Greenmarket Square features a ring of weathered cobblestones surrounding a central plaza, overlooked by the stone facade of the Old Town House. Established in sixteen ninety-six, it functioned as the city's primary market and a slave…
Greenmarket Square and Surrounds
Walk through Cape Town's oldest public square and its adjacent commercial lanes, tracing centuries of global trade, social activism, and daily community life.
Listen to this tour in the Mira app →
1. Greenmarket Square
2. Iziko Old Town House Museum
The Iziko Old Town House is the building with the pale, rococo facade standing directly on Greenmarket Square. Built in seventeen fifty-five, it served as the city’s first civic building. In the early twentieth century, Max Michaelis…
3. Central Methodist Mission
The Central Methodist Mission sits on Greenmarket Square, marked by a sturdy, cream-colored stone facade and a series of tall, arched windows that have defined this corner since nineteen oh five. It replaced an earlier chapel that stood…
4. Church Street Vintage Antiques Market
The Church Street Antique Market sits on a narrow cobblestone stretch between the high-rises of central Cape Town. Stalls display silver tea sets, faded postcards from the nineteen twenties, and Cape Dutch ceramics directly on the stones.…
5. St Georges Mall Market (Tourism)
St Georges Mall is a long, narrow paved strip blocked off from cars, recognizable by the rows of wooden craft stalls and vendors sitting under umbrellas. It serves as a permanent pedestrian thoroughfare through the city center. In the…
6. St George's Cathedral
St George's Cathedral features rough, grey sandstone walls and pointed gothic arches that distinguish it from the flatter, surrounding buildings. Known as the People’s Cathedral, it served as a defiant refuge during the apartheid era.…
7. Iziko Slave Lodge
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…
8. Groote Kerk Kaapstad
The Groote Kerk in Cape Town features a massive, unadorned white facade and a distinctively tall, square tower that dominates the corner of Adderley and Wale Streets. Completed in eighteen forty-one, this is the oldest church building in…
9. Church Square
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…