As Cape Town (and the rest of the world) experience lockdown I am spending the next 21 days writing short posts on some of the historical aspects of our city centre. This is something I have been meaning to do for ages, but while tour guiding the days run away. Now is the perfect opportunity […]
One of the advantages of joining a group outing is that speakers/curators/historians trained in the subject can really bring a tour alive by adding stories and anecdotes Yesterday I joined the Simon van der Stel organisation for a visit to the Rupert Museum, Stellenbosch. I have been here a few times before, but yesterday we […]
Perfect timing when I arrived at the Waterfront yesterday to witness the Robinson dry dock in action. During the design of the harbour from the 1860s, the Royal Navy requested a dry dock be included in the plans to serve their interests in the southern hemisphere The dock is 161.2m long, 20.7m wide and a […]
August 9, is our public holiday in South Africa, Women's Day. It is a day that all the women in South Africa are honoured for everything they do and at the same time, remembering the 20,000 women who marched to the Union Buildings, Pretoria in 1956 The women's march was a spectacular success, ladies coming […]
Only in 1977 were females student finally afforded an opportunity to apply for the Rhodes Scholarship Progamme and out of 72 scholars selected, 24 were women. This was as a result of a number of changes all coming together at around the same time. Long serving trustees appointed to manage the programme who were all […]
When Rhodes established his scholarship programme in 1902 (as laid out in his will), the criteria back then was very much different to what is required today. Rhodes, himself had been a student at Oriel College, Oxford, and firmly believed that these residential colleges were the perfect environment to engage future world leaders and form […]
Towards the end of the 19th century/early 20th century, there were numerous scholarship programmes available, and they became collectively known as the "travelling scholarship". The British Empire viewed these scholarships as a mechanism to expand the British academic world, and for the student in the British settler colonies, an opportunity for an education abroad. The […]
Looking at the bottom row, the lady in the purple dress, one row in on the right hand side has earned her place in this magnificent window for her financial contributions to the Anglican Church. Angela Burdett-Coutts (1814-1906) became one of the wealthiest women in England when she inherited her grandfather's fortune, following the death […]
One of my favourite buildings in Cape Town is Sendiggestig, 40 Long street and the oldest Mission Church in Cape Town. On our city tours to International visitors, time slips away and we never get a chance to include a stop here. This will change when we look forward to welcoming South African visitors from […]
Dr Abdullah Abdurahman, is known as the first black councillor in Cape Town. On looking into his life, he was clearly so much more than this. I used to see thousands of tourists clicking away at picturesque buildings, not really paying attention to the portrait of the gentleman in the top right hand corner. Dr […]
Events and buildings are often discussed on our private walking tours, but I think it is really important to focus equal attention people. The discovery of diamonds, a significant event which shaped the early part of the 20th century, lead to a significant wealth available to the Public Works Department having the funds to employ […]