Page 14 - Bulletin 17 2013

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Official Guide Book and Souvenir Cape Gala (1907 – 08) Season, 1907: 140.

Lacking much that any fashionable English – let alone Continental or American –
watering place has, and certainly lacking all the artificial attractions of Brighton,
Muizenberg has secured for itself the name of “The Brighton of South Africa” solely by
its natural charms. The first thing that makes it the finest watering place in South Africa
is its beach. This Rudyard Kipling has somewhere described as “the finest in the world,”
and few will be found to quarrel with this description of his, even if they do so with his
verse or politics. Muizenberg beach slopes so gently that one is able to go out to sea a
great distance without being off the ocean’s floor. When the tide is out horse-races and
other sports can easily be held on the hard, flat sand left exposed.
And then the water. At Camp’s Bay, Hout Bay and Sea Point the delicate or the
lover of comfort might find the water too fresh for his liking. But Muizenberg enjoys the
benefit of currents from the Gulf Stream that warm False Bay, and make its waters mild
enough for a child to remain in them for a very long time. In summer the sight on
Muizenberg beach is an exceedingly gay and animated one. No false modesty prevents
ladies and gentlemen, properly attired, from bathing side by side in the pleasant waters;
but, as a matter of fact, Muizenberg is one of the few places in the country where decent
bathing costumes are insisted upon, and where mixed bathing is carried out in so pleasant
and inoffensive a manner. To a great extent this is due to their being convenient bathing
boxes on the beach, practically each house in Muizenberg having one. It is but proper to
mention that Muizenberg is invariably patronised by the best class of summer tripper.
The first families of the Peninsula, and many of Johannesburg and Kimberley, have their
houses in which they spend a few months each year. The best months (and the most
expensive, of course) at Muizenberg are from December to February.

The Cape Gala (1907-08) Season Guidebook carried a prominent advertisement extolling
this coast’s attraction and may have contributed to the crisis of 1908 – 09 when the

largest-ever influx of summer visitors occurred. (Fig. 1.12.) The only public beach
facilities were a Gentlemen’s and a Ladies Bathing Screen. The Mayor’s Minute of 1908

noted that the edge of the foreshore was occupied by “an irregular line of unsightly

bathing boxes.” The Municipality was warned that if no action was taken to “put its
house in order” it would lose visitors to Durban, East London and Port Elizabeth where

fine amenities were being provided. Because of its near-bankruptcy it was obliged to
enter into discussions with the City of Cape Town and the Cape Peninsula Publicity

Association (CPPA) in June 1909 to find a solution. The parties eventually concluded
that the only solution was for the KB-MM to be incorporated as a Ward into Cape Town

whose much larger rates base could provide the necessary funds for the required works.