Rondebosch is one of the Southern Suburbs 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 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 ...

. It is primarily a residential suburb, with shopping and business districts as well as the main campus of the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

History

Four years after the first Dutch settlement at the Cape in 1652, the first experimental crops were grown along the banks of the

Liesbeek River The Liesbeek River (also spelt Liesbeeck) is a river in Cape Town in South Africa. It is named after a small river in the Netherlands. The first "free burghers" of the Dutch East India Company were granted land to farm along the river in 1657, s ...

(at that stage called the Amstel or Versse Rivier). In October 1656,

Jan van Riebeeck Johan Anthoniszoon "Jan" van Riebeeck (21 April 1619 – 18 January 1677) was a Dutch navigator, ambassador and colonial administrator of the Dutch East India Company. Life Early life Jan van Riebeeck was born in Culemborg on 21 April ...

visited Rondeboschyn, whose name derived from a contraction of "''Ronde Doorn Bossien''," referring to a circular grove of thorn trees growing on the banks of the Liesbeek River. By 1670 the area's name had been shortened to "''Rondeboschje''" in 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 ...

's (VOC) records. In 1657, the first group of VOC employees gained free burgher status, four of whom were granted land along the river and founded " Stephen's Colony" in the area now known as Rondebosch. The first permanent title of land in southern Africa was issued, by Van Riebeeck, to the four free burghers of Rondebosch. The area only obtained recognition as a separate village or area of Cape Town after the 1830s. In 1864 the area was connected by railway upon the competition of the Cape Town to Wynberg line. By the time of the 1875 census Rondebosch had a recorded population of 1,902 residents. The 1891 census recorded a population of 3,378, and by the time of the 1904 Cape census the area had a total population of 6,035, of whom 4,312 were recorded as being literate. One of Cape Town's first municipal electricity stations was built in 1892 to supply power to the Rondebosch area, replacing the old oil street lamps with electric ones. On 4 May 1990 the '

Groote Schuur Minute The apartheid system in South Africa was ended through a series of bilateral and multi-party negotiations between 1990 and 1993. The negotiations culminated in the passage of a new interim Constitution in 1993, a precursor to the Constitution ...

’ was co-signed in Rondebosch by the then leader of the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...

, Nelson Mandela, and then

State President of South Africa The State President of the Republic of South Africa () was the head of state of South Africa from 1961 to 1994. The office was established when the country 1960 South African republic referendum, became a republic on 31 May 1961, outside the ...

, FW de Klerk, as a commitment to a peaceful negotiation process to end Apartheid. Thereby starting the process to peacefully transition to South Africa's modern democracy.

Geography

Rondebosch lies between the slopes of Devil's Peak in the west and the M5 freeway in the east; it is one of the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town, which lie along the eastern slope of the

Table Mountain Table Mountain (; ) is a flat-topped mountain forming a prominent landmark overlooking the city of Cape Town in South Africa. It is a significant tourist attraction, with many visitors using the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway, cableway or hik ...

massif. The suburb's western border with the

Table Mountain National Park Table Mountain National Park, previously known as the Cape Peninsula National Park, is a national park in Cape Town, South Africa, proclaimed on 29 May 1998, for the purpose of protecting the natural environment of the Table Mountain chain, and ...

is defined by the M3 freeway. To the north are the suburbs of Rosebank and Mowbray, while to the south are

Newlands Newlands may refer to: Places Australia * Newlands, Queensland, a locality in the Whitsunday Region * Newlands, Western Australia, a town in the Shire of Donnybrook–Balingup Ireland * Newlands Cross, Dublin, named after the former Newlands ...

and

Claremont Claremont may refer to: Places Australia *Claremont, Ipswich, a heritage-listed house in Queensland * Claremont, Tasmania, a suburb of Hobart * Claremont, Western Australia, a suburb of Perth * Town of Claremont, Perth * Claremont Airbase, an ...

. The eastern border of Rondebosch is the M5 freeway; beyond the freeway are Sybrand Park,

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

and

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

. The Southern Line railway divides Rondebosch in two; the only road within Rondebosch that crosses the railway is the Belmont Road bridge. Main Road (the M4) runs north-south through the area west of the railway, while Campground Road runs in the same direction east of the railway. The third north-south through route is Milner Road, further east close to the M5. The area around the intersection of Main Road and Belmont Road is Rondebosch's main commercial area, with several small shopping malls and two supermarkets. Also located in this area is Rondebosch railway station, which is the main public transport facility in the suburb. A smaller commercial area lies just to the east on the corner of Belmont and Campground Roads; there is also a row of shops along Belvedere Road in the southeastern part of the suburb. The rest of the suburb is used for educational and residential purposes, with the residential areas being generally denser further to the west where the influence of the

is felt. Two canalised streams run from the slopes of Table Mountain through Rondebosch; the Liesbeeck River runs northwards between Main Road and the railway, while the Black River runs in a northeasterly direction through the eastern part of the suburb. The terrain is generally flat east of the railway line, while to the west it slopes upwards towards Devil's Peak. The flower '' Erica turgida,'' was endemic in area between Rondebosch,

Kenilworth Kenilworth ( ) is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Warwick (district), Warwick District of Warwickshire, England, southwest of Coventry and north of both Warwick and Leamington Spa. Situated at the centre of t ...

and Wynberg before becoming extinct in the wild.

Landmarks

On the slopes of Devil's Peak above Rondebosch is the main campus of the

9 2 111 0110-The Woolsack-Rondebosch-Wynberg-s

The historic

Groote Schuur Groote Schuur (; ) is an estate in Cape Town, South Africa. In 1657, the estate was owned by the Dutch East India Company which used it partly as a granary. Later, the farm and farmhouse was sold into private hands. Groote Schuur was later acqu ...

estate in Rondebosch includes presidential and ministerial residences with Cape Dutch origins. The

building is the biggest, rebuilt by

Cecil Rhodes Cecil John Rhodes ( ; 5 July 185326 March 1902) was an English-South African mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. He and his British South Africa Company founded th ...

according to a design by

Herbert Baker Sir Herbert Baker (9 June 1862 – 4 February 1946) was an English architect remembered as the dominant force in South African architecture for two decades, and a major designer of some of New Delhi's most notable government structures. He was ...

after a fire in 1896. The presidential residence,

Genadendal Genadendal is a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa, built on the site of the oldest mission station in the country. It was originally known as Baviaanskloof, but was renamed Genadendal in 1806. Genadendal was the place of the firs ...

(formerly Westbrooke), also dates back to Cape Dutch times. "The Woolsack" is a historic house within the grounds of the University of Cape Town that is now used as student housing. Previously part of Cecil Rhodes's estate at Groote Schuur, it was frequently used by the famous British poet and author Ruyard Kipling when he used to visit Cape Town for his winter holidays between 1898 and 1908. The home of

Simon van der Stel Simon van der Stel (14 October 1639 – 24 June 1712) was the first Governor of the Dutch Cape Colony (1691), the settlement at the Cape of Good Hope. He was interested in botany, establishing vineyards Groot Constantia, Groot and Klein C ...

(first governor 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 ...

) is now part of

Rustenburg Junior School Rustenburg Girls' High School and Rustenburg Girls' Junior School are two separate state schools, public (fee-paying) schools with a shared history, originating in the suburb of Rondebosch in Cape Town, South Africa. Rustenburg was founded in 1 ...

. This building dates back to the 17th century, although it has undergone many alterations over the years. Its summer house, dating from 1760, remains as a monument just below the university. Other historic buildings in the area include the Rondebosch Town Hall, now occupied by the Rondebosch Library, and St. Paul's Church, which was designed by

Charles Collier Michell Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Collier Michell, Royal Guelphic Order, KH (29 March 1793 in Exeter – 28 March 1851 in Eltham, London), later known as Charles Cornwallis Michell, was a British soldier, first surveyor-general in the British Cape Colo ...

Rondebosch Common Rondebosch Common is an open common of about in Rondebosch, Cape Town in South Africa. A common is defined as "a piece of open land for public use, esp. in a village or town". It contains one of the few surviving pockets of the critically endange ...

, once a military campground, is a national monument and an important

fynbos Fynbos (; , ) is a small belt of natural shrubland or heathland vegetation located in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. The area is predominantly coastal and mountainous, with a Mediterranean climate. The fynbos ...

conservation area. The Baxter Theatre in Rondebosch is Cape Town's second biggest theatre complex, after the

Artscape Theatre Centre Artscape Theatre Centre (formerly Nico Malan Theatre Centre) is the main performing arts centre in Cape Town, South Africa. It was opened in 1971 and is located on reclaimed land in the Foreshore area. The inaugural performance was scheduled to ...

in the city centre.

Rondebosch Fountain

The_Fountain_Rondebosch_by_TD_Ravenscroft

The historic centre of Rondebosch is the Main Road, with the Victorian cast iron

Rondebosch Fountain Rondebosch Fountain is an ornamental Victorian architecture, Victorian drinking Watering trough, trough for horses, standing on a traffic island on the intersection between Belmont Road and Main Road in the centre of Rondebosch in Cape Town, South ...

being a historic landmark. Originally known as the Moodie Fountain, it was one of South Africa's first electric streetlights. It was built by the

Saracen Foundry Saracen Foundry, Possilpark, Glasgow The Saracen Foundry was the better-known name for the Possilpark, Glasgow-based foundry company W MacFarlane & Co. Ltd, founded and owned by Walter MacFarlane. MacFarlane's was the most important manufactur ...

in Glasgow and presented to the community by George Moodie as a gift in 1891. The lamp was first turned on, on 25 April 1892 and was initially powered by Moodie's private power plant until a municipal power plant on the Liesbeeck River was completed. The fountain was destroyed in a road accident in 2015 and rebuilt in 2020.

Government and politics

Rondebosch is in 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 ...

municipality, within the Protea Sub-Council (Sub-Council 20). The eastern part of the suburb is within

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

58 and the ward councillor is Dr Richard Hill, and the western part is in ward 59 with councillor Mikhail Manuel, both members of the Democratic Alliance. Rondebosch was the parliamentary seat of Sir

De Villiers Graaff Sir De Villiers Graaff, 2nd Baronet, (8 December 1913 – 4 October 1999) (first name De Villiers, surname De Graeff, Graaff) known as Div Graaff, was a South African politician who succeeded his father, Sir David Graaff, 1st Baronet, Sir David ...

, the leader of the opposition United Party, and later that of Frederik van Zyl Slabbert, leader of the opposition

Progressive Federal Party The Progressive Federal Party (PFP) () was a South African political party formed in 1977 through merger of the Progressive and Reform parties, eventually changing its name to the Progressive Federal Party. For its duration, it was the main parl ...

Education

The western part of Rondebosch is dominated by the main campus of the

. Rondebosch is also notable for a high density of schools. Originally the Rondebosch Town Hall the Rondebosch Public Library is a notable landmark in the neighbourhood.

Sports and recreation

Western Province Cricket Club is the largest sports facility in Rondebosch, catering for many different sports, including tennis and hockey. The University itself has facilities for most sports. Other facilities include Rondebosch Golf Club and Rygersdal Football Club. Next door to Rondebosch is Newlands, home to the

Newlands Stadium The Newlands Stadium is located in Cape Town, South Africa. The stadium has a capacity of 51,900 people, but is not an all-seater venue. Various sports teams used the stadium as their home base, including: * Stormers in Super Rugby * Wester ...

for rugby and soccer, and

Newlands Cricket Ground Newlands Cricket Ground is a cricket venue in Newlands, Cape Town. One of the oldest sporting stadiums in South Africa, the ground is owned by the Western Province Cricket Association (WPCA) and is the home of Western Province and MI Cape ...

. Parks in Rondebosch include

Keurboom Park Keurboom Park is a park in Rondebosch, Cape Town, in South Africa. It borders the and Rondebosch Boys' High School. It is named after the original Keurboom estate. It has two children's play areas within it, in addition to open air exercise equip ...

and Rondebosch Park.

is also a popular recreational park.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census, 14,591 people live in Rondebosch. 62.7% described themselves as "

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 ...

", 16.5% as "

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 ...

", 9.6% as "

Coloured Coloureds () are multiracial people in South Africa, Namibia and, to a smaller extent, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Their ancestry descends from the interracial mixing that occurred between Europeans, Africans and Asians. Interracial mixing in South ...

" and 6.1% as " Indian or Asian". The predominant language is English, which is the

first language A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period hypothesis, critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' ...

of 84.3% of the population. 7.6% 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 ...

and 1.8% speak

Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...

. In the second half of the 20th century (1950-1991), Rondebosch was a whites-only area in terms 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 ...

, an

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 ...

law that enforced segregation.

Notable residents

John Bardwell Ebden John Bardwell Ebden M.L.C. (9 April 1787 – 22 September 1873) was a businessman and politician of the Cape Colony. He dominated Cape Town commerce for over sixty years in the 19th century, and was an unofficial member of the Cape Legislative Co ...

(1787 - 1873), Cape businessman and political leader. *

Louise Juta Louise Leah Juta, born Louise (or Luise) Marx (14 November 1821 – 3 July 1893) was a German bookseller and the sister of communist philosopher Karl Marx. Life Louise Marx was the sixth child of Heinrich Marx, a lawyer, and Henriette P ...

(1821-1893), book seller and sister of

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

. * Charles William Hutton (1826-1905), Cape politician. * William Thorne (1839-1917), businessman and Cape politician. * Richard Brooke (1840–1926), clergyman. * Thomas Muir (1844-1934), mathematician. * Harriet Mason (1845-1932), song collector, botanical illustrator, plant collector, advocate, and author. * Walter Aubrey Kidd (1852–1929), physician and medical and zoological author. * Johannes Hendricus Meiring Beck (1855-1919), physician and politician. * Harry Scobell (1859-1912), soldier. * Ernest Glanville (1855-1925), short story writer and author. * William H. Andrews (1870-1950), union leader and politician. *

Arthur Howe-Browne Arthur Henry Howe Browne (16 October 1881 – 8 September 1961) was Anglican Diocese of the Free State, Bishop of Bloemfontein from 1935 to 1951. He was educated at Winchester College, Winchester and Balliol College, Oxford, Balliol, and o ...

(1881-1961), clergyman. * May Edginton (1883-1957), novelist and play-write. * Walter Michael Dickson (1884-1915), South African-Scottish rugby union footballer. *

Patric Curwen Patric Curwen (14 December 1884 – 31 May 1949) was a British stage and film actor. Biography Curwen, son of John Spencer Curwen of the music publishing company, and grandson of John Curwen, founder of the Tonic sol-fa system, was educated at Ab ...

(1884 – 1949), actor. * Harold Arthur Morris (1884–1977), soldier and electrical engineer. * Mary Agard Pocock (1886-1977),South African phycologist. *

Tuppy Owen-Smith Harold Geoffrey Owen Owen-Smith (18 February 1909 – 28 February 1990), known as Tuppy Smith, was a South African cricketer who played Test cricket for South Africa and a rugby player who played for and captained the England rugby union team. ...

(1909-1990), English rugby union footballer and cricketer. * Gabriel de Jongh (1913-2004), painter. *

Hector Macdonald Major-general (United Kingdom), Major-General Sir Hector Archibald MacDonald, (; 4 March 1853 – 25 March 1903), also known as Fighting Mac, was a British Army soldier. The son of a croft (land), crofter, MacDonald left school before he ...

(1915-2011), judge. * Hazlitt Beatty (d.1916), railway engineer and manager at the

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 ...

. * Brian Bunting (1920-2008), journalist, politician and anti-apartheid activist. * Hannes Fagan (1927-2014), South African judge. * Margaret Elsworth (1929-2023), philanthropist. *

David Millard David R. Millard (born February 10, 1953) is an American Republican Party (United States), Republican politician who served as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, District 109, 10 ...

(1931-1978), South African cricketer. *

Just Nuisance Just Nuisance (1 April 1937 – 1 April 1944) was a South African dog and the only dog ever to be officially enlisted in the Royal Navy. He was a Great Dane who between 1939 and 1944 served at HMS ''Afrikander'', a Royal Navy shore establishmen ...

(1937-1944), only enlisted dog in the Royal Navy. *

Edward George Hudson Oliver Edward (Ted) George Hudson Oliver, (1938-2025) is a South African Botanist and author. He is an expert in Ericaceae, heathers. He has discovered and named several species. Oliver is the recognized world authority on the subfamily Ericoideae. ...

(b.1938), botanist and author. *

J.M. Coetzee John Maxwell Coetzee Order of Australia, AC Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, FRSL Order of Mapungubwe, OMG (born 9 February 1940) is a South African and Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, and translator. The recipient of the 2003 ...

(b. 1940), Nobel laureate, author and scholar. *

Vintcent van der Bijl Vintcent Adriaan Pieter van der Bijl (born 19 March 1949) is a retired South African cricketer. He was born in Rondebosch, Cape Town, where his father, Pieter van der Bijl, was headmaster of the Diocesan College Preparatory School after retir ...

(b.1948), South African cricketer. * Cameron Dugmore (b.1963), ANC politician.

References

External links

Rondebosch Golf Club

Western Province Cricket Club
{{Cape Town suburbs Suburbs of Cape Town