Page 76 - Bulletin 22 2019

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attractive and safe. (Figs. 2.45 – 2.52.)

In late 1913, shortly after the municipal amalgamation, the Acting City Engineer WJ Jeffries

proposed to do away with the boxes entirely by constructing a public bathing pavilion with
62 cubicles: 42 private cubicles and 20 for casual bathers, and two changing rooms, one for

boys and one for girls. A Council sub-committee, after a site visit in January 1914, supported
the plan and recommended to Council that residents be given notice to remove all boxes by

the end of June, except for seven at the Kalk Bay end of the beach. This would allow tenders

to be advertised promptly and construction completed in time for the summer season.

The proposals enraged local residents among whom were numerous influential and robust

personalities. In January 1914 a letter signed by 64 residents argued against it on the grounds
of the adequacy of existing arrangements, the restricted size of the pool, the undesirability,

for sanitary and other reasons, of attracting a mixed population to the beach, the reduction of
the privacy hitherto enjoyed by the local residents, and the availability of pavilions at

Muizenberg and Kalk Bay for those who wished to use them. A further letter on 22 January,
signed by WP Schreiner (fmr. Premier of Cape Colony), JW Jagger and H Beard, requested a

hearing which duly happened on 2 February when a deputation of 10 put the case to the

Council. They were: Harry Orpen, Frank Mills, PW Mallett, William Black, WA Hofmeyr,
Rev. TE Marsh, Geo Trill, Henry Beard and WM Pocock (fmr. KB-MM Mayor.) Despite

this, the Improvements and Parks Committee on 16 February affirmed their in-principle
support for a pavilion and instructed the sub-committee to recommend the most suitable site

and design.

The matter was then dropped for two years until 29 May 1916 when newly-appointed City

Engineer Mr DE Lloyd-Davies presented a slightly revised plan: there would be 51 cubicles,
lavatories and showers, and a 20ft wide promenade with a 10½ ft wide shady area

underneath. The pavilion would be made of reinforced concrete and so located that it would

back up against the future widened rail embankment. Its flat concrete roof would become part
of Mr Piercy’s envisioned marine promenade connecting Muizenberg to Kalk Bay. In June

and July the residents renewed all their objections, and stressed that the pavilion’s cost of
£3,500 would be better spent on improving local roads and providing a few boxes for visitors.

The IPC re-considered the whole matter and on 20 July 1916 presented a report to Council in