Affectionately known as The Strip, the Camps Bay beachfront has it all – perfect palms, a crescent of white sand where bronzed beach-goers glisten in the sun while sipping cocktails behind Gucci shades, and a beautiful, yacht-filled, turquoise bay.This golden view fronts a suburb that is the envy of beach destinations worldwide. To visitors, Camps Bay is a dazzling, self-contained holiday resort where you can shop at exclusive boutiques, dine at a vast selection of restaurants, party in glamorous style, tan, paraglide, enjoy matchless mountain walks and view cutting-edge architecture – all under the breathtaking gaze of Cape Town’s towering sphinx and against the backdrop of the exquisite Twelve Apostles mountains.
But Camps Bay wasn’t always a playground for local and international glitterati; this is just one of its alluring personalities, and its newest. From the 1940s to the ’60s, it was literally a one-horse town. A white mare named Philly was the village pet. She roamed the streets freely, and in 1957 was made an official freeman of Camps Bay. Philly belonged to Roy de Beer (known by locals as Bak-Beentjies), a well-remembered Camps Bay character who worked from two huge sheds that stood almost exactly where the parking lot behind Pick n Pay is today. His land was essentially a car graveyard.
A resident who grew up in Camps Bay recalls: ‘Bak-Beentjies had a scrapyard full of cars that he kept meaning to work on, plus every other broken object one could possibly imagine, and living in amongst this metal playground were his 40 or 50 cats and dogs. They seemed to spend all day sleeping under the cars and in old doll prams, enjoying the full attention of their owner. Philly, on the other hand, would wander around, eating people’s flowers and getting fed delicious treats by housewives, who adored her.’
The one-horse town later became a one-horse, one-donkey town when Roy adopted scruffy Nellie. Local children would ride on his back until he’d tire of them; then he’d simply walk under a low branch and knock them off. These hoofed residents are still making Camps Bay’s children smile and watching their village grow – they grin from a huge mural in the entrance hall of Camps Bay High School, as a constant loving reminder of the suburb’s earlier days.
In the early 1800s, when Camps Bay was a backwater suburb that few Capetonians even knew how to get to, lion, leopard and antelope roamed free on the verdant slopes beneath Lion’s Head. Lord Charles Somerset used The Round House (a small building at the foot of Lion’s Head that was originally a guardhouse and later a farmhouse) as his hunting lodge. His tastes were extravagant and he had it fitted with the finest luxuries of the time. Since then, The Round House has been used for various hospitality endeavours. Today the building has been beautifully restored and houses the exquisite Roundhouse Restaurant.Nightlife and entertainment in Camps Bay began in the Rotunda, which now forms part of the five-star Bay Hotel. The landmark green-roofed, round building was built in 1904 and was used for roller-skating, dancing, silent-movie viewings and, sometimes, even boxing matches. Today, people find their fun a few metres closer to the sea. On the south side of The Strip is Cape Town’s beautiful Theatre on the Bay, where an excellent variety of local and international productions are staged.
Restaurants and bars are dotted all along the beachfront and spill onto the pavement, creating a real café-culture, cocktails-in-the-sun feel.
Owners don’t have it as easy as it may appear, though. Edmonton block, the restaurant block opposite the famous Café Caprice, recently sold on auction for R44-million, and it’s just over 400m2 – a whopping R110 000 a square metre. This exceedingly high value makes it difficult for any commercial venture to be profitable, and restaurants in Camps Bay have a tendency to frequently change hands. Those notable for their staying power include The Bayside Café, The Sandbar, Café Caprice and Blues.
The up side of the situation: there are always new little gems to be discovered. The most recent summer additions are Bungalow and The Kove, which have brought a crisp sense of style to the previously drab ‘petrol-station side’ of Main Road.
The name ‘Camps Bay’ has been around since the 1700s, when Dutch sailor Fredrik Ernst von Kamptz envisaged a relaxing life for himself on a farm where he could look out over the vast ocean rather than scrub the decks of his ship Holland. Von Kamptz found a lonely widow, Anna Koekemoer, who owned a piece of land with an idyllic view. He married her and became the owner of Ravensteyn, the first farm in the area. Despite only living there for 10 years, he managed to make his mark, with the area becoming known as ‘de Baai van Von Kamptz’.
Perceptions change all the time: Cohen’s Folly was the name given to Isidore Cohen’s swift purchase of a large portion of Camps Bay in the 1920s, when it was known as a bushy waste battered by the southeast and northwest winds. He was one of the very few who saw any potential in the area.
Investment folly? Hardly so. The last few decades tell a very different story.‘I’ve been working in the area for 15 years and have witnessed its meteoric rise from a sleepy suburb to one of Cape Town’s most desirable areas,’ says Barbara Rogers of Pam Golding Properties. ‘It has proved to be a very good investment area. Even in difficult times, Camps Bay has held property values far better than other areas.’
Careen Bernstein of Dogon Group Properties agrees: ‘I’ve spent most of my adult life selling property in Camps Bay; it has certainly been a good investment area for many people. Three years ago we sold a bungalow on Glen Beach for R21-million and it didn’t even have a garage or off-street parking! More recently we sold a property on a very large erf for R20-million. The purchaser knocked down the house that was there and is now building a mansion of note.’
The numbers rise. A two-storey house recently sold for over R30-million, and this on the previously lower-valued, south side of Camps Bay, closest to Hout Bay. ‘Traditionally, The Glen – at the foot of Lion’s Head, on the north side of Camps Bay – was the most sought-after area because it’s more protected from the wind,’ says a property developer in Camps Bay. ‘But in recent years, high prices have been achieved anywhere in the area. People are far more interested in the house and the quality of the views than the location. Anywhere in Camps Bay is prime.’
Ian Slot, managing director of Seeff Properties, says, ‘Years ago, houses in the Rontree area above Camps Bay Drive as well as the area below it were less sought-after. However, with all the magnificent homes around today, there seems to be little differentiation between areas. Investment doubles every five years and is continuing to do so. Entry-level is around R5-million.’
Architecture has embraced the fact that a house and its views are the factors that fetch high prices. Camps Bay is the ideal canvas for architectural firms, like Stefan Antoni Olmesdahl Truen Architects, Greg Wright Architects, Archilab Architects and Arthur Quinton Darryl Croome Architects; they can capture the natural splendour, reflect it in their designs and ‘bring the outdoors in’.
One building whose design contrasts with the architectural styles emerging in the area is Sonnekus, the only high-rise building on the beachfront. It was completed in the early 1970s, when new developments were hardly questioned. Once it was up, residents panicked as they realised that the beachfront was legally zoned for towering blocks of flats. The potential for a concrete uprising on the beachfront was quickly squashed when Section 98 of the Zoning Scheme Regulations was introduced; it prescribed that future buildings in Camps Bay were to be restricted to 10 metres in height and could only comprise three storeys.
‘To this day, nobody can tell you with any certainty what this actually means,’ sighs Camps Bay resident Chris Willemse, the head of planning for Camps Bay Ratepayers and Residents Association (CBRRA). ‘We’ve fought many court cases and are willing to keep doing so to keep Camps Bay looking like a residential area. The city’s development approval process is abysmal, mostly favouring unacceptable and often illegal development, but we’re working hard to keep a village feel. The CBRRA is not anti-development, but we’re not prepared to allow our very special suburb to be destroyed for anybody’s short-term gain. The three words we keep in mind when development decisions arise are: “sensitive, sensible, sustainable”.’
Brenda Herbert of Herbert Properties has worked as an estate agent in Camps Bay for 33 years. She has lived in the area for 45 years and is an executive member of the CBRRA. She says, ‘Many developments have been legally “trimmed” to comply with the regulations and to avoid dropping the values of neighbouring properties. Development must obviously happen, but it has to blend in with, not mar, the beauty of the surroundings.’
For those looking to move to the area, the community feel is a draw card, as is the community’s efforts to reduce crime. Bernard Shäfer started Camps Bay Watch in February 2008 as an anti-crime initiative under the auspices of the Camps Bay Community Policing Forum. ‘We’ve had a tremendous impact on crime,’ he says, ‘but as a public organisation we intend to continue changing the way residents co-exist and interact in order to restore a cleaner, safer and better functioning suburb for all.’ Does he think Camps Bay is a safe place to live? ‘Yes, definitely; compared with other areas we are relatively safe.’
Some residents are keen for Camps Bay to become a City Improvement District (CID), Bernard says. ‘We’ve had an introductory meeting to educate residents on what a CID entails, but no decision or direction has been taken yet.’
‘Becoming a CID would be very positive and is probably inevitable,’ comments Chris Willemse.
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