Sea Point (
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 ...
: ''Seepunt'') is one 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 ...
's most affluent and densely populated suburbs, situated between
Signal Hill and the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
, a few kilometres to the west of Cape Town's
Central Business District
A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...
(CBD). Moving from Sea Point to the CBD, one passes first through the small suburb of Three Anchor Bay, then
Green Point. Seaward from Green Point is the area known as
Mouille Point
Mouille Point ("Mu-lee") is an affluent suburb of Cape Town, situated between the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, Victoria and Alfred Waterfront and Granger Bay to the east, Green Point, Cape Town, Green Point to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to t ...
(pronounced MOO-lee), where the local lighthouse is situated. It borders to the southwest the suburb of
Bantry Bay
Bantry Bay ( ga, Cuan Baoi / Inbhear na mBárc / Bádh Bheanntraighe) is a bay located in County Cork, Ireland. The bay runs approximately from northeast to southwest into the Atlantic Ocean. It is approximately 3-to-4 km (1.8-to-2.5 mil ...
.
Sea Point is the only seaside suburb of Cape Town with significant high-rise development and this, along with other factors, has made it a very popular residential area, or for investing in first or second homes and apartments.
Demographics
The area was historically classed as a "whites only" area only during the
apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
era under the terms of the
Group Areas Act
Group Areas Act was the title of three acts of the Parliament of South Africa enacted under the apartheid government of South Africa. The acts assigned racial groups to different residential and business sections in urban areas in a system of u ...
, a series of South African laws that restricted urban areas according to racial classifications With the collapse of apartheid and especially from the late 1990s, a diverse mix of residents emerged and changed the demographic makeup. According to the 2011 census, the white population was at 67.7%
Layout and lifestyle
Sea Point is a suburb of Cape Town and is situated on a narrow stretch of land between Cape Town's well known
Lion's Head to the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the northwest. It is a high-density area where houses are built in close proximity to one another toward the surrounding mountainside. Apartment buildings are more common in the central area and toward the beachfront. An important communal space is the beachfront
promenade
An esplanade or promenade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The historical definition of ''esplanade'' was a large, open, level area outside fortress or city walls to provide cle ...
, a paved walkway along the beachfront used for strolling, jogging, or socialising. Along the litoral of the Sea Point promenade, the coastline has varied characteristics. Some parts are rocky and difficult to access, while other parts have broad beaches. Sea Point beach adjoins an Olympic-sized seawater swimming pool, which has served generations of Capetonians since at least the early 1950s. Further toward the city is a beach known as Rocklands.
Adjoining Sea Point is Three Anchor Bay. The beaches along this stretch are in the main covered with mussel shells tossed up by the surf, unlike the beaches of
Clifton
Clifton may refer to:
People
*Clifton (surname)
*Clifton (given name)
Places
Australia
* Clifton, Queensland, a town
**Shire of Clifton
*Clifton, New South Wales, a suburb of Wollongong
*Clifton, Western Australia
Canada
*Clifton, Nova Scotia ...
and
Camps Bay, which are sandy. The rocks off the beaches at Sea Point are in large part late Precambrian metamorphic rocks of the Malmesbury formation, formed by low-grade metamorphism of fine-grained sediments. The site is internationally famous in the
history of geology
The history of geology is concerned with the development of the natural science of geology. Geology is the scientific study of the origin, history, and structure of Earth.
Antiquity
Some of the first geological thoughts were about the ori ...
. A plaque on the rocks commemorates
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...
's observation of the rare geological interface, where granite, an
igneous rock
Igneous rock (derived from the Latin word ''ignis'' meaning fire), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main The three types of rocks, rock types, the others being Sedimentary rock, sedimentary and metamorphic rock, metamorphic. Igneous rock ...
, has invaded, absorbed, and replaced the Malmesbury formation rocks. There are extensive beds of kelp offshore. Compared to the
False Bay
False Bay (Afrikaans ''Valsbaai'') is a body of water in the Atlantic Ocean between the mountainous Cape Peninsula and the Hottentots Holland Mountains in the extreme south-west of South Africa. The mouth of the bay faces south and is demarcat ...
side of the Cape Peninsula, the water is colder (11–16 °C).
The community of Sea Point was the subject of a 2008 documentary film directed by
François Verster
François Verster (born 1969) is an independent South African film director and documentary maker.
He has a wide background in writing, music, academia and film. After completing an MA degree with distinction under literature Nobel Prize laur ...
, entitled ''
Sea Point Days''.
Graaf's Pool, a beachfront tidal pool partially demolished in 2005, was the subject of a short film entitled "Behind the Wall", which contrasted the pool's origin story of Lady Marais, paralysed from the waist down from childbirth, whose husband built the pool for her as a private bathing area in the 1930s, and the Sea Point gay scene, which adopted the pool as a cruising ground between the 1960s and the 2000s.
In the period May 2020 through February 2021, there were 135 apartments sold in the suburb at an average price of R 33255 / m².
Local schools
Schools in the area include Sea Point Primary School and
Sea Point High School
Sea Point High School, formerly Sea Point Boys' High School, is a co-educational public high school in Main Road, Sea Point, Cape Town, South Africa. The school was established on 21 April 1884. In 1925, the senior grades were separated from the ...
(formerly Sea Point Boys' High School) founded in 1884,
and
Herzlia Weizmann Primary. The
French School of Cape Town opened on 14 October 2014 after an R18m upgrade of the old
Tafelberg Remedial School
Tafelberg School is an English medium Grade 1–12 public school in Bothasig, Cape Town, South Africa which offers remedial activities for children with special learning needs. The school was located in Sea Point before mid–2010. As of 2014, ...
.
[McCain, Nicole.]
SEA POINT WELCOMING THE FRENCH
" ''People's Post
People's, branded as ''People's Viennaline'' until May 2018, and legally ''Altenrhein Luftfahrt GmbH'', is an Austrian airline headquartered in Vienna. It operates scheduled and charter passenger flights mainly from its base at St. Gallen-Altenr ...
''. 13 February 2014. Retrieved on 22 January 2015. The primary school campus of the French school is in Sea Point.
History
Some of the first settlers in the area were the aristocratic Protestant Le Sueur family from Bayeux in Normandy. François Le Sueur arrived in 1739 as spiritual advisor to Cape Governor
Hendrik Swellengrebel
Hendrik Swellengrebel (Cape Town, 20 September 1700 – Utrecht, 26 December 1760) was the first and only Dutch East India Company governor of the Dutch Cape Colony who was born in the Cape.
Life
Swellengrebel was governor from 14 April 1739 ...
. The family's Cape estate, Winterslust, originally covered 200 acres on the slopes of Signal Hill. The estate was later named Fresnaye, and now forms part of the suburbs of Sea Point and Fresnaye.
Sea Point got its name in 1767 when one of the commanders serving under Captain Cook, Sam Wallis, encamped his men in the area to avoid a smallpox epidemic in Cape Town at the time. It grew as a residential suburb in the early 1800s, and in 1839 was merged into a single municipality with neighbouring Green Point. The 1875 census indicated that Sea Point and
Green Point jointly had a population of 1,425. By 1904 it stood at 8,839.
With the 1862 opening of the Sea Point tramline, the area became Cape Town's first "commuter suburb", though the line linked initially to Camps Bay. At the turn of the century, the tramline was augmented by the Metropolitan and Suburban Railway Company, which added a line to the City Centre.
During the 1800s, Sea Point's development was dominated by the influence of its most famous resident, the liberal parliamentarian and MP for Cape Town,
Saul Solomon
Saul Solomon (25 May 1817 – 16 October 1892) was an influential liberal politician of the Cape Colony, a British colony in what is now South Africa. Solomon was an important member of the movement for responsible government and an opponent o ...
. Solomon was both the founder of the
Cape Argus
The ''Cape Argus'' is a daily newspaper co-founded in 1857 by Saul Solomon and published by Sekunjalo in Cape Town, South Africa. It is commonly referred to as ''The Argus''.
Although not the first English-language newspaper in South Africa ...
and the most influential liberal in the country - constantly fighting racial inequality in the Cape. His Round Church (St John's) of 1878 reflected his syncretic approach to religion - housing 4 different religions in its walls, which were rounded to avoid "denominational corners". "Solomon's Temple", as it was humorously known by residents, stood on its triangular traffic island at the intersection of Main, Regent, and Kloof roads, a centre of the Sea Point community, until it was destroyed by the city council in the 1930s.
The suburb was later classed by the Apartheid regime as a whites-only area, but this rapidly changed in the late 1990s with a rapid growth of Sea Point's black and coloured communities.
Ships entering the harbour in Table Bay from the east coast of Africa have to round the coast at Sea Point and over the years many of them have been wrecked on the reefs just off-shore. In May 1954, during a great storm, the ''Basuto Coast'' (246 tonnes) ended up on the rocks within a few metres of the concrete wall of the promenade. A fireman who came to the assistance of the crew was swept off the wall of the swimming pool adjacent to the promenade by waves and was never seen again. The vessel was soon thereafter salvaged for scrap. In July 1966 a large cargo ship, the ''S.A. Seafarer'', was stranded on the rocks only a couple of hundred metres from the Three Anchor Bay beach. The stranding was the cause of one of Cape Town's earliest great environmental scares, owing to the cargo including drums of tetramethyl lead and
tetraethyl lead
Tetraethyllead (commonly styled tetraethyl lead), abbreviated TEL, is an organolead compound with the formula Pb( C2H5)4. It is a fuel additive, first being mixed with gasoline beginning in the 1920s as a patented octane rating booster that all ...
, volatile and highly toxic compounds that in those days were added to motor fuels as an
anti-knocking agent. The ship was gradually destroyed by the huge swells that habitually roll in from the south Atlantic. Salvage from the ship can still be found in local antique shops.
In the mid to late 1990s, the area experienced a rise in crime as drug dealers and prostitutes moved into the area. However, due to the aggressive adoption of
broken windows
Broken may refer to:
Literature
* ''Broken'' (Armstrong novel), a 2006 novel by Kelley Armstrong in the ''Women of the Otherworld'' series
* ''Broken'' (Slaughter novel), a 2010 novel by Karin Slaughter
Music Albums
* ''Broken (And Oth ...
municipal management spearheaded by then area councillor
Jean-Pierre Smith, the crime rate declined throughout most of the 2000s.
On the morning of 20 January 2003, nine men were killed in a brutal attack at the
Sizzler's massage parlour in Sea Point.
Sea Point forms part of Ward 54 in
The City Of Cape Town, and is represented by
Democratic Alliance councillor Nicola Jowell.
File:Camps Bay, Cape Town and Sea Point Electric Tramways map - ca. 1906.jpg, Early map of Sea Point and its infrastructure, c. 1906
File:Cape 1st Class (4-4-0T) 1875 no. 4.jpg, Cape 1st Class (4-4-0T) 1875 no. 4
File:Round Church or Solomons Temple - Sea Point Cape Town - 1906.jpg, Round Church or Solomons Temple, 1906
File:1 Saul Solomon - Cape Politician CT.jpg, Saul Solomon, Cape Town politician
File:Graaf's Pool, Sea Point, Cape Town.jpg, Graaff's Pool in 2020, shot on Kodak Ektar 100
Notable people
*
John Whitmore, surfer, surfboard shaper, radio presenter, Springbok surfing team manager, Hobie Cat King, knifemaker
*
Anthony Sher
Sir Antony Sher (14 June 1949 – 2 December 2021) was a British actor, writer and theatre director of South African origin. A two-time Laurence Olivier Award winner and a four-time nominee, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1982 a ...
, actor and writer.
*
Sally Little
Sally Little (born 12 October 1951) is a South African-born professional golfer. She became a member of the LPGA Tour in 1971 and won 15 LPGA Tour events, including two major championship, during her career. In 2016, she became the first female ...
, professional golfer.
*
Saul Solomon
Saul Solomon (25 May 1817 – 16 October 1892) was an influential liberal politician of the Cape Colony, a British colony in what is now South Africa. Solomon was an important member of the movement for responsible government and an opponent o ...
, liberal Cape politician.
*
Colin Eglin
Colin Wells Eglin (14 April 1925 – 29 November 2013) was a South African politician best known for having served as national leader of the opposition from 1977–79 and 1986–87. He represented Sea Point in the South African Parliament from 19 ...
, politician.
*
Gerry Brand
Gerhard Hamilton Brand (8 October 1906 – 4 February 1996) was a Springbok rugby union footballer who played in 16 tests between 1928 and 1938. Brand has been described as the best kicker of his era, as well as a "magnificent defensive player" ...
,
Springboks
The South Africa national rugby union team, commonly known as the Springboks (colloquially the Boks, Bokke or Amabokoboko), is the country's national team governed by the South African Rugby Union. The Springboks play in green and gold jersey ...
rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...
footballer.
*
David Rosen (artist)
David Grant Rosen (26 November 1959 – 3 March 2014) was a South African fashion designer and artist. Trained as a Painting, painter, he is known primarily for his political fashion, art and activism, from his anti-apartheid designs in the 19 ...
, fashion designer and artist.
*
Bob Newson, cricketer.
*
Karen Press
Karen Press (born 1956) is a South African poet and translator.
She was born in Cape Town, and lives in Sea Point, Cape Town, Sea Point. Press is a full-time writer and editor, having published ten collections of poetry, a film script, short sto ...
, poet.
*
Jacobus Arnoldus Graaff
Sir Jacobus Arnoldus Combrinck Graaff (4 March 1863 – 5 April 1927), also known as 'Sir James', was a South African cabinet minister, Senator, businessman, and South African Party whip.
Jacobus Graaff, younger brother of Sir David Graaff, w ...
, businessman and politician.
*
Louise Smit writer of popular South African television shows, Wielie Walie and Haas Das.
*
Arno Carstens
Arno Carstens (born 12 March 1972) is a South African musician and artist.
Career
Arno Carstens is a platinum selling, award-winning singer-songwriter based in Cape Town, South Africa.
During his career as the lead singer of The Springbok Nu ...
singer-songwriter.
*
Ben Trovato satirist, columnist
*
Darrel Bristow-Bovey, writer
*
Kevin Atkinson, artist
*
Hein Wicht, writer (Hein's family home was "Spieka" at 3 Victoria rd which was named after the German village his great grandfather emigrated from, built in Victorian style and gifted by his grandfather to his father. Grandfather owned older "Mermaid Cottage" which was later re christened "Rapallo". An apartment block of the same name now occupies the space in Beach road, Sea Point.)
*
Allison Foat ballerina turned publicist and travel journalist
Coat of arms
The Green and Sea Point municipal council assumed a coat of arms in 1901.
[Western Cape Archives : Green and Sea Point Municipal Minutes (10 July 1901).] The shield was divided vertically, one half depicting signal masts on Signal Hill, the other a golden lion's head, shoulders and forepaws; in the centre, near the top, was a small blue shield displaying three anchors. An imperial crown was placed above the shield.
[Murray. M. (1964). ''Under Lion's Head''.] The coat of arms has been incorporated into the emblem of the Metropolitan Golf Club
References
External links
The Wreck of the S.A. ''Seafarer''Lance Real Estate Sea Point Property Review
{{Cape Town, communities
Jews and Judaism in Cape Town
Orthodox Jewish communities
Orthodox Judaism in South Africa
Suburbs of Cape Town