By Denis Conolly copyright 1992

Cape town's reclaimed Foreshore led to the unique opportunity for the planning, on a grand scale, of an entire new front to an old city. It originated following the massive dredging of Table Bay during the construction of the new harbour, named Duncan Dock after the South African Governor General, and completed during World War II.

The 145-hectare reclaimed area was once a rocky bay - the name Roggebaai still remains - where today can be seen a built up area in a handsome setting of wide boulevards. Among the many fine buildings is the famous Nico Malan Complex comprising the opera house, theartre and civic offices.

The Heerengracht, the principal thoroughfare, bisects the width of the foreshore and before joining with famous Adderley Street and the old city, it passes the statues of Jan van Riebeeck and his wife Maria and the circles three ornamental fountains. The area of the fountains marks the original shoreline before reclamation.

Opposite the fountains on the pavement in front of the Medical Centre is a small but deeply impressive monument - a dedication to Captain Robert Falcon Scott, the British Antartic explorer who reached the South Pole on the 18 January 1912 only to perish in a blizzard on his return. The monument takes the form of a bronze sailing ship inscribed with the moving message from Scott's diary.

Had we lived , I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman - these rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale.

Cape Town had served as a base for Scott on his last tragic expedition. Adderley Street (the original Heerengracht) had its name changed in 1850 to honour Sir Charles Adderley, the British parllaimentarian, who successfully opposed the British government's plan to make the Cape a convict settlement.

At the start of Adderley Street, fronted by a beautiful garden, is the modern central railway station and air terminal. Exhibited in the station's main concourse is an historical monument, the oldest rail locomotive in South Africa. It was purchased by the Cape Town Railway and Dock Company from Hawthorne and Leith, Scotland and arrived with its driver, William Dabbs, in 1859. In 1863 the line from Cape Town to Wellington, via Eerste Rivier, Stellenbosch and Paarl, was completed and the locomotive with its original driver remained in service, on this line until 1881. Although the construction of this Cape line started in 1859, it was the secind line to come into operation in South Africa - the first between Durban Central and the Point, opened in 1860.

At about the middle distance of the length of Adderley Street, on the left facing the mountain, is Sanlam's Golden Acre, an imposing high-rise complex with subterranean concourses and suspended pedestrian walk conecting with the railway terminal across Strand Street. Here during the building operations carried out in 1975, the ruins of Commander Zacharias Wagenaer's reservoir were discovered. Dating from 1663 these ruins were excavated by the South African Museum and preserved in the original position in which they were found. Having preceded the Castle in construction, these ruins are the oldest remaining Dutch structures in South Africa. Opposite the Golden Acre is the first trading site in Cape Town.

Beyond the Golden Acre, Adderley Street is connected with Parliament Street by Trafalgar which is occupied by the famous flower sellers, and across Parliament Streetfrom the square is the General Post Office. Here on the wall of the vestibule is a fine example of the inscribed post office stones, under which the early mariners left their mail for collection. Another post office stone, found during excavations in 1974, is displaed in the Strand Concourse.

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