Athlone is a suburb of
Cape Town
Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...
located to the east of the
city centre
A city centre, also known as an urban core, is the Commerce, commercial, Culture, cultural and often the historical, Politics, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely e ...
on the
Cape Flats, south of the
N2 highway. Two of the suburb's main landmarks are
Athlone Stadium and the decommissioned coal-burning
Athlone Power Station. Athlone is mainly residential and is served by a railway station of the same name. It however includes industrial (Athlone Industria 1 & 2) and commercial zones (Athlone CBD and Gatesville). There are many "sub-areas" within Athlone, including Gatesville, Rylands, Belgravia Estate, Bridgetown and Hazendal. Colloquially other areas around Athlone are also often included in the greater Athlone area even though the City of Cape Town might classify them as separate neighborhoods such as
Rondebosch East,
Crawford, and
Manenberg.
History
Originally known as West London the area was renamed Athlone after
Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone
Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone (Alexander Augustus Frederick William Alfred George; born Prince Alexander of Teck; 14 April 1874 – 16 January 1957), was a member of the extended British royal family, as a great-grandson of King Georg ...
who was Governor-General of the
Union of South Africa
The Union of South Africa (; , ) was the historical predecessor to the present-day South Africa, Republic of South Africa. It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the British Cape Colony, Cape, Colony of Natal, Natal, Tra ...
from 1924 to 1930.
In 1946 the area was designated a
coloured residential area. By 1948 more than 6000 black residents had been removed from Athlone and were settled in
Nyanga. Many of these residents were Xhosa-speaking dock workers in the city's shores. Years later, black residents in
District Six were forcibly removed and were relocated to
Gugulethu
Gugulethu is a township in Western Cape, South Africa and is around 20km from Cape Town. Its name is a contraction of ''igugu lethu'', which is Xhosa for ''our pride / our hope.'' The area was the third township to be established in Cape Town, a ...
between 1959 and 1964.
Athlone is the home of the Trojan Horse Memorial, a reminder of the
Trojan Horse Incident which took place in 1985, when three
anti-apartheid protesters were killed and fifteen others wounded in a police ambush. The incident took place near the
Alexander Sinton Secondary School where students had demanded to attend school the month before.
The Athlone Magistrate’s court is the home of the Robert Waterwitch / Colleen Williams Memorial established in memory of two
ANC activists who died in the struggle against apartheid. Waterwitch and Williams died an explosion outside of the court on 23 July 1989.
Demographics
As of the census
of 2001, there were 11,556 households and 45,056 people residing in the suburb. The racial makeup of the suburb was 3.21%
Black African
Black is a racial 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 dark skin and ofte ...
, 69.66%
Coloured, 23.45%
Indian/Asian, 3.68%
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
and 0% from other races.
The suburb population age varies with 28.38% under the age of 18, 28.37% from 18 to 34, 26.53% from 35 to 54, 8.04% from 55 to 64, and 8.66% who were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 women there were 86.53 males.
82.58% of the population speak
English, 15.18% speak
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...
, 1.13% speak
Xhosa, 0.52% speak another African language and 0.59% some other language as a first language.
[
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Education
Primary Schools
Athlone North Primary, Regina Cloie Primary, Silverlea Primary, Blossom Primary, Bridgeville Primary, Kewtown Primary, Alicedale Primary, Heatherdale Primary, Turfhall Primary, Cypruss Primary, St Raphaels Primary and Rylands Primary, Sunnyside Primary,
High Schools
Spes Bona High, Ned Doman High, Alexander Sinton High, Athlone High, Peak View High, Bridgetown High, Rylands High and Belgravia High
Higher Education
College of Cape Town Athlone Campus and College of Cape Town Crawford Campus
Organisations in Athlone
The Anti-Eviction Campaign and the Gatesville Hawkers Association have a strong presence with many members in Athlone. There are many neighbourhood watches in the Athlone area, including Rylands Neighbourhood Watch, Surrey Patrol, Greenhaven Crime Watch and Habibia Neighbourhood Watch.
Athlone Power Station
The decommissioned Athlone Power Station is situated alongside the N2. The cooling towers, commonly referred to as the "Athlone Towers", were demolished on 22 August 2010.
References
External links
Athlone, Cape Town, South Africa
Athlone protest archives
{{Authority control
Suburbs of Cape Town
Former Coloured townships in South Africa