Green Point () is an affluent suburb on the Atlantic Seaboard 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 ...

, South Africa, located to the north west of the central business district. It is home to

Cape Town Stadium The Cape Town Stadium (; ; known until 2025 as the DHL Stadium for sponsorship reasons) is an association football (soccer) and rugby union stadium in Cape Town, South Africa, that was built as part of the country's hosting of the 2010 FIFA World ...

, a major sporting venue that was built for the

2010 FIFA World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

. Sea Point promenade runs through the suburb, connecting it to Three Anchor Bay and

Sea Point Sea Point (Afrikaans: ''Seepunt'') is an affluent and densely populated suburb of Cape Town, situated in the Western Cape, between Signal Hill and the Atlantic Ocean, a few kilometres to the west of Cape Town's Central Business District (CBD). M ...

, a popular

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

neighbourhood. Somerset Road forms the main thoroughfare lined by restaurants, cafés, delis, boutiques and nightclubs.

History

The area was originally a flat coastal plain to the fore of Signal Hill and included several dunes. Earlier maps also describe the area as the site of a “ hottentot village”. The inhabitants are believed to have been descendants of the

Khoisan Khoisan ( ) or () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for the various Indigenous peoples of Africa, indigenous peoples of Southern Africa who traditionally speak non-Bantu languages, combining the Khoekhoen and the San people, Sān peo ...

and they would have farmed on Green Point Common before the arrival of European settlers. The Common became a grazing area for the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered company, chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States Ge ...

and the area was then known as “Waterplaats” (waterfront) by Dutch settlers. The Dutch made an unsuccessful attempt to construct a mole into

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

to protect the anchorage. This was funded through tax levies and the work was completed by slaves, convicts and employees of the Dutch East India Company. However, the mole was battered and destroyed by Atlantic Sea storms.A DESKTOP SPECIALIST ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE REMAINDER ERF 1056 GREEN POINT: CAPE TOWN STADIUM AND GRANGER BAY PRECINCT
SAHRA. April 2014 In response to the arrival of a British fleet in Simonstown, the Dutch built an

artillery battery In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit or multiple systems of artillery, mortar systems, rocket artillery, multiple rocket launchers, surface-to-surface missiles, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, etc., so grouped to f ...

on a hill in the suburb. Following the British conquest of the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony (), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope. It existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with three ...

in 1795, the city expanded towards Green Point owing to the development of the harbour and increases in both commerce and population. Horse racing flourished under the British, becoming a popular past time on the Common, with the African Turf Club established in 1797. In 1859, Cape Governor, Sir

George Grey Sir George Grey, KCB (14 April 1812 – 19 September 1898) was a British soldier, explorer, colonial administrator and writer. He served in a succession of governing positions: Governor of South Australia, twice Governor of New Zealand, Gov ...

lay the foundation stone for Somerset Hospital, which opened in the area in 1864. It is now a provincial heritage site. In 1889, a railway line ran through Green Point that connected Cape Town and

. The privately-owned railway came under the control of

Cape Government Railways The Cape Government Railways (CGR) was the government-owned railway operator in the Cape Colony from 1874 until the creation of the South African Railways (SAR) in 1910. History Private railways The first railways at the Cape were privately ow ...

in 1905. The line was eventually closed and the tracks were raised in 1929. During the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic and ...

, the Common was home to temporary bungalows that housed British and colonial troops. The area of the Common used for horse racing was filled with tents to house

Boer Boers ( ; ; ) are the descendants of the proto Afrikaans-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controlled the Dutch ...

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

that were to be deported to

Saint Helena Saint Helena (, ) is one of the three constituent parts of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, a remote British overseas territory. Saint Helena is a volcanic and tropical island, located in the South Atlantic Ocean, some 1,874 km ...

Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...

and

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. During

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

, Green Point was designated as a “whites-only” area as part 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 syste ...

. Steve Bloom, a photographer known for his portraits of apartheid, lived locally in the 1970s and captured life under apartheid in the suburb. However, pockets of non-white residents lived in the suburb during this period. In the 1980s it was known as a “grey area”, a term used for racially-mixed residential neighbourhoods during apartheid.A backstreet that’s shedding its skin
Vrye Weekblad. 8 September 2023

opened in 2010 in time for the

, it largely replaced the previous Green Point Stadium. Green Point Common, also known as Green Point Urban Park & Biodiversity Garden is today a focal attraction in the area and has an indigenous garden with local vegetation species. Since 2017, Helen Bowden Nurses' Home in Green Point has been a flashpoint for the Reclaim The City movement and debates over affordable housing in the area.

Transportation

The suburb is served by the MyCiTi bus rapid transit system. The 108 and 109 lines take passengers to

Hout Bay Hout Bay (, meaning "Wood Bay") is a seaside suburb of Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is situated in a valley on the Atlantic seaboard of the Cape Peninsula, twenty kilometres south of the Central business district of ...

V&A Waterfront The V&A Waterfront, often referred to as The Waterfront and The V&A, is a mixed-use suburb in Cape Town, South Africa, featuring upmarket residential apartments, a major shopping mall, a marina, and multiple large hotels. The Waterfront sit ...

and

Adderley Street Adderley Street is a street in the Cape Town CBD, central business district (CBD) of Cape Town, South Africa. It is considered the main street of the area. The street bisects the CBD. It runs from the Parliament of South Africa at the north, pa ...

in downtown Cape Town.

Houses of worship

* Temple Israel, a

Reform Jewish Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal Judaism or Progressive Judaism, is a major Jewish denomination that emphasizes the evolving nature of Judaism, the superiority of its ethical aspects to its ceremonial ones, and belief in a continuous rev ...

congregation on Upper Portswood Road, affiliated with the South African Union for Progressive Judaism * The Marais Road Shul, formally known as the Green & Sea Point Hebrew Congregation, an

Orthodox Jewish Orthodox Judaism is a collective term for the traditionalist branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as literally revealed by God on Mount Sinai and faithfully tra ...

congregation on Marais Road, Sea Point that also serves the Green Point community. In 1994 it had the largest Jewish congregation in the Southern Hemisphere.Mandela Visits Cape Town Shul and Reassures Jews on Their Future
Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 10 May 1994 *Sacred Heart, a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

church on Somerset Road & Napier Street *St Margaret Mary, a

church on Cheviot Place Road

Education

*Reddam House, an

independent school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

serving pupils age 1 through to Grade 12 on Cavalcade Road Green Point families are also served by nearby schools in Sea Point and Three Anchor Bay; * Herzlia Weizmann Primary, an independent

primary school in Sea Point * Cape Town French School, a French international school, with a primary school campus in Sea Point *Ellerton Primary School, a public primary school in Three Anchor Bay *Sea Point High School, a co-educational public high school in Sea Point

Gallery

File:Green Point - Cape Town - Boer War - Transit Camp.jpg, Green Point Common used as prisoner of war transit camp for

prisoners during the

File:Somerset Hospital Cape Town.jpg, Somerset Hospital built in 1864 File:Lake in Green Point Park with Signal Hill and Lions Head in the background.jpg, Pond in Green Point Park with Signal Hill and Lion's Head in the background. File:Stepping stone bridge in Green Point Park.jpg, Stepping stone bridge in Green Point Park. File:Lake in Green Point Park.jpg, Pond in Green Point Park.

References

{{Cape Town, communities Suburbs of Cape Town