Page 142 - KBHA BULLETIN 7

139

temporary basis and under tuition from the local school principal, but progress
had been made.

Van Eyk did his job reasonably well for it appears he was only replaced some

seven years later in 1875 by a Mr. Harding, who was appointed Chief Constable.

By this time Messrs. Gordon Mitchell and Associates had received the contract
for the supply of clothing for the Kalk Bay constable. Harding left in June 1887.

He had had the responsibility of handling the great increase in visitors, as well as
trouble-makers and ne’er-do-wells, who descended on Kalk Bay in great numbers

after the arrival of the railway in May 1883. Mr. William Mullany, who was
managing Charles King’s Hotel, applied to Frederick van der Riet, Resident

Magistrate of Simon’s Town, for the job. Whether his application was successful

or not is unknown.

The Lock-up

The exact date of the establishment of the Kalk Bay lock-up room and police

quarters has not been ascertained, but it appears van Eyk’s instruction to find
such accommodation was successful for in 1882, under Chief Constable Harding,

these facilities did exist. By 1892 they were well-established, albeit far from
satisfactory. The lock-up room was part of a house which had been converted for

that purpose, and in which the lock-up keeper and his family lived. The house

was off the Main Road, near to the Railway Station and behind Rouxville House
(Municipal Minutes March 1901: “agreed to build wash house behind lock-up

room”). (Fig. 4.1). It was leased at £45 per annum by the Commander of Police.
It stood some 500 yards away from the police quarters and charge office which

was further down the road toward Simon’s Town. This arrangement in itself was
unsatisfactory and it was only in 1898 that the police quarters and charge office

were moved to the lock-up house, after the lock-up keeper and family had moved

out.