Page 46 - Bulletin 22 2019

43

 In 1910 and 1914 pavilions were built at Muizenberg and Kalk Bay, respectively,

providing changing facilities that effectively replaced the need for bathing boxes.
Most of the tidal pools were built during these years in suitable gulleys between St.

James and Kalk Bay. Bathing box numbers at Muizenberg dropped to 58, St. James

had 42, Dalebrook 11, Kalk Bay 5 (removed in 1914), and Woolleys Pool 1.
 By the mid-1920s there were 94 at Muizenberg, 87 at St. James, 16 at Dalebrook, and

1 at Woolleys Pool.

 In 1929 Muizenberg’s second pavilion opened accompanied by a major investment in
new bathing boxes numbering 174, St. James remained pegged at 87, and Dalebrook

at 16.
 Farther south, by 1938, there were about 15 at Fish Hoek, 18 at each of Glencairn and

Seaforth, and 6 at Boulders. These numbers increased during the next decades: Fish
Hoek in the 1950s had 66 in three rows, Glencairn 29, Seaforth 16, and Boulders 12.

 At the peak in the 1960s there were about 465 boxes on the False Bay coast: 52% of

them at Muizenberg, 19% at St. James, and 14% at Fish Hoek. By the 1970s and 80s
serious deterioration had set in due to the harshness of the coastal environment (wave

attack, sand-blasting, perpetual dampness, and salt corrosion), lack of maintenance,

and declining patronage. The storms of August 1974, May 1984 and April 1993 were
the coups de grace for many of the old structures – many of them over 50 years old.

Since then their numbers have dwindled to 44 at Muizenberg, 14 at St. James, 4 at
Fish Hoek and 1 at Boulders – a total of 63 or 14% of the peak total.

The full story now follows, with each resort from Muizenberg southwards examined in turn.

Muizenberg

Muizenberg beach until the 1880s was primarily a trek-fishing place. Occasionally a whale
was landed by Abraham Auret and his team who cut it up and boiled the blubber on the

town’s doorstep near the station where they had a couple of boathouses. The oldest bathing

house belonged to Farmer Peck’s Inn, for use by its guests, and it probably pre-dated the
arrival of the railway. By 1896 there were 10 boxes, and these had trebled to 31 by 1898, and

this number then doubled to 64 by 1900.