When Jan Gehl, world-renowned architect who focuses on ’life between buildings’ visited in 2004, he described pedestrians in Cape Town as a ‘hunted race’. He was right. Thanks to grievous urban planning errors in the 1970s, a six-lane race track called Strand Street intersects with an eight-lane monstrosity called the Heerengracht, creating an urban wasteland in the central of the city, right where tens of thousands of public transport users emerge from the Cape Town Station every day.
Fortunately, some progress has been made during the ensuing five years to shift from a car-dominated to a more people-centred city centre. Strand Street and the Heerengracht are still there, but cars, taxis and buses are slowly being tamed and pedestrians (and cyclists) are beginning to find their rightful places and spaces. And we have been doing it in the way Jan Gehl suggested – by stealth!
Company’s Garden
One of the historic green spaces in Cape Town, the Company’s Garden had by the late 1990s become unsafe and unkempt. A process, led by the City of Cape Town, and supported by a range of stakeholders, has revived the fortunes of the Gardens, which is now a well-used and beautiful green space in the heart of the city.
Company's Garden - a tranquil space (Pic: Ed Suter)
Company's Garden - Part of an expanding Central City pedestrian route
Jetty Square
Named because of its proximity to the site of the original Cape Town jetty but now part of reclaimed land known as the Foreshore, Jetty Square has been upgraded and adorned with ghostly shark-like creatures to remind us of our marine heritage.
Jetty Square - still undiscovered by most Capetonians, but part of an expanding pedestrian network connecting the Foreshore to St George's Mall via Thibault Square
Shark-like statues in Jetty Square move with the prevailing winds
Children using public space
Church Square
For decades, Church Square near the South African Parliament was little more than a motley car-park. In 2007, cars were removed and the Square was transformed into a people-space.
A new car-free Church Square
Church Square - slowly attracting people out of office buildings and motors vehicles and into public spaces
Goemarati - a series of music performances in Church Square in 2007 to attract public life back into the area. The juxtaposition between the statue of 'Onze Jan' Hofmeyr, founder of the Afrikaner Bond political party in the 1880s, and the Goemarati performance derived from the music of the slaves at the Cape is supremely ironic
Inclusive memorialisation. Slaves in Cape Town between the 1660s and 1800s made up the majority of the city's population but were effectively written out of history books for two centuries. Following a public competition, the City of Cape Town erected a memorial to slaves on the newly-upgraded Church Square
Reflecting on a divided past. Church Square was chosen as the site of a slave memorial because of its proximity to where slaves were previously bought and sold, and to the old Slave Lodge, where slaves of the Company were kept in inhuman conditions.
Grand Parade
It was inevitable that sooner or later, attention would have to be paid to Cape Town’s (and South Africa’s) oldest public space – the Grand Parade. A public place at the center of economic and social life in Cape Town for over 300 years, the Grand Parade had become by the late 1990s a run-down, cluttered and inhospitable space. Following a heritage assessment commissioned by the Cape Town Partnership in 2006, and a public consultation process, the City of Cape Town decided to upgrade the Grand Parade at a cost of R22m.
The Grand Parade - historically a place for soldiers, citizens, circuses and markets
The Grand Parade as scene of Nelson Mandela's first address to the world as a free man in February 1990 and his first address to the nation after his election as President in 1994
Grand Parade as a run-down parking lot (Pic: Ed Suter)
The Grand Parade is the site of South Africa's oldest continous fleamarket (Pic: Ed Suter)
Long term plan for the Grand Parade. Phase one will be completed by the end of 2009
Aerial view of phase one upgrade underway
A new people's space emerges
Homeless World Cup on the Grand Parade in 2006 - inspiration for the 2010 FIFA World Cup Fan Fest in Cape Town
Love your vision on making Cape Town a more pedestrian-friendly city. So I ask (and forgive me if this is not under your jurisdiction): Why is the Green Point circle above ground, while the pedestrian thoroughfare is below ground? Why are cars given visual favour, while pedestrians are relegated to a subway? Subways are dangerous places for pedestrians, and they provide “private” areas for people who do not have a toilet. My heart aches every time I drive through the circle — how much better to have had a magnificent above-ground circle for people to sit on and enjoy the view, and be safe in an open, visually unobscured area.
I agree with you in principle – people belong on top and cars underneath. I’m not 100% sure, but I think that a raised traffic circle was cheaper than sinking it underground.
wrong on church square … i prefer the cars to the stone tiles … it is just an empty space without character. Combined with Speaker’s Corner moving to Bread and Honey, Church Square has been destroyed. If the insurance building is properly renovated can the square be given a little life? Parliament will have to buy some of the run-down buildings at its entrance for MP accommodation, the jazz club be brought back to the top of Adderley Street, and grass put on the Square … persuade the Speaker to act … and close Plein Street to cars. You must have a plan already ..
With solid bedrock found at CT stadium, I am not sure whether it would have been feasible to go underground at the circle. There are of course also cost implications in catering for the movement of a large amount of people, up onto an elevated area and then downwards to the stadium.
In terms of access to people of all abilities, a single level connecting the fan mile to the stadium perhaps makes sense.
That said, there are some interesting ideas for the space under the circle which includes retail spaces and other creative spaces.
The Green Point IRT station connects to the circle with commuters entering the station and moving towards the stadium via a ramp which leads into the circle.
While I don’t agree that removing cars was unwise, I agree that Church Square is not yet working as it could and should. Unfortunately, phase two of the upgrade, which included the possible pedestrianisation of Parliament Street down to Darling Street, has not been completed. With hindsight, more trees giving more shade could have been planted. The completion of the rennovation of the Iziko social history museum on the eastern side will help, once those ugly steel shutters are removed and there is public access into the building. The owners of the building where Speaker’s Corner restaurant used to be also need to come to the party to activate the ground floor once again. The key however is to get a management plan for the square in place, something that has been on the cards for over three years. This would generate further activities on the square (concerts, markets, film shoots, etc) and help draw people into the area. It would also open up the possibility for restaurants to place tables on parts of the square during the summer months.