Page 118 - Bulletin 20 2016

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Atlantic coast at Soetwater, and in the 1960s the inner part of the Kom at Kommetjie was

enclosed by a wall that was demolished some years ago.

It appears that some pools may have been associated with pre-colonial fish traps. Goodwin

(1946: 3) observed “……. a shelter above Kalk Bay (Cape Peninsula) shows abundant shell-
fish associated with a few Wilton tools, but few vertebrate fish and no pottery. This is

curious, as I remember a vywer a mile or so along the coast 35 years ago, [c. 1911] since

converted into a swimming pool.” He was most likely referring to one at St. James where in
the 1890s an informal pool had been created.

The Cape Town Guide, 1897: 43.

At St. James there is no beach worth mentioning, a pool intended exclusively for ladies’ use has been
formed by clearing the rocks away so as to leave a circular space with a sand bottom, girdled round by
protecting rocks. There are many other nooks and crannies available for a dip, but the rough rocky bed
beneath the bathers’ feet, makes the exercise fatiguing and disagreeable. The same remarks in a
measure apply to Kalk Bay.

Early photographs from around this time show the regular outlines of heaped rock walls, but

whether these amounted to de novo constructions, or simply the re-building and re-
configuring of structures that had been started by indigenous people, is unknown. Certainly,

Goodwin believed it to be a genuine vywer.

By degrees a formal pool was constructed. In 1911 W. P. Schreiner and 60 other residents
petitioned the KB-MM to construct a proper pool and Charles McGhie was contracted to do

this. Initially, he built a stone and cement north wall, the east and south walls remaining

rubble constructions. Later, in 1913, the south wall was constructed and the north wall was
raised by adding a sandstone coping to give a water depth of 5 ft. at the deep end, and an area

of 13,000 sq ft. The Mayor’s Minute concluded that it was “now one of the finest pools of the
premier seaside resort.”

However, the beach was being scoured of sand due, apparently, to current action channelled

by the two walls and exiting through the rock barrier at the sea end. So this was converted
into a proper concrete wall, and it was reinforced again in 1923. (Figs. 2.6 – 2.11.)