Page 57 - Bulletin 17 2013

54

The Cape Argus, 9 December, 1939.

In its place [the former Pavilions] the Cape Town Municipality – in conjunction
with the South African Railways – has erected a handsome concrete pavilion and tearoom
which is a credit to the architect and builders, and to the fast increasing amenities of the
beautiful Cape Peninsula.
You step into a fast train at Cape Town and in half an hour’s time you alight on
the concrete platform at Kalk Bay. On the platform immediately behind the two spacious
bathing pools is the tearoom. It has seating accommodation for 172 people and overlooks
the bathing pools as well as the busy fishing harbour with its chugging motor-boats and
fishing smacks, and lines of men, women and children fishing off the pier. The tearoom is
to be run by the Cape Town Municipality. The Mayor of Cape Town will officially open
the pavilion tomorrow morning at 11 o’clock.
Underneath the pavilion on the bathing pool’s side are the dressing cubicles for
bathers. There is accommodation here for 500 men and women. Shower baths are also
provided. The space between the station and the bathing pools has been filled with sea
sand. This is a very popular area for young people for sunbathing after a swim. Besides
the two larger pools there is a paddling pool for children.
It was in the larger of the two pools that Peggy Duncan learned to swim.
Afterwards she swam from Robben Island to Cape Town and then went over and
conquered the English Channel.
The False Bay Swimming Club have their headquarters at the Kalk Bay pool and
there in the evenings and at week-ends they hold their club races and water polo
practices. They also have a very fine life saving section. Constantly flowing in and out,
the water in the pools is always of a pleasant temperature – not too warm, never too cold.
Kalk Bay before the improvements to the fishing harbour and the station and
pavilion had a tawdry, nondescript look. To-day it can proudly take its place alongside
other of the Cape Peninsula’s seaside resorts. It has attractions which no other resort can
boast

A few years before this, on 27 February 1936, a sum of £1,900 had been approved for a
new bathing pavilion for non-Europeans (sic) between the railway viaducts at Fishery

Beach. Photos from the 1920s show how heavily this area was used. (Figs. 1.65 & 1.66.)
This was opened on 16 October 1937 and included a tea room. The total cost was £2,000.

(Today it houses the Haven Night Shelter.)

Compared to the ambitious, large and expensive amenities constructed at Muizenberg

those at Kalk Bay were decidedly modest – but space constraints prevented anything
much larger than this. Compared to the large numbers of people (one quarter million)

recorded as using Muizenberg’s facilities annually during the 1930s the numbers at Kalk