Parow is the

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

of the

City of Cape Town The City of Cape Town (; ) is a Metropolitan municipality (South Africa), metropolitan municipality that forms the metropolitan municipality (South Africa), local government of Cape Town and surrounding areas. As of 2022 it has a population of ...

in the

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

, South Africa and a Northern Suburb of the

City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality The City of Cape Town (; ) is a metropolitan municipality that forms the local government of Cape Town and surrounding areas. As of 2022 it has a population of 4,772,846. History Cape Town first received local self-government in 1839, wit ...

founded by Johann Heinrich Ferdinand Parow who arrived in the locality in 1865.

History

During a great storm in

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 ...

in 1865, 19 ships were stranded. Amongst the many

schooner A schooner ( ) is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel defined by its Rig (sailing), rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more Mast (sailing), masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than t ...

s was the ''Kehrwieder'', the ship of Captain Johann Heinrich Ferdinand Parow. After being stranded, Captain Parow settled down in the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( ) is a rocky headland on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A List of common misconceptions#Geography, common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Afri ...

and married Johanna Wilhelmina Timmerman, the daughter of the family that helped Captain Parow after being stranded on the Cape coast. Parow quickly realised the potential value of the Tyger Valley area north of Cape Town and that the area held great opportunities for cattle trade. Captain Parow soon moved inland to this area and started selling ground in the area which is today known as Parow, which built up a great deal of wealth for the captain. Parow died on 4 December 1910, in his house in Cassibelle, Maitland. His wife, JW Timmerman, died ten years prior. They did not have any children. Captain Parow's telescope is in the Town Hall of Parow.

Modern day

A village management board was established for Parow in 1902. It was upgraded to a municipality in 1939. The municipality was incorporated into the City of Tygerberg in 1996. The Parow valley was included in the Cape Town municipal land area in 1944. During the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, Parow was largely transforming into a commercial area, with many shopping centres opening around Voortrekker road, one of the longest roads in Cape Town. With the extreme political struggle of apartheid in the 1980s and the advent of democracy in the 1990s, Parow's popularity started to decline and many of its higher income population moved further north. In 2005 Parow became the headquarters for the

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

n division of the International Alliance of

Guardian Angels A guardian angel is a type of angel that is assigned to protect and guide a particular person, group or nation. Belief in tutelary beings can be traced throughout all antiquity. The idea of angels that guard over people played a major role i ...

, the world's oldest and largest volunteer public safety patrol organisation. Sports and other events are sometimes held in Parow Civic Centre. Professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club Cape Town Spurs F.C. is based in Parow. JSE listed retail group The Foschini Group are headquartered in Parow, adjadent to the Parow Centre (formerly the

Sanlam Sanlam Limited is a South African financial services group headquartered in Bellville, Western Cape, South Africa. Sanlam is one of the largest insurance companies in Africa. It is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Namibian Stock ...

Centre).

Area

Parow consists of the following areas: Ravensmead, Florida, Beaconvale, Cravenby, Parow Valley, Klipkop, Parow, Parow East, Oostersee, Fairfield Estate, Glenlily, Churchill Estate, Clamhall, Avondale, De Tijger, Parow North,

Panorama A panorama (formed from Greek language, Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any Obtuse angle, wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography (panoramic photography), film, seismic image ...

, Plattekloof, Welgelegen, Parow Industria

Economy

The Foschini Group,

Pepkor Pepkor is a South African-based investment and holding company focused on the discount and value consumer retail and fintech markets. The majority of operations are in South Africa, and operations extend to other African countries and Brazil. It ...

, Coca-Cola Peninsula Beverages and De Haan's Bus & Coach are all based within the Parow district.

Education

The Parow Satellite Campus (Zweigstelle Parow) of the German International School Cape Town is in Parow.Location of School
( ). German International School Cape Town. Retrieved on August 8, 2015. Address: "Parow North Recreation Centre De Grendel Road, Parow
Directions in German

Parow MapArchive
. It serves German-speaking students up to grade 4 and is in proximity to

Tygerberg Tygerberg is a district in the northern suburbs of Cape Town in South Africa. It is also the name of the range of hills in the area. The main Tygerberg farms were Pampoenkraal (became Durbanville), Stellenburgh (became part of Bellville), Eve ...

.Satellite Campus in Tygerberg/Parow
( ). German International School Cape Town. Retrieved on August 8, 2015
Page in German
The University of South Africa is also situated as a regional campus in Parow, and serves as a satellite campus for university, sitting in Pretoria.

.

Primary schools

* Parow East Primary School * Parow North Primary School * Parow West Primary School * Saffier Primary * De Tyger Primary

Secondary schools

* Tygerberg High School * Parow High School

Tertiary institutions

*University of South Africa (Regional Campus)

Coat of arms

Parow was a municipality from 1939 to 1996. The town council assumed a coat of arms, designed by W.H. Armstrong & Co, on 30 November 1939.Western Cape Archives : Parow Municipal Minutes (30 November 1939). It had them improved by

Ivan Mitford-Barberton Ivan Mitford-Barberton (1896–1976) was a South African sculptor, writer and authority on heraldry. Early life and education Mitford-Barberton was born in Somerset East, in Cape Colony, in 1896. He was a descendant of several 1820 Settler ...

in 1955, registered them with the Cape Provincial Administration in July 1955,Cape of Good Hope ''Official Gazette'' 2764 (1 July 1955). had them granted by the provincial administrator in June 1967,Cape of Good Hope ''Official Gazette'' 3408 (16 June 1967). and registered them at the Bureau of Heraldry in September 1969.http://www.national.archives.gov.za/ The original arms were: ''Gules, on a pale Or, three fleurs de lis Azure'' (i.e. a red shield displaying three blue fleurs de lis on a vertical gold stripe down the middle). The crest was a fleur de lis between a pair of wings; the supporters were a gemsbok and a lion; and the motto was ''Caute sed strenue''. In the revised version, used from 1955, the shield was gold, the vertical stripe blue and the fleurs de lis silver.

References

External links

Parow directoryHistory of Parow from old 8mm movie
{{Authority control Suburbs of Cape Town