Crawford is a suburb 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 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 ...

, located to the east of the City Centre (CBD) on the

Cape Flats The Cape Flats ( af, Die Kaapse Vlakte) is an expansive, low-lying, flat area situated to the southeast of the central business district of Cape Town. The Cape Flats is also the name of an administrative region of the City of Cape Town, which lie ...

to the south of the N2 highway. The suburb is surrounded by the suburbs of

Lansdowne Lansdowne or Lansdown may refer to: People * Lansdown Guilding (1797–1831), Saint Vincent and the Grenadines naturalist and engraver *Fenwick Lansdowne (1937–2008), Canadian wildlife artist * George Granville, 1st Baron Lansdowne (1666–1735) ...

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 ...

Athlone Athlone (; ) is a town on the border of County Roscommon and County Westmeath, Ireland. It is located on the River Shannon near the southern shore of Lough Ree. It is the second most populous town in the Midlands Region with a population of ...

, Belthorn Estate, Rylands, and

Belgravia Belgravia () is a Districts of London, district in Central London, covering parts of the areas of both the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Belgravia was known as the 'Five Fields' Tudor Period, during the ...

. The main roads through the area are (north to south)

Jan Smuts Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, (24 May 1870 11 September 1950) was a South African statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various military and cabinet posts, he served as prime minister of the Union of South Af ...

Drive (M17) and (east to west) Turf Hall Road (M24) linking to the M5. Thornton Road was for many years the main thoroughfare for this suburb and a hotbed for anti-apartheid activity in 1976 and 1985. Thornton Road is the location of the Trojan Horse Memorial in honour of those killed in 1985. Crawford is served by a railway station of the same name on the

Cape Flats Line The Cape Flats Line is a commuter rail line in Cape Town, South Africa, operated by Metrorail Western Cape. It connects central Cape Town with the suburbs of Pinelands, Athlone, Lansdowne, Ottery and Retreat. Route The Cape Flats Line servic ...

. Crawford is the home of

City Park Stadium City Park Stadium is a soccer specific-stadium located in New Rochelle, New York. The official name of the stadium is "Skidelsky Field at City Park Stadium". Its main tenant is the Westchester Flames FC soccer club who play in USL League Two ...

, home of the historic City and Suburban Rugby Football Union where a number of well-known Cape Flats rugby union teams played, including Universal Rugby Football Club, Progress, Perseverance and others. City Park also hosted the annual City Fair and for some time was the location for the annual Christmas Band competition. Baseball and softball were also played there during the summer months. More than thirty thousand people attended the funeral of Imam Abdullah Haron in Crawford. He had been arrested by the apartheid security police just after he had led the al-Jaami'a Masjid Milad al-Nabi celebrations on 12 Rabi al-Auwal 1389AH (28 May 1969); and was held under Section 6(1) of the Terrorism Act of 1967 until his death on Saturday, 27 September 1969. In November 1998

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...

was a guest speaker at Crawford's

College of Cape Town College of Cape Town (CCT), is a public TVET College located in Cape Town, South Africa, in the province of Western Cape, and it mainly serves students from the Southern Suburbs, Northern Suburbs region, along with Klipfontein District. The co ...

, formerly Hewat Teachers' Training College, a landmark on the apartheid struggle map. He spoke to the residents of Athlone, custodians of the famous

Klipfontein Road MS ''Klipfontein'' was a Dutch ocean liner launched in March 1939 and delivered 29 July intended for South African service. Declaration of war in Europe, including Britain and South Africa declaring war on Germany, resulted in the ship being tran ...

, that had survived many of the suburb's

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 ...

altercations.

References

{{Cape Town suburbs Suburbs of Cape Town