Background: The Observatory Improvement District NPC (OBSID – see www.obsid.org.za) adopted a public space policy in 2020 that is guiding the use of resources for the improvement and celebration of public space in the neighbourhood. Part of this process entailed a public call for ideas amongst residents and businesses. There was some interest in celebrating the history…
Category: History of Obs
Rex Trueform building declared a provincial heritage site
NEWS / 21 FEBRUARY 2019, 1:04PM / KAREN PRETORIUS Cape Town – The declaration of the Rex Trueform building in Salt River as a provincial heritage site has been described as a “monument for the workers”. The building once housed a vibrant factory with more than a 1000 workers before the operation was shutdown in 2005. Greg Hoedemaker, from…
The Observatory I knew and the Twilight People
There are many lenses through which we can look at Observatory’s past. Here we look at Observatory as the City of Cape Town’s frontier for Apartheid’s twilight people – those caught in the fault-lines of Apartheid’s race classification system. Bokaap, District Six, Woodstock, Maitland, Salt River and the northwest corner of Observatory presented the implementation…