Rosebank is one of the Southern Suburbs 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 Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

, located between the suburbs of Mowbray and

Rondebosch Rondebosch is one of the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa. It is primarily a residential suburb, with shopping and business districts as well as the main campus of the University of Cape Town. History Four years after the first Dutch s ...

Geography

Rosebank is located on the lower eastern slope of Devil's Peak, stretching down to the Liesbeeck River, and on the other side of the river up to the edge of

Rondebosch Common Rondebosch Common is an open common of about in Rondebosch, Cape Town in South Africa. A common is defined as "A piece of open land for public use, esp. in a village or town." It contains one of the few surviving pockets of the critically endang ...

. On the west it is bounded by the M3 freeway. The historic

Mostert's Mill Mostert's Mill (Afrikaans: ''Mostert se Meul'') is a historic windmill in Mowbray, Cape Town, South Africa. It was built in 1796 and was the oldest surviving complete windmill in South Africa. It was gutted in a wildfire on 18 April 2021. The fi ...

is located just next to the freeway. Much of the land between the M3 and Main Road, which runs north-south through the suburb, belongs to the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

and is used for residences and sports fields. The area around Main Road is a mixture of university residences, shops and

blocks of flats A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdictio ...

. Parallel to Main Road, and one block east from it, the

Metrorail METRORail is the light rail system in Houston, Texas (United States). In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of . METRORail ranks as the second most-traveled light rail system in the Southern United States and the 12th ...

Southern Line divides Rosebank in half; Rosebank railway station is the main public transport facility in the suburb. There are no road crossings of the railway in Rosebank; the nearest are the Durban Road bridge in Mowbray to the north and the Belmont Road bridge in Rondebosch to the south. There are, however, several pedestrian subways under the railway. The area east of the railway, as far as Liesbeek Parkway, contains a mixture of blocks of flats and detached houses; many of the residences in this area are occupied by students from the university. The Cape Town offices of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and the South African Bureau of Standards are also located here. Liesbeek Parkway is a dual carriageway which runs north-south through the suburb, running mostly parallel to the Liesbeeck River. East of Liesbeek Parkway and the river is an area of larger houses, with a more affluent population. Also located in this area is Rustenburg Girls' High School.

Population

According to the 2011 Census, the population of Rosebank consisted of 4,963 people in 1,343 households. 45% of the population described themselves as "

Black African Black is a Racialization, racialized classification of people, usually a Politics, political and Human skin color, skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have ...

", 38% as "

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

", 9% as " Coloured" and 6% as "

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

or Asian". Of those who were asked about their

first language A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...

(which excluded those in university residences), 65% spoke

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

, 9% spoke

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

and 6% spoke

isiZulu Zulu (), or isiZulu as an endonym, is a Southern Bantu language of the Nguni branch spoken in Southern Africa. It is the language of the Zulu people, with about 12 million native speakers, who primarily inhabit the province of KwaZulu-Natal of ...

. Notably, 12% spoke a language that was not one of South Africa's 11 official languages. 50% of residents of the suburb live in institutions (principally university residences), 30% live in flats, and 19% live in houses. Over 99% of residents had

mains electricity Mains electricity or utility power, power grid, domestic power, and wall power, or in some parts of Canada as hydro, is a general-purpose alternating-current (AC) electric power supply. It is the form of electrical power that is delivered to h ...

, piped

drinking water Drinking water is water that is used in drink or food preparation; potable water is water that is safe to be used as drinking water. The amount of drinking water required to maintain good health varies, and depends on physical activity level, a ...

, a

flush toilet A flush toilet (also known as a flushing toilet, water closet (WC) – see also toilet names) is a toilet that disposes of human waste (principally urine and feces) by using the force of water to ''flush'' it through a drainpipe to another loca ...

and regular refuse collection.

References

{{Cape Town suburbs Suburbs of Cape Town