A Town Shaped
by the Sea

The Dutch Arrive at the Cape

Long before Simon’s Town had a name, the sheltered bay on the eastern shore of the Cape Peninsula offered the best natural anchorage between Europe and the East Indies. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) established their refreshment station at the Cape in 1652, and sailors quickly learned that the bay — protected from the fierce north-westerly gales that battered Table Bay in winter — was a far safer harbour for their fleets.

The bay was named after Simon van der Stel, Governor of the Cape Colony from 1679 to 1699, who ordered the construction of a small outpost here. The sheltered waters became the VOC’s preferred winter anchorage, and a small settlement of taverns, repair facilities, and provisioning stores grew up along the shore.

A British Naval Base

Britain seized the Cape Colony from the Batavian Republic in 1806, and Simon’s Town’s strategic importance immediately became clear to the Royal Navy. In 1814, the town became an official British naval base — a status it would hold for the better part of two centuries.

The dockyard was progressively expanded throughout the 19th century. Dry docks were cut into the granite hillside. Stone magazines, barracks, and officers’ residences were built in the Georgian style that still lines the main road today. By the time of the Anglo-Boer War, Simon’s Town was the most significant naval installation in the southern hemisphere.

The Dockyard and Two World Wars

During both World Wars, the Simon’s Town dockyard operated at full capacity. In the First World War, the South Atlantic naval campaign was partially coordinated from the base. In the Second, the harbour was a vital staging point for Allied convoys rounding the Cape — the Mediterranean route having been closed by Axis forces.

German U-boats prowled the waters off the Cape, and the dockyard worked around the clock to repair and resupply Allied vessels. The community lived with the rhythms of war — servicemen from across the Commonwealth passing through, the harbour lights dimmed, and the constant presence of naval patrols.

The Community Through Apartheid

Simon’s Town’s history carries a painful chapter that cannot be glossed over. For generations, the town had been home to a diverse community — Malay fishermen, Cape Coloured families who had lived here for centuries, traders and craftspeople of mixed heritage. The main road and its side streets were woven with this complexity.

The Group Areas Act of 1950 designated Simon’s Town as a “white” area. Thousands of residents — many of them families who had lived in the town for four and five generations — were forcibly removed to the townships of Ocean View and Red Hill on the other side of the mountain. Homes were demolished. A community was fractured.

The legacy of those removals is still felt. The Simon’s Town Museum preserves much of this history, and in recent decades former residents and their descendants have worked to have their stories told and their connections to the town acknowledged.

Transfer to the South African Navy

In 1957, the Royal Navy finally handed Simon’s Town over to South Africa. The South African Navy (SAN) continues to operate the base today — it remains the country’s primary naval installation and the home port of the SAN’s surface fleet. The naval presence is still very much part of the town’s character: the distinctive white naval buildings visible from the harbour, the mast of a retired frigate pointing skyward near the museum, and uniformed sailors walking the main road.

Simon’s Town Today

Contemporary Simon’s Town is a heritage town with a living identity. The Victorian and Georgian streetscape along St George’s Street is one of the best-preserved in South Africa. The waterfront is a mix of working fishing boats, naval vessels, pleasure craft, and the ferry to Cape Town.

Boulders Beach — a ten-minute walk from the house — is home to one of the world’s only land-based African penguin colonies. False Bay is rich with marine life: great white sharks, southern right whales (June to November), Cape fur seals, and some of the finest shore angling in the country.

The town’s restaurants, galleries, and museums reflect both its naval heritage and its natural setting. It is a place with a strong sense of its own story — which is, perhaps, why families like ours keep returning to it, generation after generation.