By Thaakiera Ackerdien
Roeland Street, Cape Town, a street situated in the East City Precinct, is a street teeming with creativity, history and tragedy. It is home to Buitenkant, Darling, Canterbury and Harrington street, which boasts some of the most interesting landmarks in Cape Town. It’s home to a former prison, the oldest catholic church in the country, Parliament, and much more, all of which can be seen on a single walk.
View down Roeland street from the corner of Roeland Square. Image by T. Ackerdien
The Roeland Street prison, now the Western Cape Archives and Record Service, is an old building situated at the very top of Roeland street, just next to the Cape Peninsula University of Technology and opposite Harrold Cressy High School. It started off as a prison, with construction beginning in 1855 and finishing in 1859.
Colonial engineer George Pilkington, the man behind the design and construction of the prison, set out to build it in 1855. A shortage of funds and labour lead to the church and cells having no furniture, the kitchen having an absence of a boiler or stove and a lack of an ornamental wing. A released prisoner from 1936 described the place as “rat-infested.” He told The Argus that rats would scamper over the prisoners in their sleep and that they would capture and suffocate them. The prisoner’s diets consisted of porridge, bread, soup and a little sugar, hardly a five-course meal.
Entrance to the Archives is all that's left of Roeland Prison. Image: T. Ackerdien
The prison served as an auxiliary hospital during the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918. Prisoners and wardens alike were no match for the disease with about 10% of the prisoners succumbing to it.
Executions were commonplace, with the last one taking place on 13 August 1932. On days with an execution, crowds would gather outside the building to watch the flagpole. A black flag was always raised shortly after the execution.
The Kimberly Hotel finished in 1885, now 126 years old, is home to the third oldest bar in Cape Town. It gets its name from the horse-drawn carriages, which used it as a point of departure to the diamond mines of Kimberly in the Northern Cape, about 830km North-East from Cape Town.
The Kimberly Hotel in Roeland Street. Image: T. Ackerdien
It offers affordable accommodation and drinks as a backpackers hotel and bar and is a favourite hangout for students. However, being as old as it is, it is not without its tragedies. In July of 2013, a Drama student from the University of Cape Town (UCT) fell to her death from the first floor of the hotel when celebrating her 21st birthday with friends and family. It was reported at the time that she had been sitting on the railing of the balcony of the first floor when she fell. She was pronounced dead on the spot. Witnesses described the scene on the day, saying that the screams gave them “goosebumps.”
If you’re looking to confess your sins, or you’re a fan of Catholicism, St. Mary’s Cathedral might be the place for you. It is located directly opposite Parliament at 16 Roeland Street on the corner of St. Johns street. It is noteworthy for its beautiful stained glass and gothic revival architecture.
St. Mary's Cathedral seen from outside Parliament. Image: T. Ackerdien
Completed in 1851 and consecrated on 28 April of the same year, it is the oldest Catholic cathedral in South Africa and was considered the first tabernacle of Christ in the area. Although there is no official record of the laying of the foundation stone ceremony, historians believe it lies on the Hope Street side of the building. Its history is richly intertwined with the development of Catholicism in South Africa. Not only is it the mother church to the “Mother City”, but the mother of Catholicism in the entire country, over a period of more than 175 years.
Parliament is situated at the very beginning, or end depending on your perspective, of Roeland street, on the corner of Plein Street. At the entrance at Roeland street, you will find a statue of Louis Botha, a Boer war hero who later became the first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa. It boasts beautiful neoclassical architecture with bits of the Cape Dutch style incorporated into it.
Statue of Louis Botha outside Parliament. Image: T. Ackerdien
The original building was completed in 1884, with new sections added in the 1920s and 80s. It currently houses the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces. It is not uncommon to find protestors marching down Roeland street towards parliament. As recently as August 2020, a protest against gender-based violence and farm murders ended with the arrest of 18 protestors and an escalation of violence between passionate protestors and police.
Roeland street is a lifeline of the city, and there are many smaller places to visit than the ones I’ve mentioned. You could walk down the street a million times and find something new every time.
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