The Southern Suburbs are a group of

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separ ...

s in

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 ...

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 202 ...

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 coun ...

. This group includes, among others, Observatory, Mowbray, Pinelands, Thornton, Rosebank, Rondebosch,

Rondebosch East Rondebosch East is a residential suburb of Cape Town, South Africa, about south-east of the city centre. As the name suggests, it is located to the east of the neighbouring suburb of Rondebosch. it had a population of approximately 4,600 people ...

Newlands Newlands may refer to: Places Australia * Newlands, Queensland, a locality in the Whitsunday Region New Zealand * Newlands, Wellington, a suburb of Wellington South Africa * Newlands, Cape Town, a suburb of Cape Town * Newlands, Johannesbu ...

, Claremont, Lansdowne,

Kenilworth Kenilworth ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Warwick District in Warwickshire, England, south-west of Coventry, north of Warwick and north-west of London. It lies on Finham Brook, a tributary of the River Sowe, which joins the ...

, Bishopscourt, Constantia, Wynberg, Ottery, Plumstead, Diep River, Bergvliet and Tokai.

Tourism

The Southern Suburbs has many popular tourist attractions and Public Spaces. Kirstenbosch Gardens The

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden Kirstenbosch is an important botanical garden nestled at the eastern foot of Table Mountain in Cape Town. The garden is one of 10 National Botanical Gardens covering five of South Africa's six different biomes and administered by the South A ...

is one of the oldest botanical gardens in South Africa, and is situated along the Eastern Slopes of Table Mountain in the suburb of Bishopscourt. There are many unique flower species in this garden that are not to be found anywhere else in the world. Rhodes Memorial The

Rhodes Memorial The Rhodes Memorial on Devil's Peak in Cape Town, South Africa, is a memorial to the English-born South African politician Cecil John Rhodes (1853–1902). The memorial was designed by the renowned architect, Sir Herbert Baker. Location The me ...

is a popular tourist attraction on the slopes of Devil's Peak in the suburb of Rondebosch. This memorial commemorates a former British South African Politician Cecil John Rhodes. This memorial is nearby to the University of Cape Town. Newlands Forest

Newlands Forest Newlands Forest is a conservancy area on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain, beside the suburb of Newlands, Cape Town. It is owned and maintained by the Table Mountain National Parks Board, along with the City Parks Department of Cape Town, a ...

is a popular forest along the slopes of Table Mountain at

. It includes many hiking trails and braai area. Ruins of the old “Paradise” estate where

Lady Anne Barnard Lady Anne Barnard (née Lindsay; 8 December 17506 May 1825) was a Scottish travel writer, artist and socialite, and the author of the ballad '' Auld Robin Gray''. Her five-year residence in Cape Town, South Africa, although brief, had a signif ...

lived for a portion of her stay in Cape Town lay deep within this forest. Golf There are a few

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

courses in the Southern Suburbs. Golf courses in the region include “King David Mowbray golf club” in Mowbray, Rondebosch golf course, “Royal Cape golf club” in Ottery and the ”Steenberg golf club.” Arderne Gardens

Arderne Gardens Arderne Gardens is a public park and arboretum in Claremont, Cape Town, located in the Western Cape of South Africa. It was established by in 1845 by Ralph Henry Arderne, a timber merchant originally from Cheshire, England. In 1979, the park ...

is a public park and arboretum tucked away from the busy Main Road in Claremont. It was established in 1845 and is a popular venue for wedding photographs. The focus of the Arderne Gardens is the cultivation of exotic species.

History

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, the Southern Suburbs were predominantly " whites only" residential areas.

Geography

Cape Town's Southern Suburbs lie to the Southeast of the slopes of Table Mountain within rich valleys and vast plains reaching from just south of the

Table Bay Table Bay (Afrikaans: ''Tafelbaai'') is a natural bay on the Atlantic Ocean overlooked by Cape Town (founded 1652 by Van Riebeeck) and is at the northern end of the Cape Peninsula, which stretches south to the Cape of Good Hope. It was named b ...

industrial neighbourhoods in the north to the False Bay coastal suburbs and the

Cape Peninsula The Cape Peninsula ( af, Kaapse Skiereiland) is a generally mountainous peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean at the south-western extremity of the African continent. At the southern end of the peninsula are Cape Point and the Ca ...

cliffs to the south, and are crossed North-South by the M3 and M5 freeways. In general, this area is identified as being the more affluent of the Cape Town Metropolis' sections and includes some of the city's most expensive residential neighbourhoods.

Commerce

The suburb of Claremont is an important commercial hub in the Southern Suburbs and is the location of several shopping malls. Some of the well-known malls include Cavendish Square and Stadium on Main.

Demographics

The majority of the Southern Suburbs' just over 205,000 inhabitants (as of 2011) is

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 ...

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 ...

-speaking.

Education

The Southern Suburbs offers many good public and private primary and high schools, and also some of the finest in the country. Most of these schools are found in Rondebosch, Newlands, Claremont and Wynberg. List of High Schools: • Rustenburg Girls’ High School •

Rondebosch Boys High School Rondebosch Boys' High School is a public English medium high school for boys situated in the suburb of Rondebosch in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is one of the topmost academic schools in South Africa and one of t ...

• Westerford High School • Groote Schuur High School • South African College High Schools • Bishops Diocesan College • San Souci Girls’ High School • Livingstone High School • Windsor High School • Herschel Girls Secondary School for girls • Wynberg Boys’ High School • Wynberg Girls’ High School List of Primary Schools: • Rustenberg Girls’ Junior School •Oakhurst Girls’ Primary School •Groote Schuur Primary School •Mickelfield School for Girls •Golden Grove Primary School • South African College Junior School • Grove Primary School •Greenfield Girls’ Primary School • Herschel Girls Preparatory School •Wynberg Boys’ Junior School •Wynberg Girls’ Junior School •Constantia Primary School The Southern Suburbs are very popular among University students, especially between Woodstock and Wynberg, due to their proximity to the University of Cape Town. Other tertiary education institutions in the area include

Varsity College Varsity College is a primary and secondary school in Varsity Lakes, Queensland Varsity Lakes is a suburb in the City of Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. In the , Varsity Lakes had a population of 15,026 people. The suburb was origin ...

, AFDA, Cape Audio College, Damelin Mowbray, and The South African School of Applied Psychology.

Language

The Southern Suburbs is a predominantly English-speaking region of

whereas the Northern Suburbs is a predominantly Afrikaans-speaking region. The Northern Suburbs lie behind the 'Boerewors Curtain' which distincts between the

English-speaking Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the ''Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest language ...

Southern Suburbs and the Afrikaans-speaking Northern Suburbs.

Transport

One of the most well-known roads in the Southern Suburbs is the historic Main Road, which starts 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 ...

and goes through Observatory, Mowbray, Rondebosch, Newlands, Claremont, Kenilworth, Wynberg, Plumstead, Diep River, Bergvliet, Muizenberg, and then onwards to

Simon's Town Simon's Town ( af, Simonstad), sometimes spelled Simonstown, is a town in the Western Cape, South Africa and is home to Naval Base Simon's Town, the South African Navy's largest base. It is located on the shores of False Bay, on the eastern s ...

References

{{Cape Town suburbs