The Champion Kraal - A Claremont Heritage Walking Tour
Schedule
Sun Feb 23 2025 at 02:00 pm to 04:00 pm
UTC+02:00Location
The Good Neighbour Cafe | Cape Town, WC
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Is Claremont the most lush of all Cape Town’s neighbourhoods?Perhaps, but I can tell you it’s definitely one of the most fascinating by far.
From the Newlands Brewery to the Arderne Gardens, this little arboreal village should be a fabled fragment of South African Victoriana. Long before our current Rainbow Nation, communities of all colours here shared fields, faiths and mixed fortunes across centuries. Long before Cavendish Mall, Main Road was an Oxford Street in miniature spearheading the nation’s revolution in retail. And long before open evenings at the Observatory, star-gazers from all over the Empire came as pilgrims to the site of Sir John Herschel’s homemade telescope where the kids of Grove Primary now muddle into lessons.
You may have spotted or heard of all these features in passing, but I doubt anyone’s ever put them all together in one mellifluous story. If you join our heritage walk from The Good Neighbour Cafe this Sunday at 14h00, you’ll be knocked sideways by everything you’ve ever missed on your potterings around the Southern Suburbs. And even if you’ve lived in Claremont for most of your days, I think I can shock you with a few facts and hidden details that’ll serve to reveal your place in history. Taking Norah Henshilwood’s wonderful ‘A Cape Childhood’ as our map and guide, we’ll transform the suburb into a leafy playground for the afternoon, compacting all its generations into a palimpsest of collective memory before gawping once more at all of Ralph Henry’s Champion Trees on show and all the weddings we might end up crashing…
RSVP via Quicket or directly via 076 033 8164 and/or [email protected] to secure your spots!
And tell your friends, tell your fam! Let’s make a unique and glorious day of it x
Yours,
Cameron of CTHT
P.S. If you've read this far I'm guessing you'll want even more of the specs, so here goes:
- We'll be starting at The Good Neighbour Cafe on Hemlock Street at 14h00 on Sunday and finishing about 2 km away in the middle of the Arderne Gardens so happily park on either side and organise an Uber carpool if needs be. I’ll be providing lifts back to the starting point anyway.
- We used to be donation-based but to secure our future we're now doing a pre-booking system whereby you can guarantee your tickets beforehand at R120pp, or you can join the tour on the day for R150pp in cash or EFT et al. Simply WhatsApp us on 076 033 8164 or Message us via the buttons on our home page to secure your place.
- This is a consistently well-reviewed heritage-focused walking tour; which is to say that all you'll need to enjoy yourself is curiosity about Cape Town's past (and History in general) and enough stamina to walk just less than 5km in one afternoon (with stops and snacks).
- If you're rejoining us, please please please please please please consider dropping us a short (or extensive) review on our Facebook Reviews or Google Reviews section as it will help spread our gospel of curiosity and playful appreciation across the internet and across the spectrum of all potential visitors to the Cape. It helps us more than you can believe!
- We've also introduced an optional R10 donation on your ticket which will go directly to the NGO Streetscapes as part of our mission to spread love, enthusiasm, mutual support and respect for all of Cape Town's people and histories. Just think how many people we could help and the difference we could make with a few hundred tours!
- Feel absolutely free to spread the word, invite friends who've been looking for this kind of experience and badger us with every imaginable heritage query.
We live for it!
Can't wait to meet ya

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Where is it happening?
The Good Neighbour Cafe, 17 Mill St, Cape Town, 7700, South Africa,Cape Town, Western CapeEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
