Page 30 - KBHA Bulletin 16

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WINDSOR ROAD, KALK BAY – A SOCIAL HISTORY

Steve Herbert

Introduction

Windsor Road can be said to be the spine of the village of Kalk Bay. Situated in Die

Middeldorp it lies between Die Land (Fishermen’s Flats area), home to most of the
fishing community, and Die Dam (around the Lever Street Park, formerly the Wash-

house) an area that bordered on more affluent homes. Windsor Road was said at one

time to be one of the most cosmopolitan streets in Cape Town – see Box:

Windsor Road – a cultural melting pot 1880 - 1940 – some property owners

• Kleinschmidt – born in Oudtshoorn of German parents
• Fish – originally from Windsor – UK
• Pratten – 1820 settler stock from Grahamstown
• Schechter – from Galicia in Ukraine
• Delbridge – Cornish stonemason & mayor of Kalk Bay
• Goles – born in Tripolis, Greece
• Adams – born in Paarl
• Brown – born in Riga, Latvia
• Essop – born in India
• Kalan – born in Surat, India
• Ferreira – born in Lisbon, Portugal

These are just some the names and the nationalities of people who owned properties

in Windsor Road in the period up to about 1940. There were many other nationalities
– Irish, West African Kroomen, Filipino descendants – a regular United Nations.

A street is much more than the sum of its erven, buildings, and houses; it is really the

people themselves and the world they lived in. The community in other words – living
cheek by jowl, sharing good times and bad, celebrations and arguments, births,

weddings and funerals. These are all part of what makes a community, something

sadly lost in many places. Thankfully, the community spirit is alive and well still in
Windsor Road and Kalk Bay itself, although much changed from the early years.