A large part of our time at the Cape Town Partnership and CCID  is spent on finding ways in which our public spaces can be used by and for citizens of this city. The multiple events taking place this coming Human Rights Day weekend point to a coming of age in the use of our public spaces for a wide variety of citizen activities. Take a look at some of the social, cultural, sporting and political events taking place in the city over the weekend:

The Cape Town Festival, part of the One City, Many Cultures project, will take place in the form of a four day programme of events from 19-22 March in the Company’s Garden, featuring, amongst others, Hilton Schilder, Good Luck, the Hip Hop collective, Kings of Vegas, South Paw, Country Conquerors, Under Kontrol (world beat-box champions), Keeno Lee, Claire Philips, Zaki Ibrahim (Canada), Loading Zone & Allou April, Napalma (Brazilian and African musicians), Gugulethu Tenors, Emo Adams, Anselmo Ralph (Angola) and the Rudimentals

The Absa Cape Epic, Cape Town’s world-renowned mountain bike stage race (8 days, 1200 riders, 722 km, 14 635m of climbing) will be launched at the North Wharf at the V&A Waterfront on Saturday afternoon

The Cape Town Carnival will take place on Greenmarket Square (music party featuring Emo Adams & Take Note, Loyiso Bala and Locnville) and Upper Long Street (float procession with 2000 performers) on Saturday March 20 during the afternoon and evening

An Equal Education march to Parliament for school libraries, starting at 11h30 on Sunday 21 March on Thibault Square, followed by a concert with Hip Hop Pantsula. Equal Education is a movement of learners, parents, teachers and community members working for quality and equality in South African education, through analysis and activism

The Kurdish Human Rights Action Group (KHRAG) will be launching a petition to call for the release of imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan in the Company’s Gardens at 15h00 on Sunday March 21 as part of the Cape Town Festival

A memorial commemorating the great march of 30,000 people from Langa to the city centre led by Philip Kgosana in 1960 to protest the pass laws will be unveiled in Langa at 13h00 on March 21. Part of the march will be re-enacted from the Grand Parade to the Caledon Square police station. (For the history of Langa, one of the oldest African townships in South Africa, see the Centre for Popular Memory at UCT)

A special Day of Prayer will take place on Monday March 22, when over 55 000 people are expected at the CT stadium to pray about ”important issues surrounding our city and the impact of the World Cup event as a whole – employment opportunities, youth, child trafficking, drug abuse, our government, our essential services”. This event is also being held to test the readiness of the CT stadium and transport arrangements ahead of the 2010 Football World Cup starting in June. Participants are being encouraged to use public transport to town and catch a shuttle bus or walk to the stadium, on a route parallel to the official fan walk, which is still under construction

The Out of the Box Festival of Puppetry and Visual Performance, organised by the South African branch of the Union International de la Marionette, or UNIMA, runs from 20-28 March. It will be launched at the Baxter Theatre on Monday evening March 22. Many of the events also take place at the Little Theatre at the Hiddingh Campus at the top of the Company’s Gardens. More details are available on the Out of the Box Facebook Group

The Parlotones play at Kirstenbosch Gardens on Monday evening

And finally, don’t forget the Spier Contemporary 2010 exhibition on at the City Hall every day!

PS. Sport lovers need not conflicted. The Cape Town Festival has cleverly arranged to screen Super 14 rugby, IPL cricket and Sunday’s big match between Liverpool and Manchester United on big screens in the Company’s Gardens

The shift from car-dominated to a people-oriented Central City took another step forward this week with the announcement by the City of Cape Town of new non-motorised transport projects in Adderley, Shortmarket and Bree Steets. These will complement the work already being done in Waterkant Street and Somerset Road to connect the CT Station to the CT Stadium via a pedestrian-priority and cycle route.

The Cape Times (16 March 2010) called it ‘A non-motorised transport revolution’. Download the full article here. See also IRT bike paths designed for cyclists, by cyclists

The central pillar of the new pedestrian bridge across Buitengracht St, connecting Waterkant St to St Andrew's Place and Somerset Road, Green Point, was put in place today

The bridge will ensure that fans walking to events at the CT Stadium are able to get there safely. In addition, Green Point retail will become more accessible to people working in the CBD and vice versa

The bridge is expected to be finished in the next month. A second pedestrian bridge lower down Buitengracht St will allow an easier pedestrian connection between the CBD and the V&A Waterfront

I thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the opening of the Spier Contemporary 2010 Exhibition at the Cape Town City Hall last night. The event was well attended and a great success. Well done to Tanner Methvin and the Africa Centre for pulling it off.

Matanaswo-A Bragging and Proud Lady - Phillip Rikhotso

This is what I said at the opening:

“The Spier Contemporary 2010 is South Africa’s largest visual and performing arts exhibition, and we are honoured and delighted to launch it here in Cape Town tonight.

A good friend of mine in the art world gave me some advice about my speech. She said: keep it short, make it humorous, and for goodness sake, don’t talk about art. Whatever you say, you will be wrong. In any case, the audience are there to look at the work, and those who are really interested in contesting assumptions of what constitutes the proper protocol of post-apartheid rainbow nation representation in liminal spaces, with or without the cliché of the white frame, can read the catalogue.

Well, you’ll be pleased to know that it will be short. I don’t know about the humour bit, and I will limit myself to just one comment about art.

Maggots in red earth from Polokwane? Die Bystander - Hanje Whitehead

Our current national discourse is fractured, polarised, intemperate and downright dismal. Populism and opportunism is the order of the day and all manner of insincerities abound – none of which bring us any closer to finding ways to solve the real problems of the day – poverty, hunger, unemployment, our lack of solidarity, community and ethics, the need for better systems of accountability and governance.

Hope and Fear - Frina Galloway

Clive van den Berg, a member of the Curatorial Team, talks of a ‘national distemper, a profound unease in the nation’ that is reflected in many of the works submitted for consideration and many of those chosen for the exhibition. Mwenya Kabwe, another team member, notes the political cynicism that exists amongst many artists at the moment, whose work reflects ‘a deep sense of distrust and disappointment in formal politics and particularly with politicians’.

Representation: A Discourse - Christopher Marsberg and Francois van Tonder (video installation)

Phula Richard Chauke's acerbic view of politicians and their cars

The Spier Contemporary has amongst its aims: audience and artist development, creation of new markets, and training and development of artists and curators. All these aims are exemplary. It seems to me however that its greatest contribution is in giving us art as another language to understand and express ourselves, especially during this time when the conventional political discourse is severely limited. And it’s not all serious, thank goodness. Humour, irony and sly jokes abound in many of the works that cast a jaundiced eye on our contemporary leaders and problems.

The 2010 Football World Cup is not spared either. Ball and Chain - Dawood Petersen

I want to say something about the Africa Centre, the organisation behind the Spier Contemporary. Established in 2005, and located in the Cape Town Central City, the Africa Centre has already distinguished itself through its other programmes – in particular, the Badilisha Poetry X-Change, the Pan African Space Station and the Infecting the City public arts festival which annually stages and exhibits free high-quality, thought-provoking works in the public spaces of Cape Town accessible to everybody.

The Africa Centre is one of the new breed of organisations that are conspiring to make Cape Town a creative and innovative city. Five years ago, we realised the close connection between culture and urban regeneration, and so initiated the Creative Cape Town programme. Amongst other things, this programme attempts to find and create both public and private spaces for creative industries and enterprises to grow and flourish.

Today, there are more than 1000 creative industries in the Cape Town central city alone, which is why Cape Town has decided to bid for the World Design Capital for 2014, a biennial accolade that is given by the International Council of Societies for Industrial Design to cities that best use design for social, cultural and economic development.

One of our current projects is the East City Design Initiative (ECDI). The East City is that curious and quirky part of the city centre that lies between Adderley Street and District Six – an architecturally and historically rich area with amazing potential.

Home to many design and advertising businesses, film producers and photographic studios, the East City is also the location of the Cape Craft and Design Initiative, Fabrication Laboratory and Cape Town Fashion Council in Harrington St, the new Fugard Theatre and the District Six Homecoming Centre in the Sachs-Futeran Building, the District Six Museum itself, the Book Lounge, the Assembly live music venue, the Central Library in the beautifully restored Drill Hall, the rejuvenated Grand Parade (site of the 2010 Fan Fest), the new CT Station, Cape Peninsula University of Technology’s Faculty of Informatics and Design, and the soon to be restored Granary Building.

A building in the East City with the potential to become one of Cape Town’s most important cultural spaces is the City Hall. To date, for a variety of reasons, this project has not managed to get off the ground. (By the way, have a look at Jonathan Garnham’s work – Gold Chain – a 298,5m long comment on the neglect of the City Hall over the years).

(Untitled) Gold Chain - Jonathan Garnham

The Africa Centre, by presenting the Spier Contemporary Exhibition in the City Hall, has done us a huge favour, in that we can now imagine how these spaces could be creatively used in future. This is why, to coincide with the opening of the Spier Contemporary, Creative Cape Town, the Africa Centre and Cape Mic have launched the Imagine City Hall campaign.

The Spier Contemporary 2010 has brought life and colour into a neglected building

Imagine City Hall is a citizen activation programme. Its aim is to draw support for the development of the Cape Town City Hall as a dedicated cultural venue. The space should be accessible to all the people of Cape Town, and should forward the broader arts and heritage of the city and the continent. Please visit the Imagine City Hall Facebook group, which already has 541 members, and read what local artists Tina Schouw, Steve Fataar and Barry Smith have to say in support of the initiative.

More importantly, when you walk around the Exhibition, please take the time to see how spaces that were, until recently, dark, cluttered and neglected, have been ‘opened for art’, and to imagine the City Hall as a permanent cultural space.

Enjoying the new spaces in the City Hall (Picture: Anita van Zyl)

The opening speakers were mercifully located adjacent to the main balcony used by Nelson Mandela on 11 February 1990 (picture: Anita van Zyl)

In conclusion, my thanks and congratulations go to:

• the many South African artists who submitted a total of 2700 works for consideration
• the 101 artists that have been selected for the exhibition
• the Spier Estate for supporting visual and performing arts at a time when funds are hard to come by
• Tanner Methvin, Farzanah Badsha, Robin Jutzen and the hardworking team at the Africa Centre – for the exhibition and for all you do for the city
• The curatorial team and the judges, especially those who are visitors to our city – you are most welcome

Ladies and gentlemen, you are in for a treat! Please enjoy the evening. The Spier Contemporary Exhibition at the Cape Town City Hall is now open for art.”

A Downtown Symphony (detail) - David Koloane. This is my favourite piece on the exhibition (naturally)

Brett Murray at his provocative best with his piece 'Culture'

Voices - Maurice Mbikayi (picture: Anita van Zyl)

Heartbreaker (literally!) - Johann van der Schijff

(By the way, have a look at Gabeba Baderoon’s thoughtful response to Minister Lulu Xingwana’s comments about the Innovative Women Exhibition)

You can get a good idea of how the Green Point Urban Park is taking shape from the top of the Ritz Hotel in Sea Point

Ella Smook of the Cape Argus wrote an article this week on the new Green Point Urban Park, which describes the facilities being planned for the area after the 2010 World Cup. Located next to the new Green Point IRT station, the park will become more accessible to communities throughout the city as the IRT system is rolled out, although just looking at how well-used the adjacent Sea Point Promenade is by a wide range of Capetonians, I have no doubt that the Urban Park will become a popular regional facility from the word go.

The outline of the central common can be clearly seen. The Metropolitan Golf Course is in the background

The Urban Park will form part of a wider system of recreational areas and pedestrian and cycle routes, such as the Sea Point Promenade

The Urban Park is adjacent to the CT Stadium precinct, and will be managed by Stade de France and Sail, the stadium managers

The 2010 FIFA Football World Cup Fan Walk in Cape Town is taking shape. This is the route that creates a pedestrian-priority route from the CT Station in the CBD to the CT Stadium to be used by an estimated 18 000 fans on match days.

My 2010 colleague Carola Koblitz briefs CTP and CCID staff members at the start of our recent Fan Walk inspection tour (corner St George's Mall and Waterkant St)

Up the hill to Long Street. Waterkant (Waterside) Street, the main route of the Fan Walk in the CBD, marks near where the historical shoreline used to be. The whole of Waterkant street is being transformed into a pedestrian-priority route and cycle lane

Broken street furniture in Waterkant St due to be repaired in time for 2010 as part of the City of Cape Town's beautification programme

Sea Street is another reminder of where the shoreline used to be before the reclamation of the foreshore after 1939

Greening the city. In future years, the Fan Walk will be a shaded avenue

The Fan Walk goes past several traditional shops, including the well-known Lusitania Fisheries, where you can get one of the best calamari and chip rolls in town!

Improvements to public space often prompt the upgrade of adjacent buildings. Here, a new design-related development on Waterkant Street behind the historic Lutheran Church takes shape

A new pedestrian bridge under construction, corner Buitengracht and Waterkant St

One of the busiest roads in the Central City is Buitengracht Street, which forms a hostile barrier for pedestrians between the CBD and Green Point. A new pedestrian bridge will begin to soften the interface between these two areas. There will also be a new at-grade pedestrian crossing

The Fan Walk passes the Prestwich Memorial in St Andrew's Square, which pays tribute to the thousands of poor Capetonians, many of them slaves, who were buried over the years in unmarked graves outside the historical city boundary (buiten die Buitengracht - outside the Outer Canal). The new Truth coffee shop provides a welcome respite along the route

The other half of the new pedestrian bridge under construction, against a backdrop of the old Lutheran Church and Table Mountain

The old tram rails show where the trams coming from Sea Point and Green Point used to turn towards town along Waterkant Street

The Fan Walk continues past the historic St Andrew's Church into Somerset Road, Green Point

Somerset Road is at the moment a jumble and clutter of traffic, in places very pedestrian unfriendly. The Fan Walk upgrade is an attempt to allocate addition space to pedestrians and cyclists through this busy area

The Fan Walk passes by the popular Cape Quarter extension

The Gallows Hill (another reminder of our conflict-ridden past) Traffic Department parking lot being converted into a temporary access road onto the Western Boulevard as part of the 2010 transport plan

For sale. Another example of how the upgrade of public space can prompt potential private development

The pedestrian and cycle route along Green Point Main Road is now well established, although concrete benches have been placed in awkward places, causing a potential hazard to a crowd of pedestrians and to cyclists

The new Green Point Circle pedestrian underpass links the Fan Walk to the IRT station, the Waterfront, the CT Stadium and the Green Point Urban Park

Looking back. The Fan Walk provides a pleasant 2,6km (approximetely 30 minutes) walk from the CBD to the Stadium, and will become a means of accessing the stadium over and above the bus shuttle systems that will be provided on match days. It will also contibute to the 2010 legacy in the form of permanent cycling and pedestrian-priority routes through the city, which will no doubt lead to ongoing intensification of urban economic activities

The Africa Centre’s Infecting the City Public Arts Festival kicked off in public spaces in the Cape Town Central City this morning. The theme for this year’s festival is Human Rite. I saw two very powerful yet different performances – Quiet Emergency on Thibault Square and Meet Market on Church Square.

Quiet Emergency

“Cape Town: a patchwork map of dislocation, where communities are separated by history and inequality, isolated by high walls and indifference…”

Quiet Emergency is created by Anthea Moys, Gilbert Douglas and Margie Mackay

"Honouring that which unites us as human beings, that which gives us connection, hope and continuity"

"Every community has its boundaries, each interaction its limitations... we live in a state of quiet emergency"

Creating a halfway meeting space - street children, sex workers, security guards, street cleaners and professional performers

Meet Market

Meet Market tranforms Church Square into a startling new green space in the city

"The procedure is not pretty, it concerns dis-ease"

"A new rite is exercised... an infected wound is lanced, disinfected and then sealed to allow healing"

The act of passing water for a cleansing ritual from the site of the old slave tree to the Slave Memorial on Church Square brings traffic to a halt in Spin Street. The Slave Lodge is in the background.

"The putrification of centuries of denial and shame requires removal"

"Conflicting memories and fragmented histories"

Arriving on one of the new "Dutch Team" pedicabs to watch the performance

Jan Hofmeyer, founder of the Afrikaner Bond, contemplates a 'Home for All' on the side of the Provincial Government building in Wale Street

Meet Market is created by Andrew Buckland, Athina Vahla, Ibrahim Quraishi and Lerato Shadi. Infecting the City is on until 20 February.

Continuing the theme of public spaces for public life…

My bike ride this morning confirmed for me once again that the Sea Point Promenade is one of Cape Town’s most well-loved and special public open spaces. It’s extended version provides a 6km pedestrian route from Saunders Rocks near the smart apartments of Bantry Bay to the scruffy little beaches in Mouille Point. It is well-used by a racially- and economically-diverse range of Capetonians – for, amongst other things, walking, roller blading, football, touch rugby, swimming, fitness classes, cycling (on the adjacent pavements, not on the Promenade itself), kite-flying, religious ceremonies and people watching. With its numerous grassy spaces and playparks, not to mention the Blue Train, it is very children-friendly.

In recent years, citizens have organised a great campaign called Seafront for All to ensure that the Promenade remains accessible to the public. This is an essential aspect of public spaces for public life – the space not only needs to be well-used but also ’owned’ by citizens. Sometimes new public spaces are created that are well-designed but remain unused because of lack of citizen involvement; the Sea Point Promenade, on the other hand, slightly jaded in places, battered by waves during winter storms, remains a much loved place where Capetonians from all walks of life can engage.

Two fishermen try their luck off Saunders Rocks near Bantry Bay

Sunday morning football games are taken very seriously

So too is five-a-side touch rugby

The Sea Point Promenade near Three Anchor Bay

The stretch of grass near the Mouille Point lighthouse provides breathtaking views of the West Coast across Table Bay

My favourite part of the pedestrian route - the little beaches in Mouille Point - still give one an idea how the coastline looked 100 years ago

A 'pirate' cruise boat in front of Robben Island

See Seafront for All Facebook site

On Saturday morning, I cycled around the Green Point Common area (Fan Walk, IRT Station, pedestrian underpass, CT Stadium, Granger Bay Boulevard, Urban Park) to investigate the car-free recreational cycling opportunities and to check the progress of all the 2010 developments in the area.  The date (23 January) was particularly significant because the first football match ever in the new CT Stadium was due to be played that afternoon (for great pictures of this event, click here). All in all, with the pavement next to the Sea Point Promenade thrown in, I experienced 18km of mainly car-free cycling which I enjoyed so much, I returned the next morning, this time with my sons, Mano and Angelo.

Fan Walk from Station to Stadium. This wonderful pedestrian and cycle path provides a new connection from the CBD to the CT Stadium, Waterfront, Urban Park and Promenade

Pedestrian underpass – nearly completed and now navigable on a mountain bike

IRT Bus Station under construction – designed to handle large crowds before and after matches

An army tent guards the horizon at Fort Wynyard in the shadow of the stadium

Fort Wynyard, a centrally-located and valuable heritage site, is currently under the control of the Cape Garrison Artillery. It was built in 1861 by convicts from the nearby Breakwater Prison (now UCT Graduate School of Business), although the site was first used for coastal defences by the Dutch in 1795. It makes sense to consider upgrading and opening this facility to the public to make it part of the overall Green Point Common experience. At the moment, grumpy army guards do their best to keep one away from the site.

Green Point Urban Park under construction. I have no doubt that when this facility is completed, it will become one of the best used public open spaces in Cape Town

Mouille Point Lighthouse. The Urban Park will provide a magnificent pedestrian and cycle link between Green Point Main Road and the Sea Point Promenade.

Urban Park under construction. A row of cranes that look as if they could be from that best loved children's book Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel

Green Point Urban Park under construction

Different angles. The stadium is framed by Signal Hill and Table Mountain

Different angles: CT Stadium and Devil's Peak

Different angles: The stadium resembles a giant paper lamp in front of Table Mountain

Reporting for duty. Security staff get ready for the first match to be played at the new stadium (Santos vs Ajax Cape Town, 23 January 2010)

Mike Mulligan, Mary Anne and friends wave goodbye

Sunday morning

A club cricket match in a stunning setting - surely more use could be made of these grounds?

Mano Boraine was keen to pose in front of the CT Stadium tunnel onto the pitch

Paragliders circle Signal Hill and Lion's Head

Angelo Boraine outside the new CT Stadium

While in Sydney, I was taken on a fantastic walking tour of some of the laneways that are part of a CBD lane revitalisation strategy. One of the ways in which this is being done is through an innovative urban art installation project called By George! Hidden Networks (George Street being the main street in the Sydney CBD). I particularly enjoyed the following projects:

The Urban Barcode

The Urban Barcode in Abercrombie Lane refers to suspended white fluorescent tubes that represent the bar code to Jan Gehl's influential book on public space 'Life Between Buildings'

Family Unit – Chill Trailer

Family Unit - Chill Trailer in Bond Street is a series of constantly changing performances in the hidden network of Sydney’s laneways. The Chill Trailer is an adaptable mobile unit that accommodates a multitude of uses.

 The Seven Metre Bar

The installation in Underwood Street is a real bar located at the 7m point of the CBD that marks the projected rise in sea-water should the effects of global warming not be mitigated timeously

A picture taken from the By George website showing the bar in action at night. Weather projections that build in ferocity in response to increasing bar patrons flicker across the installation.

Forgotten Songs

Forgotten Songs in Angel Place references the bird species that used to sing in the region before urban growth forced them away, drawing attention to the loss of habitat

See Cities Matter and Christmas Lighting in Sydney for more stories about my trip to Sydney.

I’ve got quite a few city development stories from my recent visit to Sydney. However, they are going to have to wait for the New Year because I’m going on holiday, and no-one wants to read serious stuff at this time of the year anyway. So, let me close the year with a two great lighting projects that I came across.

Recycled Christmas Tree

This 8m tall Christmas tree, located in the restored area of Sydney known as The Rocks, is made from more than 7 000 recycled soft drink bottles that were rejected by the packaging company. The tree is lit each night by GreenPower renewable energy. After Christmas, the tree will be recycled back into bottles.

Christmas tree made from recycled bottles, The Rocks, Sydney

Close-up of plastic bottles

A daytime view

Macquarie Night Lights

The New South Wales Government sponsors the impressive Macquarie Street Night Lights, which use computer-aided design to light up historic buildings on Macquarie Street in Sydney city during the month before Christmas.

Computer-generated lighting design

Same building, different design

Design 1

Design 2

St Mary's Cathedral, design 1

St Mary's Cathedral, design 2

The City of Sydney similarly projects Christmas images on the facade of the iconic Sydney Town Hall

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

Upper Long Street, Cape Town

There’s big excitement in town as we prepare for the 2010 FIFA Final Draw this coming Friday (04 December). The Final Draw is the second largest live broadcast on the planet (the World Cup Final being the largest) with a live feed to 240 countries and 350m viewers. While the main event will take place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, Upper Long Street will be the venue for the public street party, where we will be able to watch on large screens and listen to entertainers such as Jimmy Dludlu and Freshlyground.

Switching on the Festive Lights, Adderley St

Long Street, Cape Town's party epicentre

New planters in Long Street

Enhancing public space through street art

Local retailers get creative