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memorial stone is erected in the graveyard at the Holy Trinity Church alongside the grave of

his daughter, Agnes Ruth, who died of typhoid at the young age of 6 years 8 months in 1887.
The family lived in No. 8 ‘Hillrise’, Hillrise Road, St. James. Mr. Charles King, his wife, one

son and one daughter are buried in the Muizenberg Cemetery.

The Kalk Bay Hotels post-1883

With the arrival of the railway in 1883 the lifestyle and environment of Kalk Bay changed
dramatically. Many wealthy families who had holiday cottages in Kalk Bay sold their

properties and moved away from the teeming crowds who now had access to Kalk Bay. They

chose to build their holiday homes away from a railway line and Kommetjie became a
particularly favoured resort.

With the railway came the crowds, more fishermen from “up the line”, more “hangers–on”,
more daily visitors. It also meant more boats in the harbour as now ready access to the Cape

Town market could be attained. Fast delivery by train of fish, which was perishable by nature,

was now achieved. Later the breakwater compounded the problem. More boats, more people,
more fish, more offal, more pollution, more health hazards, and a general decline in living

standards with the bulk of the fisherfolk in Kalk Bay now living in overcrowded slum

conditions.

King’s Hotel

This affected the standard and the quality of the hotels. No longer was Kalk Bay an exclusive

refuge and the hotels became “watering-holes” for the locals. The skippers and senior crew

members frequented the enlarged and now double-storey King’s Hotel with its public bar at
the back opening onto Windsor Road. (Fig. 4.12) Drunkenness became a problem and the

Church, in repeated reports over this period, referred to the drunkenness that existed at Kalk
Bay. This was particularly evident against the sobriety of its neighbours, St. James (where the

hotels at that stage had no public bars and liquor was only served to guests) and Fish Hoek

(which was “dry” by local statute). An advert in the Wynberg times of 1888 indicated the
environment of the Kalk Bay hotels: