Page 28 - KBHA BULLETIN 4

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room which could cater for up to 700 people a day, and, similar to the Muizenberg Pavilion, the

tea-room facilities were put to annual tender. Bathing cubicles were available for Gentlemen and
Ladies, as well as toilets and fresh water showers. The pavilion had an attractive pitched roof and

from all reports was most suitable and pleasing to the eye. Further extensions were completed by
W. Delbridge in 1913 at a cost of £420. (Figs. 2.13 & 2.14.) This soon proved to be too small

and in 1914 Delbridge built a second pavilion on the north end of the beach. It became the
Ladies’ Pavilion and the first then became the Men’s. The two pavilions were hard against the

railway platform and the platform, in turn, being situated above the beach, doubled as a viewing

promenade.

These pavilions gave good service to many thousands of bathers until they were demolished in

1939. A new pavilion, the third on this beach, opened on 9 November 1939. (Figs 2.15 – 2.17.) It
is this structure which forms the core of today’s Brass Bell Restaurant which has leased the

premises since the early 1970s, when the pavilion and the station milk-bar were renovated and
rebuilt to form a restaurant.

Pavilions were also built at the harbour beach to serve the needs of the thousands who frequented

this area. Traditionally this was where the fishing community bathed and where the annual New

Year regattas and swimming races were held. Plans for the first pavilion were drawn up the City
Council in late 1915. A relatively simple structure, easily removable, and costing no more than

£400 was envisaged. Similar pavilions were proposed at this time for Woodstock Beach and the
Terminus Road area of Sea Point. It was constructed on the approximate site of some of the early

boat-sheds that appear in old photographs. (Fig. 2.18.) In 1936 this structure was demolished and
replaced with the present concrete structure, costing about £1,900 and which today houses the

Haven Night Shelter. Later still, in 1946, Council authorised the expenditure of £6,500 to

provide recreational and picnicking facilities on the Point.

The Kalk Bay Pools

Initially the area in front of the station comprised a small sandy beach with two natural rock-

enclosed pools. One of these, the ‘Bishop’s Pool’ was so named because it was here that Bishop

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