City Bowl Civic Architecture

The Cape Town High Court sits behind a massive, grey stone facade featuring tall columns and a pediment that looks out over Queen Victoria Street. It is the seat of the Western Cape Division of the High Court. Inside these halls, in…

The Western Cape Provincial Parliament operates from a building marked by a distinctive red brick facade and steep gabled roofs, echoing the Dutch colonial style of the seventeen hundreds. It occupies the former Old Assembly Chamber of the…

The Parliament of South Africa stands out for the cluster of white gables and the massive dome that rises above the stone facade on Parliament Street. This complex served as the stage for the country’s colonial governance and later the…

The Iziko Slave Lodge stands as the oldest building in Cape Town, distinguishable by its distinct yellow facade and the heavy iron bars remaining on the ground-floor windows. Built by the Dutch East India Company in the late sixteen…

Church Square sits anchored by the Groote Kerk, its high, white gabled facade rising above the rest of the greenery. This plot served as the slave burial ground for the Dutch East India Company during the eighteenth century. In eighteen…

The Mutual Heights building features a towering gray facade decorated with intricate, gold-leafed figures of native animals and figures representing the diverse population of the region. Originally built in nineteen thirty-nine as the…

Cape Town City Hall sits at the edge of the Grand Parade, defined by its honey-colored oolitic limestone facade and a central clock tower modeled after Big Ben. Completed in nineteen oh five, the building was the result of an international…

The Old Granary stands out with its thick, whitewashed stone walls and deep-set windows that seem to hold the heat of the Cape sun. Built in eighteen fourteen, this building served as a tax office and later a grain store, keeping the…