The Western Cape High Court occupies a distinctive, neoclassical building that features local granite stonework and walls constructed with bricks imported from Australia. Though the structure was completed in nineteen twelve, the court did…
City Bowl Civic Architecture
This walk explores the grand and imposing buildings that have housed South Africa's lawmakers, judges, and administrators, showing how power and history are carved into Cape Town's stone.
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1. Cape Town High Court
2. Western Cape Provincial Parliament
The Western Cape Provincial Parliament at number seven Wale Street is distinguished by its history as a purpose-built legislature for the province. Unlike the older national parliamentary complex nearby, construction of this building began…
3. Parliament of the Republic of South Africa
The Parliament of the Republic of South Africa is defined by a cluster of three distinct sections—the original eighteen eighty-four building, the nineteen ten Old Assembly building, and the nineteen eighty-three National Assembly…
4. Iziko Slave Lodge
The Iziko Slave Lodge is a building with plain, heavy walls located at the corner of Adderley and Wale Streets. Built in sixteen seventy-nine, it stands as one of the oldest structures in Cape Town and was commissioned by the Dutch East…
5. Church Square
Church Square is a small, cobbled public space defined by a central statue of the nineteenth-century statesman Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr. Flanked by the Groote Kerk on its southern side, the square occupies land that was once part of a garden…
6. Mutual Heights
Mutual Heights, on the corner of Darling and Parliament Streets, is identifiable by its stepped, ziggurat-style silhouette and the distinctive prismoid windows that project from its granite-clad facade. Opened in nineteen forty as the…
7. Cape Town City Hall
Cape Town City Hall is easily recognized by its honey-colored oolitic limestone facade, imported from Bath, England, and a prominent clock tower modeled on London's Big Ben. Completed in nineteen oh five, the Edwardian building anchors the…
8. The Old Granary
The Old Granary stands at the corner of Buitenkant and Longmarket streets, distinguished by neoclassical stonework and sculptures of Neptune and Britannia on its corners. Designed by architect Louis Michel Thibault and constructed between…