Cape Town - Take a look back in History

Athlone Cooling Towers
The landmark Athlone Cooling Towers no longer grace Cape Town’s skyline since their demolition on Sunday 22 August 2010. Both towers formed part of the decommissioned Athlone coal-fired power station commissioned in 1961 and decommissioned by the City in 2002. “And so a piece of history has come down with a bang, which is a little sad, but there is reason to smile as cleaner energy sources will see a lower carbon, more modern, liveable and equitable city in the future”

Woodstock Beach 1940's

Woodstock beach once stretched along the front part of Woodstock, to the north of the Castle of Good Hope. It was the scene of many shipwrecks during the sailing era, when ships would be blown onto the sand by Cape Town’s notorious gales. One such gale in 1822, called the Great Storm, was commemorated in a detailed (uncredited) watercolour. The scene of devastation on Woodstock beach is impressive, showing numerous wrecked ships and debris scattered all along the beach.
A familiar landmark on Woodstock beach was Fort Knokke, part of a line of defense erected to defend the Cape from attack. A later landmark was the Castle Brewery and the Woodstock pavilion, built for bathers when Woodstock became a popular seaside village in the late nineteenth century. During the massive land reclamation of part of Table Bay to create the Cape Town foreshore in the early 1950s, Woodstock beach was unfortunately destroyed, one of Cape Town’s saddest losses. Beach Road, just in front of the Castle Brewery, and on either side of Lower Church Street, survives as a reminder of where the shoreline was once situated.

In 1879, the Cape Town City Council authorised a second tramways company, the 'City Tramways Company Limited', to operate a similar horse-drawn service, initially out to Green Point and Sea Point, and later to the Gardens and the southern suburbs.



 Tram on Adderley Street




A tram ride described in an old Cape Town guide as being “without doubt the most beautiful in the world”, the trams brought all the peninsula to Camps Bay to turn it into the region’s favourite holiday resort.
The construction was authorized by special Act of Parliament passed on 20 October 1899.
The Camps Bay Tramways Company encouraged people to travel to Camps Bay – of course by tram – by providing amusements.  These included an amusement park with a switchback railway, paddling and swimming pools, a promenade and refreshment pavilion.  Competitions such as athletics and building sand castles were organized.

The Old Cape Town Zoo

Groote Schuur Zoo, South Africa
This old zoo can be found adjacent to the University of Cape Town in the Western Cape of South Africa. Here, the old lion’s cages can be explored and this Cape Town zoo has been the home of student concerts and art exhibitions.
  
Cape Town's own Spook Hill (Ghost Hill)

Spook Hill on Paarl valley Road in Somerset West (in front of Straightway Head Country House) has long boasted the creepy tales of cars left without breaks going 'uphill', leading to the myth that the hill is haunted or even a gravity hill which makes everything topsy-turvy. The myth has reportedly been debunked, and the hill is an optical illusion where what appears uphill is in fact downhill. The illusion is created by the trees on the road being slightly skew, and a gradient change midway 'down' the hill. Go test it out yourself!