Page 86 - KBHA Bulletin 16

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cases war priorities curtailed further expenditure of this sort after 1939, and after 1945

too.

By 1910 railways radiated from Cape Town making it accessible to communities in the
interior and bringing its coastal places within easy reach: Muizenberg – Kalk Bay in 1882

– 83, Simon’s Town in 1890, Sea Point in 1892, and Somerset West in 1889 with a
stopping place at Strand Road en route to the terminus at Sir Lowrys Pass, that was

reached in 1890. There was effectively no resort development until the discovery of

diamonds and gold in the interior, and the accumulation of large fortunes among the
Randlords. Resort development was stimulated as wealthy families, travelling by rail,

sought relief at the coast from the summer heat of the interior, and as Randlords invested

some of their excess profits in coastal property. The Peninsula’s coastal municipalities
scrambled to meet the new demands.

On the Atlantic coast there were three places where considerable investment was made in

seaside amenities during these decades: Table Bay (Adderley Street Pier & Woodstock),
Sea Point, and Camps Bay.

Adderley Street Pier

Conception

A pier had been in the public imagination for many decades but in the official record
(Annual Minute of the Mayor of Cape Town) the story begins in 1890. At this time the

Municipality of Cape Town contained about 60% of the Peninsula’s population of 87,000

and was the administrative, military, business and industrial heart of the colonial capital
and, indeed, of southern Africa. The initial phase of industrialization had commenced in

1860 with the construction of the Breakwater and Alfred Basin. This set in motion a

series of changes along the town’s waterfront: east of the Central Jetty (that dated from
1842 and extended into the bay from the bottom of Adderley Street) it comprised

reclaimed land that was monopolised by the Cape Government Railways, while some