Long Street is a major
street
A street is a public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of dirt, ...
located in the
City Bowl
The City Bowl is a part of Cape Town in South Africa. It is a natural amphitheatre-shaped area bordered by Table Bay and defined by the mountains of Signal Hill, Lion's Head, Table Mountain and Devil's Peak.
The area includes the central bu ...
section of
Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
. It is famous as a
bohemian
Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to:
*Anything of or relating to Bohemia
Beer
* National Bohemian, a brand brewed by Pabst
* Bohemian, a brand of beer brewed by Molson Coors
Culture and arts
* Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, origin ...
hang out and the street is lined with many
book store
A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arra ...
s, various ethnic restaurants and bars. Restaurants include African restaurants such as Zula, and Indian restaurants such as Masala Dosa. Long Street exhibits a diversified culture and attracts tourists from all over the world. It also has a number of youth hostels which provide accommodation to an international roster of guests. Several theatres which showed
anti-apartheid plays were located on the street during the 1970s and 1980s, although most have now closed and been replaced by
restaurants
A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearanc ...
or stores.
Architecturally it is noted for its
Victorian buildings with
wrought iron
Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag Inclusion (mineral), inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a ...
balconies. These were featured in an article in an edition of the annual publication ''
The Saturday Book ''The Saturday Book'' was an annual miscellany, published from 1941 to 1975, reaching 34 volumes. It was edited initially by Leonard Russell and from 1952 by John Hadfield. A final compilation, ''The Best of the Saturday Book'', was published in ...
''.
[Desirée Peyton-Seymour (1962) "South African Rococo"]
''The Saturday Book'', Vol. 22
Hutchinson
Traffic on Long Street is
one-way in the uphill (southwest) direction, while the parallel Loop Street carries downhill traffic. The number 101
MyCiTi
MyCiti is a bus rapid transit service with feeders, which forms part of a greater Integrated Public Transport driven economic development strategy of the City of Cape Town Municipality (CoCT) in South Africa. The service is being rolled out a ...
bus runs the length of Long Street on its way from the
Civic Centre
A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, the ...
to
Gardens
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate both ...
, with five stops along the street.
File:Long Street (Cape Town).jpg, Long Street
File:Rues du Cap.jpg, Traditional Victorian and Cape Dutch architecture on Long Street.
File:South African Slave Church, Long Street, Cape Town.jpg, alt=Museum of the history of South African Missionary Work (building from 1799), Museum of the history of South African Missionary Work (building from )
File:Kaapstad25.JPG, Clarke's Bookshop
File:Palm Tree Mosque.JPG, alt=, Palm Tree Mosque. The oldest substantially unaltered building in Long Street, built in
See also
*
South African Sendinggestig Museum
The South African Sendinggestig Museum (also known as the South African Slave Church Museum) was established in 1977 and is currently situated in the centre of Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa. It is a province-aided museum which receives s ...
References
Streets in Cape Town
Shopping districts and streets in South Africa
Restaurant districts and streets in South Africa
{{SouthAfrica-road-stub