Page 22 - Bulletin 4 2000

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Surfing made Muizenberg the most popular holiday resort in South Africa. Special fencing was

placed around the pavilion to prevent surfers from being washed under the building at high tides.
So popular did it become with parents and children that the Municipality became proprietor of

several thousand surf-boards, which were hired out with costumes, bathing caps, towels, and
deck chairs to bathers. Tenders were called annually for the supply of these items. Messrs.

Fletcher and Co. and Garlicks were the most regular suppliers of costumes and bathing caps,
while Messrs. Rylands and Sons were successful with the towel contracts. They received an

initial order of 1,000 towels in 1911.

In 1910 all plans for new bathing boxes were standardized and placed under Municipal control,

and an annual rental charge of 21/- was payable in advance to the Council. (Fig. 2.7.) All old

bathing boxes were to be removed and rebuilt to this set design and to have a selection of
standard colours. All private bathing boxes were to be appropriated over the next ten years by

Council at a fair valuation. Council would then maintain and hire out all bathing boxes. This
arrangement was to apply to Muizenberg, St. James, Dalebrook and Kalk Bay. The first of these

Municipal bathing boxes was constructed by G. S. Withinshaw in 1911 at a cost of £89-15-0.
There were double and two single boxes.

In 1911 a pavilion bandstand was built by James Liston at a cost of £185. The first band to play
was from the HMS Hermes at £10 per day. It was also in this year that the pavilion was

illuminated for the first time. The occasion was the Coronation of King George V. The Cape
Peninsula Publicity Association requested Council to look into the possibility of introducing a

promenade. This, however, was not done until the next pavilion was built.

The pavilion was described in the South African Railways Holiday brochure of 1914 as “being

able to accommodate 3,000 bathers a day, with private dressing rooms, fresh water showers,
attendance and tea-rooms being provided so that the Muizenberg bathing, besides being naturally

the best on our coast, may be enjoyed in every comfort and convenience.” The brochure advised
all visitors to make Muizenberg “the most of what we yet may spend, before we into Dust

descend.”

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