Page 115 - KBHA Bulletin 11

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wanted the pumping station removed to enhance the value of his property.

To reduce smells and improve the ventilation, the Municipality built a ventilation shaft
up on the mountain slope behind Douglas Cottage to replace the ventilator on the roof.

Subsequently, the ventilator pipe was moved higher up the mountain above Boyes

Drive, and later two specially imported electric exhaust fans were connected to this
pipe. (Fig. 2.26). A new type of suction pump was installed.

The District Engineer said that the only way to stop the complaints would be to rebuild

the pumping station elsewhere. And he sensibly recommended the cheapest route for the
City was to buy Malherbe’s flats at an arbitrated valuation, which sadly the Council

disregarded. Eventually the Municipality capitulated. In 1933 land was obtained from

the Railways at the Dalebrook subway for an underground pump station on almost
exactly the site Bennett had originally planned for it in 1904. (Fig. 2.24).

The essential problem with the 1906 ‘P. Station’ was that the contractors found solid
rock where the catch pit had to be excavated so the catch pit was not deep enough, and

the pumps only cut in after the sewage had already backed up along the drain pipes.
Because of the shallow pit, these had been laid with insufficient fall, resulting in build-

up of decomposing matter. The blame for all this can be ascribed to the ‘dog-in-the-
manger’ attitude of the Cape Government Railways who came up with their turntable

idea to justify their 1904 refusal, and eventually the turntable was built on the opposite

(or station) side of the Church School building.

Amenities

Several proposed amenities, depending on electricity for their power, were part of this

age.

A Foreshore Syndicate proposed a Marine Promenade, 2½ - 3 miles in length, eastward
from Muizenberg station, with a 1000 ft. pier out into False Bay. The project was