The Southern Suburbs are a group of Anglophone

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 ...

s in

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 ...

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 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 ...

. This group of neighborhoods includes, among others;

Observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysics, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. Th ...

, Mowbray, Pinelands, Rosebank, Rondebosch,

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 ...

, Newlands, Claremont, Lansdowne,

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 ...

, Bishopscourt, Constantia, Wynberg, Ottery, Plumstead, Diep River, Meadowridge, Bergvliet, Tokai, Grassy Park and Zeekoevlei.

Tourism

The Southern Suburbs has many popular tourist attractions, as well as many scenic public spaces, including

nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

trails,

hiking A hike is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century. Long hikes as part of a religious pilgrimage have existed for a much longer time. "Hi ...

spots, wine farms,

forests A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological functio ...

, and parks. Kirstenbosch Gardens The Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden is one of the oldest botanical gardens in South Africa, and is situated along the Eastern Slopes of Table Mountain in the suburb of Bishopscourt. There are many unique flower species in this garden that are not to be found anywhere else in the world. Rhodes Memorial The Rhodes Memorial is a popular tourist attraction on the slopes of Devil's Peak in the suburb of Rondebosch. This memorial commemorates a former British South African Politician

Cecil John 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 ...

. This memorial is nearby to 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 ...

. Newlands Forest Newlands Forest is a popular forest along the slopes of Table Mountain at Newlands. It includes many hiking trails and braai area. Ruins of the old “Paradise” estate where Lady Anne Barnard lived for a portion of her stay in Cape Town lay deep within this forest. Golf There are a few

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

courses in the Southern Suburbs. Golf courses in the region include “King David Mowbray golf club” in Mowbray, Rondebosch golf course, “Royal Cape golf club” in Ottery and the ”Steenberg golf club.” Arderne Gardens Arderne Gardens is a public park and arboretum tucked away from the busy Main Road in Claremont. It was established in 1845 and is a popular venue for wedding photographs. The focus of the Arderne Gardens is the cultivation of exotic species.

History

During the

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 ...

era, the Southern Suburbs were predominantly " whites only" residential areas.

Geography

Cape Town's Southern Suburbs lie to the Southeast of the slopes of

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 ...

within rich valleys and vast plains reaching from just south of the Table Bay industrial neighborhoods in the north to the

False Bay False Bay (Afrikaans: ''Valsbaai'') is a body of water in the Atlantic Ocean between the mountainous Cape Peninsula and the Hottentots Holland Mountains in the extreme south-west of South Africa. The mouth of the bay faces south and is demarc ...

coastal suburbs and the

Cape Peninsula The Cape Peninsula () of South Africa is a generally mountainous peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean at the south-western extremity of the African continent. At the southern end of the peninsula are Cape Point and the Cape of Good ...

cliffs to the south, and are crossed North-South by the M3 and M5 freeways. In general, this area is identified as being the more affluent of the Cape Town Metropolis' sections and includes some of the city's most expensive

residential A residential area is a land used in which houses, housing predominates, as opposed to industrial district, industrial and Commercial Area, commercial areas. Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include ...

neighborhoods.

Commerce

The suburb of Claremont is an important commercial hub in the Southern Suburbs and is the location of several shopping malls. Some of the well-known malls include Cavendish Square and Stadium on Main.

Demographics

The majority of the Southern Suburbs' population are

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 ...

English-speaking with large minority communities of Black, Indian and Coloured people in some suburbs. Many of the non-Whites are Anglophone and speak English natively. The area has a population of 205,000 people. Due to the large British descendant population, the area has a bigger pro-Commonwealth and pro-Monarchy (in reference to the British Monarch’s official title as Head of the Commonwealth) sentiment than the rest of the Cape. Because of this, many institutions retained their Royal patronage (such as the Royal Cape Golf Club and the Royal Cape Yacht Club) and there are many institutions related to British heritage in the region (including the Cape Town 1820 Settlers Association, Cape Town Scottish Highlander Pipe Band and Cape Town Scottish Caledonian Pipe Band). The area is also home to the Cecil Rhodes Memorial and is home to many British pubs and tea rooms. Due to the region being predominantly White English-South African, it is also home a very large concentration of Anglicans with many Anglican churches and Anglican private schools (most notably the St. George's Grammar School and Bishops Diocesan College).

Education

The Southern Suburbs offers many good public and private primary and high schools, and also some of the finest in the country. Most of these schools are found in Rondebosch, Newlands, Claremont and Wynberg. List of High Schools: • Rustenburg Girls’ High School • Rondebosch Boys High School • Westerford High School • Groote Schuur High School • South African College High Schools • Bishops Diocesan College • San Souci Girls’ High School • Livingstone High School • Windsor High School • Herschel Girls Secondary School for girls • Wynberg Boys’ High School • Wynberg Girls’ High School List of Primary Schools: • Rustenberg Girls’ Junior School •Oakhurst Girls’ Primary School •Groote Schuur Primary School •Mickelfield School for Girls •Golden Grove Primary School • South African College Junior School • Grove Primary School •Greenfield Girls’ Primary School • Herschel Girls Preparatory School •Wynberg Boys’ Junior School •Wynberg Girls’ Junior School •Constantia Primary School The Southern Suburbs are very popular among University students, especially between Woodstock and Wynberg, due to their proximity to the

. Other tertiary education institutions in the area include Varsity College, AFDA, Cape Audio College, Damelin Mowbray, and The South African School of Applied Psychology.

Language

The Southern Suburbs is a predominantly English-speaking region of

, whereas, in contrast, the Northern Suburbs is a predominantly

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 ...

-speaking region, and the two regions have their own rather distinct cultures. From a Southern Suburbs perspective, the Northern Suburbs lie behind what is locally known as the 'Boerewors Curtain', which is used, often jokingly, by some Capetonians to draw an informal crossover point between the English-speaking Southern Suburbs and the Afrikaans-speaking Northern Suburbs, and their respective cultures.

Transport

One of the most well-known roads in the Southern Suburbs is the historic Main Road, which starts in the City Bowl and goes through Observatory, Mowbray, Rondebosch, Newlands, Claremont, Kenilworth, Wynberg, Plumstead, Diep River, Bergvliet, Tokai, Retreat, Pollsmor Prison, Muizenberg, Lakeside and then onwards to

Simon's Town Simon's Town (), sometimes spelled Simonstown, is a town in the Western Cape, South Africa and is home to Naval Base Simon's Town, the South African Navy's largest base. It is located on the shores of Simon's Bay in False Bay, on the eastern s ...

. The bulk of the Southern Suburbs are connected to Cape Town CBD in the north and Muizenberg in the south by the M3 and M5 freeways. These roads also provide connections to the N1, for travel towards

Paarl Paarl (; ; derived from ''parel'', meaning "pearl" in Dutch) is a city with 294,457 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the largest city in the Boland, Western Cape, Cape Winelands. Due to the growth of the Mbekweni ...

. The Southern Suburbs use the older CA- and newer CAA-type number plates as standard.

References

{{Cape Town suburbs