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South Africa Travel + Tourism Guide: Cape Town's Victoria & Alfred Waterfront

V & A Waterfront

Cape Town's Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, known locally as just "Waterfront" has its origins in the 1860s and was Cape Town's original 19th century harbour. Named after British Queen Victoria and her second son Alfred, the two basins - Victoria Basin and the smaller Alfred Basin are still in use as a working port for fishing boats, cruise boats and tugs, which along with the large basking seals in the water and human scale of the buildings gives the area its unmistakeable charm.

The Waterfront has been re-developed as a tourist attraction since the 1970s with a plethora of new restaurants, bars, cinemas and shops.

The area alongside the Waterfront Marina contains the Two Oceans Aquarium (Tel: 021 418 3823) - one of Cape Town's main attractions - with a collection of sharks, rays, seals and penguins from the two oceans off Cape Town - where the warm waters of the Indian Ocean mix with the cold waters of the Atlantic.

The Chavonnes Battery Museum (Tel: 021 416 6320) opposite the Nelson Mandela Gateway displays the excavated remains of the original cannon battery that stood here in the early 18th century to protect the Castle of Good Hope.

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In Fish Quay, the Clock Tower is an architectural oddity dating from 1882 and was originally the Port Captain's Office. The building now houses a branch of the Waterfront information centre. Next door is the small Clock Tower Centre shopping mall with a Cape Tourism visitor center inside.

The main shopping and entertainment area is centered on Agfa Amphitheatre and Market Square, with frequent outdoor concerts and street performers and dining al fresco.

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The Alfred Mall has a number of souvenir shops, cafes and restaurants. In Nobel Square you can be photographed next to a statue of South Africa's four Nobel Prize winners to date: Nelson Mandela, FW de klerk, Nkosi Albert Luthuli and Desmond Tutu.

Hotels in the area include the historic Breakwater Lodge formerly Breakwater Prison, which was constructed in 1854 to house male convicts working on the breakwater in Table Bay to create the basins. The building remained in use as a prison until the end of the 20th century.

Waterfront merges with the Waterkrant area to the south and Cape Town's gay area around Somerset Street. To the east is Green Point Stadium and the Green Point Stadium Visitors Centre (Tel: 021 430 0410) built in the former presidential suite of the old stadium.

V&A Waterfront
PO Box 50001
Waterfront 8002
Cape Town
South Africa
Tel: 021 408 7600

V&A Waterfront Access

Boats leave from the Nelson Mandela Gateway here for trips to Robben Island offshore. Buses run to the Waterfront from Adderley Street, Cape Town Station and Sea Point. There's a taxi rank at Breakwater Boulevard.

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