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THE HOTELS AND BOARDING HOUSES

OF KALK BAY AND ST JAMES

Mike Walker and Barrie Gasson

Introduction

The late nineteenth century development of hotels and boarding houses along the coastline

between Muizenberg and Kalk Bay was a response to its beauty and amenity and its growing

accessibility. Kalk Bay’s reputation as a health resort was established during the 1840s when
James Melville ran horse-drawn omnibuses from Cape Town to Simon’s Town from 1847

onwards.

When Gilman established the first hotel in 1851 Kalk Bay was known as “the Brighton of the

Cape”. In 1859 the Cape Argus described it as “this rising watering place”. In the 1860s

Melville opened Kalk Bay’s second hotel, at the bottom of Belmont Road, and ran an
omnibus between the railhead at Wynberg and Kalk Bay for his guests. In 1883 with the

arrival of the steam railway Kalk Bay’s resort status was established forever.

The Hotels of St. James and Kalk Bay

The hotel trade at the turn of the century was a microcosm of society along this coastline. The
history of the two hotels in St. James (The St. James and The Seahurst) compared with the

two hotels in Kalk Bay (King’s and The Masonic) was vastly different. This great divide was

more evident after the arrival of the railway in Kalk Bay in 1883, and makes interesting
reading as none of these hotels exists today.

St. James (named in 1900 after the local Catholic Church) stretched approximately from

Carisbrooke Cottage on the northern boundary to Kimberley Road on the southern boundary.

This stretch of coastline was the refuge for wealthy overseas and up-country visitors who
wished to escape from the cold northern winters or the hot dry dusty interior of South Africa.

Many up-country folk who had sufficient means built homes along this coastline but many