Mariner's Wharf is a prominent landmark and tourist attraction in

Hout Bay Hout Bay ( af, Houtbaai, meaning "Wood Bay") is a harbour town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is situated in a valley on the Atlantic seaboard of the Cape Peninsula, twenty kilometres south of Cape Town. The name "Hout Bay" can ...

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 ...

. Situated between the beach and the adjacent harbor entrance, it was originally built in 1979 as workshops, storage and offices by Stanley Dorman for his fishing operations. Subsequently, due to a serious decline in the industry he decided to repurpose the structure, converting it into a harbor front emporium. Initially it consisted of a fresh fish market, an outdoor fish-and-chips bistro, sea-shanty restaurant as well as a small shop specializing in local seashells and souvenirs.

History

Chapman’s Peak Fisheries

Stanley Dorman was born and raised in Hout Bay, starting his career with four fishing boats inherited from his uncle, Alfie Dorman. Prior to this, his forefathers, having immigrated to the Cape of Good Hope during the 1890s, farmed in and fished out of Hout Bay up to the mid-1950s. In 1965 he took over what had deteriorated into a moribund business called Chapman’s Peak Fisheries - and during the ensuing 30 years, developed it into what today is known as the Cape Coast Group of Companies. Cape Coast, besides property acquisitions, eventually owned and operated a fleet of 17 trawler and lobster boats, a seafood factory and smokehouse, workshops, freezers, cold storage and national distribution depots. Dorman traveled to the continental United States for the first time in 1979, where, particularly inspired by Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, he decided to create something similar in Hout Bay, eventuating in Mariner’s Wharf as it stands today.

Mariner’s Wharf harbor front emporium

Mariner’s Wharf and its fish market (purposefully built around the hull of the historic trawler, the Kingfisher) officially opened on 22 November 1984, to become South Africa’s first harbor front emporium. Showcasing fish, fresh and frozen, as well as a vast array of associated products such as live lobsters, oysters and mussels, the sale of seaside gifts and marine-related artifacts complemented its fish market operations. In 1991, Dorman further expanded Mariner’s Wharf. A new addition was the upstairs nautically themed 350 seater Wharfside Grill restaurant with private dining cabins, Cray club cocktail bar and a long deck overlooking the nearby beach and north-western precincts of Hout Bay harbor. The revamp also features a lifeboat salvaged from a local shipwreck, hoisted alongside the Wharfside Grill’s deck, a bakery, sushi bar and a wine and liquor store. In turn, the ground floor, already popular for its busy fish ‘n chips bistro, was remodeled with separate antique, jewellery and shell shops for non-food items, evolving into Mariner’s Wharf becoming the international tourist attraction it is today. Due to the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

world pandemic the business closed its doors and retrenched most of its employees of many years, six weeks into the South African

lockdown A lockdown is a restriction policy for people, community or a country to stay where they are, usually due to specific risks (such as COVID-19) that could possibly harm the people if they move and interact freely. The term is used for a prison ...

in the first week of May 2020. However, its doors were reopened a few weeks later when the

level was lowered at the end of May 2020.

References

External links

Official website

Literature

Fick, David S.: Entrepreneurship in Africa - A Study of Success. Page 113–114, Praeger (March 30, 2002), {{Cape Town, economy Tourist attractions in Cape Town