Page 37 - Bulletin 22 2019

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THE STORY OF THE BEACH BATHING BOXES, MUIZENBERG – BOULDERS:
1880s – present

Barrie Gasson

Introduction

Previous papers have made reference to bathing boxes (also called beach huts), particularly

those dealing with the development of the Peninsula’s coastal resorts (KBHA Bulletins 16 &

17), and some of Mike Walker’s books. Bathing boxes were part of a suite of amenities
including pavilions, promenades, and tidal pools that local councils built at Peninsula resorts

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during the first half of the 20 century.

This paper is based on a close examination of all the files on the subject housed in the

Western Cape Archives and Research Services (WCARS), Roeland Street. It opens with a
review of overseas precedent, drawing from Hannavy (2003), Ferry (2009) and internet

sources, because practices at the Cape mimicked those in the ‘old’ countries, particularly
Britain and the Continent. It then focuses on the rise and decline of bathing boxes along the

False Bay coast from Muizenberg to Boulders during the past 140 years.

Bathing machines and beach huts in the northern hemisphere

Beaches traditionally were the habitats of fishermen and smugglers and they constructed huts

and hutments to house their activities. In the UK beach huts associated with bathing had
appeared on some beaches by the early 1730s and beach huts on wheels appeared on

Scarborough beach on the Yorkshire coast before 1735. Huts on wheels were the forerunners

of the bathing machine which was invented by Benjamin Beale in 1753. Around this time
medical opinion was extolling the therapeutic benefits of sea bathing, inhaling ozone-laden

air, and drinking sea water. This was known as the seaside ‘cure’ and it was expounded by,

among others, Sir John Floyer (1701-02) and Dr Richard Russell (1750-52.) Initially this
luxury was restricted to the moneyed classes. Then, in the mid-1800s, the expansion of

railways placed formerly inaccessible and unknown coastal places within reach of the masses
for day-trips and seaside holidays, and these objectives overtook health cures as the reasons