Page 75 - Bulletin 13 2009

72

Era 3: 1883–1913 - The Age of Steam (1883–90), Municipal Utilities (1895–1913),
and Internal Combustion (1901 >): A Municipal Main Road

The combination of steam, municipal utilities, and internal combustion was to change

Main Road and the adjoining corridor forever. These technological innovations arrived

on the False Bay coast in quick succession during the 30 years between 1883 and 1913:

 in 1860 the almost imperceptible single telegraph line linking Cape Town and

Simon’s Town had inaugurated the wave of change.
 in 1882/3 the arrival of the railway made the area accessible as never before; in

1890 it reached Simon’s Town.

 in 1895 municipal government was established with the formation of the Kalk
Bay-Muizenberg Municipality, and with it came a programme of public utility

provision: in 1897 oil lamps (75 of them), in 1900 piped water, in 1903 a
cemetery, in 1906 kerbing and guttering along the mountainside of Main Road,

in 1907 electricity, which lit 260 lamp pillars connected by overhead wiring, and
also pumped sewage eastwards to the treatment works east of Muizenberg.

 in 1910 the completion of the Naval Dockyard heightened the military

significance of the railway and the main road through Muizenberg, St. James
and Kalk Bay.

The area was discovered by the Randites, as well as wealthy Capetonians, who bought

land and built ‘modern’ summer holiday homes among the small, thatched, white-

washed, traditional dwellings; the motor car made its debut in Cape Town in 1898 and
the first major ‘run’, of 12 cars and assorted motor-bikes – the 12 cars constituting over

50% of the total number of cars in the Cape Colony at that time – took place to Mr
Arderne’s residence (later Seahurst Hotel) on 21 December 1901; bus services

commenced to Kommetjie; and, the population of the KB-MM increased from 1,456 in

1891 to 2,989 in 1901, to 3,607 in 1904. (MM 1904).