In July, Cape of Diab featured an article on St Margaret’s Anglican Church in Fish Hoek. Information was provided by Derek Pratt, and taken from the Fish Hoek Valley Museum archives. According to the article, in 1930, it was agreed by the Fish Hoek Anglican Church council to approach Charles Percival Walgate to design the proposed new church. “Mr Walgate was an architect of note, having worked with Herbert Baker in India. He had come to Cape Town from Johannesburg to assist with the work on the new University of Cape Town (UCT) campus in Rondebosch,” said the Cape Diab article. According to Mary Smorenburg, her grandfather, James Gordon, built the church (“Jager’s Walk turns 90,” Echo, January 19), and Michael Walker’s book, The Far South, notes that the foundation stone was laid on April 4 1934. Picture: Cape of Diab.
A recent picture of St Margaret’s Anglican Church in Fish Hoek. According to the Kalk Bay Historical Association, plans for the police station were drawn by the Public Works Department (PWD) in February 1897. The police station was designed for family living, in this case with three bedrooms, and this would have made it a very desirable posting. The small cell - seldom used - was at the back up a slight slope. The site of this building, the fact that it was built before plans were approved and that it encroached on the main road, were matters for argument for years to come.
On completion, there remained the matter of the need for a mortuary - where to put the remains of people who had, for instance, drowned in the harbour. In 1916, the PWD decided to build it next to the police station. Harris Road was fully built by then and nearby property owners were outraged.
No other site could be found, and there the red-painted corrugated iron building remained - used seldom but often enough to scare young children walking past on Harris Road. The police station closed in 1950, but the building remains without its veranda, which was lost to road widening. Picture: Cape of Diab.A recent picture of the building that was once the Kalk Bay police station. An undated picture of the Brenner’s building, at 87 Main Road, Fish Hoek. Picture: Fish Hoek Valley MuseumA recent picture of the Brenner’s building in Fish Hoek. According to Cape of Diab, The Victorian Times in Fish Hoek is one of the first buildings erected after the village was established a little over 100 years ago. The building is pre-fabricated and was shipped from England around the 1920s. It landed at Delagoa Bay in Mozambique, was transported to Pilgrim’s Rest by ox-wagon where it served for some time as accommodation for gold miners. It was later taken to Johannesburg where it was similarly used as accommodation on the mines. Finally, it made its way to Fish Hoek where it was used as a house for many decades. Some time later, Anne Ripley bought the old beach house and renovated it to create The Victorian Times restaurant. Picture: Cape of Diab.A recent picture of The Victorian Times.This is a picture of Fish Hoek in 1910. Picture: Cape of Diab.This is a recent picture of Fish Hoek from a similar vantage point.
