Page 62 - Bulletin 17 2013

59

Fish Hoek

Fish Hoek was put on the map by the arrival of the railway in 1890. It was at that time a

single farm covering a large portion of the valley that had been granted in 1818. It had
been owned by Hester de Kock / de Villiers since 1883. It was little known and little used

as a seaside resort but the railway brought in people who got permission to camp on the
farm, or take rooms in the old Homestead house during the summers.

Official Guide Book and Souvenir Cape Gala (1907 – 08) Season, 1907: 146

The sands are glorious here; the bathing is safe; while a road leads to the
mountain farms of Silverwijn [sic] and Noordhoek and to De Kommetjie. The people of
Fish Hoek are of a quiet, almost old-world kind, with hospitable doors and courteous
greetings. Good board and lodging can be obtained cheaply here, as fish is fairly plentiful
and living cheap. But there is no hotel.

After Hester’s death, and that of her husband, the farm was in 1918 subdivided into plots

for sale in terms of her Will: 545 plots came onto the market, coincidentally with 200 in a
separate subdivision of the Clovelly Estate. (Figs. 1.68 & 1.69.) The dam burst and

development took place rapidly: in 1920 there were already 152 buildings with another

123 being built. A Village Management Board (VMB) was formed in 1927 and water
supply, sewerage, and electricity schemes were commenced during the 1920s - 30s.

Elements of resort development followed. The first tea-room, a wooden structure on stilts

and known as the Pavilion, was built in 1925. (Figs. 1.70 – 1.71.) Initially it was just a

tearoom but later men’s and women’s changing rooms were added, and periodically
extended, to the left and right sides, respectively. The first 6 bathing boxes were built in

1929 and many more followed. During 1932-33 the Jager Walk, a concrete path (also
known as the Catwalk) from the beach corner along the rocks to Sunny Cove, was

completed. On a 1785 map a path along this shore is referred to as the Diamanten Pad –
perhaps because of the glistening quartz crystals embedded in the granite rocks.