land between the new dock and the old

waterfront, known as The Foreshore, held the prospect of a bright “brave new world” that
was captured in the lovely water-colour perspectives by architect B S Cooke. (Fig. 3.26.)

Much of it has come to pass.