The Swiss cottages on Crown Crescent are from Norway! That is according to Mona de Beer in her history of Camps Bay “The Lion Mountain”. She takes as her source Dr Ernest Lazarus, a GP in Camps Bay from 1916 to 1925. In 1907 four wooden cottages using railway sleepers for foundations were transported from [...]
The early grave sites of Saints and Auliyah (friends of Allah) are known as kramats and are regarded by Moslems as holy places. There are kramats in Camps Bay and Oudekraal. Camps Bay Kramat Hely Hutchinson Road This is the grave of Sheikh Ali, also known as Sayed Bassier. Little is known about his history. [...]
The Roundhouse, the second oldest building in Camps Bay* and today its oldest surviving building, is a National Monument and a World Heritage Site. Earliest records date back to 1786. It was originally built as a small round guards house that served to protect against enemies entering Cape Town from the Camps Bay side – [...]
In the 1920s members of the Dutch Reformed Church met in the Camps Bay Interdenominational Church for services, prayer and Sunday school. Dominee A G du Toit (the secretary of the SA Bible Society) became official lay preacher. In 1929 the Church Council agreed that there should be a church in Camps Bay and donated [...]
In early days Roman Catholics of Camps Bay had to travel to Sea Point to attend Mass. By 1925 it was recognized that they required their own place of worship. Mass was held at the Pavilion of the Marine Hotel (later the Rotunda). Since Saturday nights often included dancing or skating, the congregation had to [...]
A tiny cottage in the grounds of The Retreat was owned by accountant Jan Bloemendal Spyker who lived in Camps Bay between 1866 and 1878. He used to hold services there. Later in the century it became a sleeping hut for natives and then a stable. In 1905 a Mrs Hinman, recently moved to Camps [...]
The present building is by no means the original but the church itself has an interesting if somewhat complicated history illustrating the difficulties of different Christian denominations trying to co-operate. In the early days when Camps Bay was little more than a village and a holiday resort, there arose a need for church services and [...]
The Rotunda was the inspiration of one James Riddell Farquhar, known in the early 1900’s as the unofficial mayor of Camps Bay. He turned the suburb into a holiday resort, with little regard for its potential for residential use. It was he who planted the row of 35 palm trees along the beach front to [...]
Sadly Jews in Camps Bay were discriminated against during the early part of the twentieth century. In the days when most land in the area was owned by a company called Cape Marine Suburbs, the secretary James Riddell Farquhar ensured that Jews were unable to purchase land in the suburb. The restrictions were not removed [...]
The Retreat (Argyle Road) is believed to have been one of Camps Bay’s first permanent residences and is the second oldest surviving building (after the Roundhouse). It was built, probably as a farmhouse, between 1857 and 1860 by Captain William W Glendinning. In the early 1900s it was home to James Riddell Farquhar. He became [...]