Page 15 - KBHA BULLETIN 4

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THE SUMMER SEASON: PAVILIONS, POOLS AND PERSONALITIES

Pavilions and Pools

Mike Walker

Introduction

There was no beach development programme for Kalk Bay, St. James or Muizenberg prior to the
establishment of the Kalk Bay - Muizenberg Municipality (KB-MM) in 1895. Before this an

irregular pattern of bathing boxes built to no design or specification existed on Muizenberg

Beach. (Fig. 2.1.) The bathing box count in 1897 was 51; in 1899 it was 64 with many hotels
constructing double bathing boxes for Ladies and Gentlemen. Among this collection was the

unsightly construction of ‘Farmer Peck’s Bathing House’ (erected 1877), some ‘pondoks’, and
the infamous ‘Fuller’s Cottage’, all of which were demolished by 1910 to make way for an

orderly arrangement of bathing boxes and a pavilion.

The Pavilions: The first Muizenberg Pavilion (1910 - 1929)

The problem of building a pavilion was two-fold. One, the Municipality wanted to have full

control of the administration and the revenue received from running a pavilion and, two, the
Municipality was cash-strapped because it had taken on the construction of the substantial

Drainage and Electric Lightworks Scheme. The scheme had run into untold difficulties and had
cost the KB-MM far more than it had budgeted for, and in fact nearly bankrupted it.

There were, however, a number of proposals prior to the construction of the pavilion of 1910, but
these fell flat. The two most prominent of these proposals were the granting of permission to Mr.

Van Ryan to erect a Bathing Establishment in 1898, and the submission in 1900 by Attorneys,
Innes and Hutton, of pavilion plans designed by Architects Milne and Sladdin which would be

financed ‘by a number of prominent citizens’. (Fig. 2.2.) Both schemes were shelved because of

strict Municipal regulations and the conditions of revenue collection, of which the Municipality

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