Gardens, Cape Town

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Gardens (or The Gardens) is an affluent inner-city suburb of Cape Town located just to the south of the city centre located in the higher elevations of the "City Bowl" and directly beneath Table Mountain and Lion's Head. It is home to several national museums such as Iziko South African National Gallery and the Iziko South African Museum. The University of Cape Town also houses its Fine Arts department in the suburb, at Michaelis School of Fine Art. Company's Garden, South Africa's oldest garden, a public park and heritage site is a focal point of the suburb. The area is also home to the oldest synagogue in Southern Africa, the Old Shul (now occupied by the South African Jewish Museum) and its successor, the Gardens Shul, "The Mother Synagogue of South Africa."

It is also home to the storied

In the early years, the Cape was used as an anchorage for Portuguese, Dutch and British ships. No permanent settlement existed until the Dutch East India Company issued a mandate to Jan van Riebeeck, a ship's surgeon, to establish a settlement which could provide passing ships with fruit, vegetables and fresh meat (traded from the locals).

In 1652 the first garden was laid out by Hendrik Boom, the Company's master gardener, on a site close to the Fresh River (near to the Grand Parade). Later that year, the garden crossed the Fresh River (where Adderley Street is today), and included a medicine garden. Within a few years it was 18 hectares in size.

As more produce became available from the Company's gardens at

The famous kilometre-long Government Avenue, which runs from the top of Adderley Street, also known as 'The Gardens', was originally planted with lemon trees and in 1700 with orange trees. During the time of Simon van der Stel, it was lined with oak trees, which remain today.

The suburb is home to Southern Africa's oldest Jewish congregation. The first Jewish services in the country were held on the day preceding Yom Kippur in 1841, known as Erev Yom Kippur at Benjamin Norden's home, Helmsley Place. The Belmond Mount Nelson Hotel purchased Norden's former home in 1996 and it is now guest accommodation for the hotel.^[5][6] In the early twentieth century, a Jewish primary school was established on Hope Street, United Hebrew Schools'. A purpose-built school was built at the same site in 1937, replacing the large house that had previously housed the school.^[7] The school later became known as Herzlia School and relocated to its current campus in Vredehoek in the 1950s, where a high school was also established.^[8]

During

Kloof Street mostly consisted of boarding houses for most of the twentieth century, many have now been converted into restaurants, cafes, boutiques and hotels.[11]

Places of interest

• Belmond Mount Nelson Hotel, one of the oldest and most historic hotels in all of Africa
• Leeuwenhof, the official residence of the Premier of the Western Cape
• Labia Theatre, one of the oldest independent movie theatres in the city

Parks

• Company's Garden, the oldest garden in South Africa, a public park and heritage site.
• De Waal Park is a public park and heritage site in the neighbouring suburb of Oranjezicht

Museums

• Iziko South African National Gallery, the national art gallery of South Africa
• palaeontology and archaeology
  collections. It also contains a planetarium.
• The
  oldest Jewish congregation in Southern Africa built in 1862. It is known as the “mother synagogue” of South Africa.^[6] The twin-towered 'new' synagogue was built in 1905. Gardens, Vredehoek and Sea Point have traditionally attracted Jewish communities.^[12]
• Holocaust
  centre, founded in 1999

• Company Gardens
• St. Barnabas Church,
  Anglican
  church on Kloof Nek Road & Kamp Street
• Cape Peninsula Reformed Church, English-speaking congregation of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK) on Kloof Street
• Gereformeerde Kerk Kaapstad, Reformed church on Hof St
• The Union Chapel,
  Presbyterian
  church on corner of Kloof Street & Eaton Road
• Father's House Church, Assemblies of God church on Vrede Street
• Jubilee Community Church, located on Kloof Street
• New Life City Church Cape Town,
  Evangelical
  church on Kloof Street

Education

Schools

Public

• Cape Town High School, an English medium co-educational high school
• Good Hope Seminary High School, an English medium all-girls high school founded in 1873 by Reverend Andrew Murray
• Gardens Commercial High School, an English-medium co-educational high school
• St Mary's Primary School, an English medium co-educational
  Catholic
  primary school
• Afrikaans medium high school^[13]
• Jan Van Riebeeck Primary School, an Afrikaans medium primary school[14]

Private

• Lycée Français du Cap, the secondary division of the Cape Town French School, is located in Gardens.^[15]
• Anglican pre-primary, primary and high school in neighbourhing Oranjezicht^[16]

• Michaelis School of Fine Art, Fine Arts department of the University of Cape Town, founded in 1925 and named after its benefactor, Max Michaelis
• CityVarsity, a school of media and creative arts on Roeland St.

Libraries

• Kloof Street Public Library, at 122B Kloof Street
• Jacob Gitlin Library, a Jewish library and archive of information on Judaism, Jewish culture and history, and the nation of Israel

Transportation

The suburb is served by the MyCiTi bus rapid transit system. The 101 route takes passengers to Vredehoek and the Cape Town Civic Centre in central Cape Town. The 113 route takes passengers to Adderley Street and the V&A Waterfront. The 107 route goes to Camps Bay.^[17]

In popular culture

• J.M. Coetzee takes places in and around the suburb. The elderly white protagonist, Mrs. Curren lives in a home situated in the area of Breda Street, Schoonder Street and Vrede Street.^[18]
• Mabu Viny, a record store, previously on 2 Rheede St, features prominently in the documentary, Searching for Sugar Man^[19]