CONTENTS
Page
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1.0
INTRODUCTION &
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
3
2.0
REPORT FORMAT
6
3.0
GLOSSARY OF TERMS &
SHORTHAND TERMS
Page
8.2
The lower Garden;
36
8.2.1
Entrance Area;
39
8.2.2
Around Japanese
Pergola;
41
8.2.3
Around Public
43
Lavatory and Bothy;
8.2.4
Around Herb Garden 45
and Aloe Rockery
8.2.5
Sinuous Paths;
8.2.5a Along Signal
Hill Side
47
8.2.5b Along Devil’s
Peak Side
49
8.2.6
Central Sundial/
Fountain;
8.2.7
Around Cecil
Rhodes Statue
and Aviary;
53
8.2.8
Around Restaurant;
56
8.2.9
Around Circular Pond;58
10
4.0
CONSULTATION PROCESS
4.1
4.2
4.3
Issues
Concerns
Opportunities
13
14
14
5.0
TOWARDS A VISION
18
5.1
Vision Statement
18
6.0
PRINCIPLES
18
6.1
Overarching
Principle
18
7.0
POLICIES
18
7.1
7.2
Policy Intention
Policy Statements
18
19
8.0
PLACE BY PLACE
INFORMANTS & ACTIONS
8.1
CONTENTS
8.3
51
8.2.10 Rose Garden –
Former Hot House
Area;
60
The Delville Wood
Memorial Garden ;
63
21
8.4
The Paddocks.
66
8.1.1
Wale/Adderley Elbow;24
8.5
8.1.2
Between Houses
of Parliament and
National Library;
The S.A. Natural History
Museum Forecourt;
69
8.6
Queen Victoria Street
71
9.0
SUMMARY OF ALL
PROPOSED PROJECTS /
ACTIONS
74
(I – XIV)
10.0
KEY RECOMMENDATIONS 75
Government Avenue;
8.1.3
8.1.4
Between Tuynhuys
and Lower Garden;
26
28
Avenue / Delville
Wood Memorial Garden
Juncture;
30
8.1.5
Between Paddocks and
S.A. Natural History
Museum;
32
8.1.6
Top End of Avenue
34
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A: BRIEF
APPENDIX B: CONSULTATION
APPENDIX C: MEDIA ARTICLES
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76
78
79
1
FIGURES
Page
FIGURE 1:
Study Area
5
FIGURE 2:
Study Process &
Products
7
Parts of the
Company’s Garden
9
Shorthand
Terminology
11
FIGURE 3:
FIGURE 4:
FIGURE 5:
FIGURE 6:
Issues, Opportunities
And Concerns Consultation Process 16
Problems, Assets
And Opportunities Heritage Audit
17
NOTE: The following parts of the Garden
each have plans, photographs,
diagrams and images depicting:
•
Essential character,
qualities, values and
significance.; and
•
Proposed Development
and Management
Guidelines as well as
Actions / Projects etc.
On the pages indicated below:
8.1
Government Avenue;
8.2
23
8.1.1
Wale/Adderley Elbow;25
8.1.2
Between houses
of Parliament and
National Library;
27
Between Tuynhuys
and Lower Garden;
29
8.1.3
FIGURES
8.1.5
Between Paddocks and
S.A. Natural History
Museum;
33
8.1.6
Top End of Avenue
Around Herb Garden 46
and Aloe Rockery
8.2.5
Sinuous Paths;
8.2.5a Along Signal
Hill Side
48
8.2.5b Along Devil’s
Peak Side
50
8.2.6
Central Sundial/
Fountain;
8.2.7
Around Cecil
Rhodes Statue
and Aviary;
55
8.2.8
Around Restaurant;
57
8.2.9
Around Circular
Pond;
59
52
62
The Delville Wood
Memorial Garden;
65
8.4
The Paddocks.
68
8.5
The S.A. Natural History
Museum Forecourt;
70
Queen Victoria Street
73
8.3
TABLES
9.0
Avenue and Delville
Wood Memorial Garden
Juncture;
31
8.2.4
8.2.10 Rose Garden –
Former Hot House
Area;
8.6
8.1.4
Page
SUMMARY OF ALL
PROPOSED PROJECTS /
ACTIONS
Page
74
(I-XIV)
35
The lower Garden;
38
8.2.1
Entrance Area;
40
8.2.2
Around Japanese
Pergola;
42
8.2.3
Around Public
44
Lavatory and Bothy;
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1.0
INTRODUCTION
On the 17th of March 1892 the then City of
Cape Town Council assumed control of
the Company’s Garden.
•
A review of mayoral minutes from the time
of assuming control in 1892 to 1988
reflects
various
Council
decisions
pertaining to individual additional planting,
memorials, statues, built structures and
events. The period 1976 to 1987 reflected
little if any reference to the Garden in
terms of planning or development.
In addition to the working group a steering
committee
was
formed
in
1989,
consisting
of
representatives
from
surrounding institutions, the National
Monuments Council, the Simon van der
Stel Foundation, Ward Councillors,
members of the local Ratepayers’
Associations and Council Officials. The
function of this committee was to provide
a forum for communication and broad
guidance for the planning process. This
steering committee met up until 1993.
However early 1988, saw a renewed
interest and the need to establish policy
for the Garden. The ‘Company’s Garden
Revitalisation Project’ was initiated to
prepare a preliminary policy framework
and a conservation plan.
To drive this initiative a small interdepartmental working group of Council
officials was established (1988-1990).
The members of this group undertook the
preparation of various analysis, surveys
and maps pertaining to structural features,
memorial plaques and statues, buildings
on the periphery of the Garden, a tree
inventory,
assessment
of
current
management and maintenance etc.
In March 1994 a document was produced
by Council entitled ‘ Cape Town Gardens
– The Development of a Guiding Strategy’
, which encapsulated most of the above
analysis, a ‘Statement of Cultural
Significance’ as well as information from
the following series of studies and
analyses initiated by the Cape Town City
Council in 1989, with the intention of
formulating
a
conservation
and
management policy for this historic site.
•
•
•
Historical research by Gwen
Fagan in 1989;
A user survey by Michael Young in
1989-1990;
A public participation programme
by Sandra and John Fowkes to
facilitate
the contribution
of
interested and affected parties in
the development of a planning
policy in April 1992; and
A survey of Attitudes and Values of
Low Income Citizens, conducted in
September 1992.
The period 1994 to 1999 again saw a lull
in the planning process of the Garden due
to resource constraints etc. Subsequently
in 1999, interest was once again renewed
as a result of public pressure, primarily
due to the deterioration of maintenance in
the Garden. As a result, OvP Associates
was appointed to complete a study
entitled ‘Company’s Garden Cape Town:
Development of a Management Plan
(Final Report, September 2000)’’. This
was adopted by Council in November
2000.
This study made several key recommendations, one of which was to formulate a
Master
Plan
and
Draft
Policy
Framework to inform and guide decisionmaking, ensuring that all intervention in
and around the Garden would occur in a
consistent and appropriate manner.
This recommendation was motivated by
the need to address the fact that:
1.
The
Company’s
Garden
is
surrounded by a dynamic urban
environment subject to developmental
pressure and change;
2.
Development within and on its
periphery, can have significant impact
on qualities that make the Garden a
special, contemporary open space
within the City context; and
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3.
It is important that the City responds
(in terms of decisions regarding
development and management) to
developmental change around and
within the Company’s Garden, in a
consistent and appropriate way.
In response to this recommendation, OvP
Associates was appointed in May 2000,
by the City of Cape Town to prepare a
Landscape Master Plan and Draft Policy
Framework for the Company’s Garden
(refer Appendix A – Summary of Briefs:
Phase 1:- Development of a Management
Plan and Phase 2: Development of a
Master Plan and Policy Framework).
In March 2001 the urban conservation
planner Penny Pistorius was appointed as
a sub-consultant to provide conservation
input into the master plan and policy
framework.
Dr.
Stewart
Harris,
architectural and space historian, was
later drawn into this process and has
since been fully involved in the project. As
part of this task the site was visited
several times to inspect and analyse the
features, patterns and spaces of the
Garden in situ, assess their spatial and
heritage values and identify constraints
and opportunities for conservation and
development.
While the initial intention had not been to
produce a separate report for this
specialist study, it was agreed that in
order to make the conservation-related
information accessible as an input to the
master plan and policy, it was necessary
to stand alone as an end product, but
serves as an interim resource for, and
contribution towards, the landscape
master plan and policy report for the
Garden. As such, this specialist report
entitled, ‘The Company’s Garden, City of
Cape Town - Heritage Audit, October
2001’ report should be seen as a
supplementary report to this document.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank Melanie Attwell
(City of Cape Town: Urban Conservation
Unit), for commissioning this study as well
as John Bennett (City of Cape Town:
Parks & Bathing Amenities Branch),
Sonette Smit (City of Cape Town: Design
Services Branch) and various other
council officials who shed insight on the
overall vision and day-to-day operations of
the Garden.
Penny Pistorius and Dr. Stewart Harris for
a comprehensive and informative Heritage
Audit which has certainly enriched and
formed a strong basis for the Master Plan
as well as Policies for the Garden.
In addition we would like to thank the
following stakeholders and key interested
and affected individuals for their continued
interest in the study and attendance of
various meetings and workshops (Refer
Appendix B):
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The S.A. Natural History Museum;
The National Art Gallery;
The S.A. National Library;
The Southern Flagship;
UCT-Hiddingh Hall Campus;
The Cape Town Tourism Board;
The Cape Town Heritage Trust;
The Cape Town Partnership;
St. George’s Cathedral Foundation;
Cape Town Hebrew Organisation;
Cape Town High School;
Garden’s Commercial High;
S.A. Police;
The South African Heritage Resources
Agency (SAHRA);
The City Bowl Residents’ Association
(CIBRA); etc.
Interested and affected parties:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Gwen and Gabriel Fagan;
John Rennie;
Delicia Forbes;
Annetjie du Preez;
Justice Albie Sachs;
Cllr. Owen Kinahan;
Cllr. C Bekker; and
Alderman Belinda Walker
Last but not least we would like to
acknowledge the unfoundering love of the
general public for the Company’s Garden,
inspiring a clear vision for the Garden and,
through their commitment, the urgency to
see this vision realised.
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FIGURE 1: STUDY AREA
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2.0
REPORT FORMAT
The documentation of this study consists
of the following:
1.
This report entiteled ‘Company’s
Garden
Phase
2:
Policy
Framework and Action Plan’;
2.
A supplementary report entitled
‘Company’s Garden Phase 2:
Summary of Proposed Projects /
Actions’ (to be read in conjunction
with Overall Action Plan);
3.
A specialist study / supplementary
report entitled ‘The Company’s
Garden, City of Cape Town Heritage Audit, October 2001’;
and
4.
Two Plans namely:
4.1
An Overall
Plan; and
Informants
4.2
An Overall Action Plan.
The following provides a brief description
of the format of this report in terms of its
various sections.
SECTION 3.0:
The report commences in Section 3.0 with
a glossary of shorthand terminology used
throughout the report and common, and
not so common terminology, as defined
within the context of this study.
The correct understanding of these terms
and their place within the project process
(refer FIGURE 2) was felt to be
fundamental to the correct interpretation of
the brief and resulting end products of the
study.
SECTION 4.0:
The report continues with a brief summary
of issues, opportunities and constraints
identified
within
the
stakeholder
consultation process underwent as well as
problems, assets and opportunities
identified within the Heritage Audit. These
together
informed
the
subsequent
sections 5.0, 6.0 and 7.0, that is the
Vision, Overarching Principles and Policy
statements.
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FIGURE 2: STUDY PROCESS AND
PRODUCTS
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SECTION 8.0:
A primary objective of this report is to
produce a document which can assist day
to day decision-making and actions on a
practical level. In order to achieve this the
Company’s Garden, due to its nature of
consisting of a palette of places of
different landscape experiences, can be
divided and sub-divided into a number of
parts namely (refer FIGURE 3):
8.1
Government Avenue;
8.1.1
8.1.2
8.1.6
Wale – Adderley Elbow;
Between houses of Parliament
and National Library;
Between Tuynhuys and Lower
Garden;
Avenue and Dellville Wood
Memorial Garden Juncture;
Between Paddocks and S.A.
Natural History Museum; and
Top End of Avenue.
8.2
The Lower Garden;
8.1.3
8.1.4
8.1.5
8.2.1
8.2.2
8.2.3
8.2.4
essential character, qualities, values and
significance, and subsequently proposing
area
specific
management
and
development guidelines as well as actions
/ projects for implementation. The report
structure therefore reflects an informants
section and an action section for each
area.
SECTION 9.0:
In summation these informants / essential
qualities and actions / projects identified
for each area, are then encapsulated in an
Overall Informants Plan and an Overall
Action / Master Plan (plans accompanying
this report).
Due to the nature of the study it was felt
that a Master Plan would in essence be an
Action Plan which sets out clear direction
for implementation actions as well as
providing a ‘brief’, design parameters and
in
some
instances
conceptual
development notions for areas needing
further detailed design studies.
Entrance Area;
Around Japanese Pergola;
Around Public Lavatory and Bothy;
Around the Herb Garden and Aloe
Rockery;
8.2.5 Sinuous Paths;
8.2.6 Central Sundial – Fountain;
8.2.7 Around Cecil Rhodes Statue and
Aviary;
8.2.8 Around Restaurant;
8.2.9 Around Circular Pond;
8.2.10 Rose Garden – Former Hot House
Area;
As part of this summation and the Action
Plan a summary table of all actions
categorised according to type, e.g. design
studies,
historical
/
archaeological
investigations, etc. and priority is given
(also forms a supplementary report, to this
report, so as to facilitate reading with
Overall Action Plan), to facilitate resource
allocation and clear direction for
implementation or initiation of other action
types such as commissions, discussions
etc.
8.3
SECTION 10.0:
8.4
8.5
The Delville Wood Memorial
Garden;
The
S.A.
Natural
History
Museum Forecourt; and
The Paddocks.
The heritage audit together with the
issues, opportunities and constraints
identified within the consultation process
therefore served to inform the detailed
analysis of each of the Garden’s parts to
determine (design / action informants)
In conclusion the report in terms of a way
forward, makes recommendations in
terms of key issues which would impact
on the successful realisation of the Vision
for the Company’s Garden and resulting
Action Plan and Policies.
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FIGURE 3 - PARTS OF THE GARDEN
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2.0
GLOSSARY OF TERMS AND
SHORTHAND TERMS
SHORTHAND TERMS
The following shorthand terms are used in
this document (refer FIGURE 4).
•
The north west side of the Garden
along Queen Victoria Street is the
Signal Hill side;
•
The north east side along Wale Street
is the seaward side;
•
The south east side along Parliament
Street is the Devil’s Peak side;
•
The top end, south west side, means
the Table Mountain end;
•
Company means Dutch East India
Company (VOC);
•
Garden when used with a capital ‘G’
means the Company’s Garden;
•
Avenue when used with a capital ‘A’
means Government Avenue;
•
Lower Garden: present garden on
Signal Hill side of Avenue from Library
to rose garden;
•
Cross Axis: Delville Wood Memorial
Garden;
•
Paddocks: rectangular lawns from
cross axis to Cape Town High School
playing field.
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FIGURE 4 – SHORTHAND TERMS
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TERMINOLOGY
Refer FIGURE 2 – ‘Project Process and
Products’ to understand inter-related
nature and sequential order of terms
described below.
Vision
A Vision expresses a guiding philosophy,
conveying an ideal towards which we
strive; galvanising, exhilarating and
inspiring decisions and actions. It has no
‘finish line’ or time limit.
Principles
Principles refer to a set of values and
beliefs, informed by a sense of quality
from which policies and proposals can be
derived.
Policies
The role of policies is to
• Provide predictability, stability and
Consistency;
• Provide a check on political decisionmaking and actions; and
• Remove uncertainty as to what is
acceptable and unacceptable.
Policies can further be divided into
overarching / regional policies and more
detailed / area specific policies.
Overarching / regional policies should be
clear, understandable, comprehensive
and as brief as possible as well as
established under legal authority. The
role of these policies is as follows:
•
•
To focus on direction and results
rather than focus on detail of how
implementation will occur;
Serve as broad guide to plan
preparation and decision-making;
In comparison detailed / area specific
policies guide detailed implementation
providing a basis for daily, on-going
planning development, management and
administrative decision-making.
For the purpose of this report overarching
policy statements are given as part of
Section 7.0 and site specific development
and management guidelines given as part
of section 8.0 – actions in lieu of site
specific policies. These guidelines may at
some later stage serve to inform sitespecific policies, as required.
Guidelines
Guidelines focus on providing clear
direction and parameters for development
and management decision-making and
implementation.
Master Plan
An action plan which sets out clear
direction for implementation actions as
well as providing a ‘brief’, design
parameters and in some instances
conceptual development notions for areas
needing further detailed design studies.
Cultural Landscape
Two broad categories of landscape types
exist, namely natural and cultural
landscapes.
Cultural Landscapes are areas which
clearly represent or reflect the patterns of
settlement or use of the landscape over a
long time, as well as the evolution of
cultural values, norms and attitudes
toward the land. They exhibit the different
phenomena of man’s lasting impact on the
land.
Preservation
Preservation holds an uncompromising
approach towards retaining and restoring
a building to its original form and more
often than not, the use for which the
building was designed as well as restoring
landscapes to their original design intent.
Conservation
Conservation comes in many forms and
guises and is different from preservation,
in that it has a positive potential for
adaptive re-use.
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4.0
CONSULTATION PROCESS
The consultation process of this study
focused on key stakeholders (including
adjacent property owners and Council
officials as well as to some degree key
interested and affected parties). Public
opinion was gleaned from previous
surveys. The intention was that once a
Master Plan and Policy Framework was
formulated, a wider public participation
process would be initiated to review and
comment.
Refer Appendix B for summary and
minutes of meetings / workshops held
within this study process.
The following is a brief summary (not
prioritised) of issues, opportunities and
constraints
identified
during
the
stakeholder consultation process (Refer
FIGURE 5).
* Company’s Garden = CG
4.1 ISSUES
1.
Provide adequate information;
2.
Facilitate and promote visitor’ s
walking up to the Garden from the
CBD;
11. Need to establish a common vision;
12. Need to revisit name, as Company’s
Garden, does not promote current
socio-political situation;
13. Need to facilitate and promote
activities which can be enjoyed by
everyone;
14. Need to create a place which is both
relevant and fun;
15. Need to investigate current users e.g.
vagrants etc.;
16. Current involvement of Garden’s
Commercial High in Paddocks area
e.g. maintenance, use etc. (refer
FIGURE 5);
17. Need to investigate opportunities to
increase open space of CG;
18 Develop design criteria for street
furniture, co-ordinate with historical
elements on buildings;
19. Programming of activities needs to be
well thought out and planned in
advance;
20. List assets of CG;
3.
Loss of unique sense of mystery of
the CG (refer FIGURE 5);
21. Need proper botanical assessment
(Replacement, disease, restoration
etc.);
4.
Involve broader community of Cape
Town in a more meaningful way - BoKaap residents, NGOs representing
current users e.g. vagrants, sex
workers etc. (Bulletin board)
22. Need to refurbish the Little Theatre,
and other buildings on campus at
various levels of repair (refer FIGURE
5);
5.
Broader community ascribed greater
weight to environmental / ‘green’
value than that of historical value;
6.
Need for restoration, buildings and
exterior elements;
7.
Need additional
facilities;
8.
Public institutions not used to the
optimum by the public (refer FIGURE
5);
9.
Need to change public perception of
CG as not a ‘nice’ place;
public
ablution
10. Need to increase safe usage into the
night;
23. Strengthen link to Mount Nelson (refer
FIGURE 5);
24. Involve BOTSOC;
25. Replacement of Glass House needs to
have more than a nostalgic reason, it’s
cultural / historical / scientific role must
be properly motivated – incorporate
other functions e.g. toilets, security
office, information centre, etc. instead
of erecting multiple new buildings
(refer FIGURE 5);
26. Multi-skilling of staff, share a common
vision and sense of corporate pride
and responsibility – patrol officer to be
able to offer tourist assistance etc.
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4.2 CONCERNS
27. Duplication of work in Study with
that which is being done by CTP
(Cape Town Partnership) forums –
need to be done in consultative
manner;
28. Retain open space nature of CG,
prevent urban erosion into CG
(policy);
29. No more built structures to be
allowed within CG;
30. CG must never be seen as elitist;
31. Need to control surrounding
initiatives and development so as
not to impact negatively on CG
(policy) (refer FIGURE 5);
32. CG
also
is
an
important
neighbourhood park;
33. Increase community ownership;
34. Need to formalise pathways in
Paddocks so as to prevent
trampling of plant beds (refer
FIGURE 5);
35. Need to control and limit film crews
in CG :
- Investigate allocation of funds
generated from this activity and
possibly put back into CG;
36. Allocation of toilets problematic as
if isolated attracts vagrants etc.;
37. Amphitheatre not to be located
directly in front of Garden’s
Commercial School :
- destroy vista;
- destructive during school time
(refer FIGURE 5);
38. Concern about extinction of owls
and survival of squirrels;
39. Address interface between CG and
surrounding buildings;
40. Impact of pollution on trees;
41. Maintain a balance between
serenity and activity;
42. Activities need to be intimate and
not mass gatherings;
43. Not necessary for City to own and
run everything;
44. Relationship with CTP investigate
thoroughly, tie up in terms of
service delivery and chains of
command;
45. Impossible to separate Bertram
House from Hiddingh Hall Campus
(refer FIGURE 5);
46. Until Vision on the table
moratorium needs to be set on ad
hoc proposals on security,
memorials, management etc.
4.3 OPPORTUNITIES
47. Important cultural node in the CBD
48. Management component provided
by CID (CTP - Cape Town
Partnership);
49. Southern Flagship has a strong
vision to promote the CG and
adjacent museums as an important
visitor destination and cultural
node within Cape Town, e.g.
outdoor dining and public outdoor
participatory
activities
(refer
FIGURE 5);
50. Upgrade axis to Art Gallery (refer
FIGURE 5);
51. Informal amphitheatre, outdoor
amphitheatre provide venue for
schools, UCT drama dept. and
public;
52. Food outlets to be both informal
and formal, various types, levels
and scales;
53. Avenue could be one of the great
walks in the world (refer FIGURE
5);
54. Concentration
of
surrounding
diplomatic
embassies
and
government departments receiving
international visitors :
CG epitomises a living
monument to cultural links
with other parts of the world
(refer FIGURE 5);
55. Investigate ownership and current
use of Old Maritz Building –
parking area is an opportunity
(refer FIGURE 5);
56. Current use of CG precinct space
and adjacent institutions for school
courses;
57. Promote link between UCT
campus and schools
fine
arts,
visual
and
performing arts;
increase precinct as arts
and
culture
node
(education) (refer FIGURE
5);
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58. Commercial High scholars expressed
interest in tourism
- act as tour guides in holidays (refer
FIGURE 5);
59. Commercial High to celebrate 40th
Anniversary – 23rd August 2001 (refer
FIGURE 5);
60. Possibility of extension to Art Gallery
(refer FIGURE 5);
61. Light public transport system around
the CG;
62. Ornamental vegetable garden;
63 Recreate past planting styles and use
interpretative signage to describe;
64. Redevelop water courses to provide
visual and experiential relief (refer
FIGURE 5);
65. Promote link between Parliament and
public area of CG (refer FIGURE 5);
66. Establish
community
based
organisations of volunteers to provide
resources;
67. Untapped opportunity to establish an
association for historical gardens in
S.A.;
68. Currently a great demand for garden
tours and specialist information
regarding medicinal plants (indigenous
and exotic);
69. Concentrated layering of museums
and
buildings
of
historical
/
architectural value, within close
proximity to CG which is currently
being mapped.
70. Upcoming VOC’s 500th anniversary
and
commemoration on the 24th
March 2002, opportunity for time goal
in an action strategy;
71. Opportunity to propose Hiddingh Hall
Campus as a signatory campus which
could display UCT’s cultural wealth, in
effect creating a living museum
(Egyptian Building ideal to house Kirby
collection
of
African
musical
instruments) (refer FIGURE 5);
72. Opportunity for asset swopping –
parking etc. (refer FIGURE 5);
73. Opportunity to integrate security of
Hiddingh Hall campus and the CG;
74. Opportunity
to
increase
the
concentration of the CG not only as a
cultural precinct but also as an arts
precinct (see Cape Town High as a
future Fine Arts School – visual and
performing arts), unique opportunity of
integrating the functions of the UCT
Fine and Performing Arts campus with
the functions of the cultural precinct of
the CG;
75. Opportunity for night time courses on
UCT campus if security improved
(refer FIGURE 5);
76.
Tea Room and other lease areas :
obvious resource is land /
buildings / development
opportunities on the glass
house site, Parks and
Bathing yard and tea room
(refer FIGURE 5);
77.
Future Education and Training
(FET) Schools, Programme which
allows schools to offer a specialist
subject choice or curriculum
appropriate to career choices or
environments (refer item 74 and
FIGURE 5);
78.
Set a goal – to be recognised as
an internationally acknowledged
heritage site or as a ‘Top Ten’
public garden;
79.
Parcel up CG in ‘bite-sized’ chunks
for adoption / sponsorship e.g. the
Koi Society, the Camelia Society,
Japanese embassy etc.;
Figure 6 summarises problems, assets
and opportunities identified in the Heritage
Audit (October 2001).
Prepared by OvP AssociatesCompany’s Garden Policy Framework and Action Plan
February 2002
15
Figure 5: Issues, concerns and
opportunities identified in consultation
process
Prepared by OvP AssociatesCompany’s Garden Policy Framework and Action Plan
February 2002
16
Figure 6 summarises problems, assets
and opportunities identified in the Heritage
Audit (October 2001).
Prepared by OvP AssociatesCompany’s Garden Policy Framework and Action Plan
February 2002
17
4.0
TOWARDS A VISION
Vision Statement
The Company’s Garden is the
green heart of Cape Town, a
place of culture, deep historical
roots, tranquillity and delight,
enjoyed by citizens and visitors
alike.
5.0
OVERARCHING PRINCIPLE
Any intervention in the Garden
should enrich the experience
thereof and add layers of meaning
and history without destroying the
cultural significance of that which
already exists.
6.0
POLICIES
6.1
Policy Intention
The following policy statements
seek to inform decision-making
and
intervention
within
and
adjacent to the Company’s Garden
in a consistent and appropriate
manner.
Prepared by OvP AssociatesCompany’s Garden Policy Framework and Action Plan
February 2002
18
6.0
6.2
POLICIES
Policy Statements
POLICY 1: CONSERVATION
Protect, conserve and enhance
the Garden as a place of
outstanding
cultural
significance by:
•
•
•
•
•
maintaining the integrity and
essential character of the
Garden;
recognising the many layers of
cultural significance resulting
from its long history and
changing roles;
protecting
and
enhancing
significant
elements,
structures, patterns and spaces
from all periods;
ensuring that all potential
interventions
respect
the
outstanding environmental and
cultural qualities; and
encouraging a sense of
belonging and respecting the
public and personal memories
of those who use it.
POLICY 2:
DEVELOPMENT
Ensure that any development or
intervention is appropriate to
the Garden’s primary role as a
culturally
significant
urban
public park by:
•
•
•
•
retaining its sense of openness
and its character as a garden;
ensuring the provision of highquality
public
facilities,
infrastructure and landscaping,
without
compromising
the
social, spatial and historical
significance of the place;
limiting
additional
built
coverage to redevelopment of
existing buildings or special
opportunities as identified in
the master plan;
ensuring that plants and
planting patterns reflect the
cultural significance of the
Garden;
•
•
•
•
•
•
ensuring that all development
is undertaken within current
statutory
frameworks
and
constraints;
ensuring that all development
complies with an approved
master plan and is guided by
the
management
and
development guidelines;
ensuring that development
does not compromise the
public’s right of access to the
Garden;
ensuring that development is
informed by significant patterns
and roles that have been lost;
encouraging
the
interface
between the cultural institutions
and the Garden; and
ensuring that due process is
followed.
POLICY 3:
ACTIVITIES
LAND
USE
AND
Promote the use of the Garden
as a culturally significant urban
public park, a prime amenity for
passive recreation in the City
and a relief from the built
environment, by:
•
•
•
•
•
•
ensuring that all land-use and
activities are of such a nature
so as to support the primary
role of the Garden;
limiting the impact of organised
activities on other users;
ensuring
that
commercial
activities do not compromise
the public use of the Garden;
encouraging the use of the
Garden both by day and night
subject to adequate security
measures;
encouraging and integrating
educational
and
cultural
activities and uses; and
ensuring that commercial and
organised activities only occur
at approved locations.
Prepared by OvP AssociatesCompany’s Garden Policy Framework and Action Plan
February 2002
19
POLICY 4:
COMPANY’S
GARDEN PRECINCT
POLICY 5:
LINKAGES
Establish a Company’s Garden
Precinct for the mutual benefit
of
the
Garden
and
the
surrounding
institutions,
properties and places as a
whole by:
Improve access and linkages to
the Garden from the City centre
in particular and the City Bowl in
general by:
•
•
•
•
•
•
ensuring a positive, active
interface between the Garden
and the cultural institutions on
its periphery;
ensuring the co-ordination of
design responses
ensuring that the height, scale,
design and materials of new
development
around
the
Garden creates a positive
backdrop and preserves views
from the Garden of the
surrounding mountain slopes.
encouraging the surrounding
institutions to:
• interface directly with the
Garden;
• establish active building
frontages on the Garden
where possible;
• utilise the Garden for
displays
and
special
events, in co-ordination
with
the
Garden
management;
• allow public access to, or
maximise
visual
connections between, the
Garden and adjacent open
spaces;
• co-ordinate the treatment
and design of the interface
with the Garden;
promoting the Garden Precinct
as
an
unparalleled
concentration
of
cultural,
governmental, educational and
religious institutions; and
co-ordinating the promotion of
the Garden and surrounding
institutions.
•
•
•
•
ACCESS
AND
maintaining the Garden as a
pedestrian place;
ensuring free public access to
the Garden;
restricting
vehicles
to
Government Avenue and the
Garden except for ceremonial
or emergency purposes or on
Council business; and
strengthening physical, spatial,
historical
and
symbolic
linkages with urban and natural
networks and spaces.
POLICY 6:
MANAGEMENT
Ensure
that
appropriate,
innovative
and
efficient
management structures and
procedures are adopted, and
continuously
reviewed,
to
achieve the Vision of the
Company’s Garden by:
•
•
•
•
ensuring that maintenance
results in a high quality
environment;
providing
a
secure
environment;
ensuring
that
resource
allocation is in accordance with
the outstanding significance of
the Garden; and
forming
partnerships
with
relevant stakeholders.
Prepared by OvP AssociatesCompany’s Garden Policy Framework and Action Plan
February 2002
20
8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS INFORMANTS
8.1
GOVERNMENT AVENUE
Description :
Straight, broad, unobstructed linear
pedestrian path edged on both sides with
a bed of low under-planting and lines of
oaks forming an avenue, with periodic
benches, bins and lampposts set back
from the path, flanked by stone-lined
water channels on each side which are
bridged or covered at various entrance
and cross-axis points.
•
Important townscape and urban design
element and qualities as part of main
sea-mountain axis of historical Cape
Town grid as well as extending down
Adderley street forming spine of
present day main axis of Cape Town
central city grid;
•
Significant retention of timeless form,
visual quality and homogenous
character of oaks (consistent planting)
vaulting (creating lineal tree canopy)
over a pedestrian path; and
•
Represents a strict geometry in earlyday wilderness.
Its character changes along its length and
it may conveniently be considered in the
following parts (as is described later):
8.1.1
8.1.2
8.1.2
8.1.4
8.1.5
8.1.6
Wale-Adderley elbow;
Between Houses of Parliamentside of National Library;
Between Tuynhuys-Lower Garden;
At Cross Axis;
Between Paddocks-side of SA
Museum; and
Top end to Orange Street.
Essential Character, Qualities, Values
and Significance :
•
Very old and historical cultural
landform, contemporary with Castle;
•
Significant pedestrian route which:physically connects:
- various parts of the Garden;
- institutions in and around the
Garden; and
- CBD and upper Table Valley;
symbolically connects:
- mountain and sea;
- past and present through water
channels alongside avenue (link to
historical productive purpose of
Garden); and
experientially connects:
an uneven rhythm of
events, enclosures and
vistas due to a variety of
edge conditions (walls,
railings, gates, buildings,
shrubberies and glimpses
through them).
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February 2002
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.
8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS ACTIONS
8.1
GOVERNMENT AVENUE
Management & Development Guidelines :
•
Strengthen as connecting element
through links to overall pedestrian
network;
•
Retain homogenous character of
Avenue created by avenue of trees
and verge planting;
Strengthen connection to Adderley
Street as part of main axis of CBD;
•
•
Retain essential design elements
(which reinforce linearity) : open path,
beds with low planting, lines of oak
trees and water channels;
•
Allow no obstruction (e.g. statues or
street furniture) in path space;
•
Ensure consistency and continuity of
paving materials and design along
path;
•
Allow no uninformed tampering with
water channels and bridges due to
historical
and
archaeological
significance, unless non-intrusive
maintenance;
•
•
Retain in-situ street furniture as
evidence of historical layering unless
strong
motivation
given.
Replacements or augmentation if
required to be discreet, modern and
compatible;
Improve directional and interpretative
signage;
•
Maintain pattern of simple banks of
low planting in side beds;
•
Restrict vehicular access into Avenue
to essential maintenance, emergency
and ceremonial vehicles.
Actions / Projects :
SL1
-
-
Establish
Planting
and
Maintenance Programme for trees
and verge planting:
On-going regeneration of oaks:
-
-
identify disease resistant
specie;
commission soil analysis
and recommendations;
Maintain pattern of verge planting
and
investigate
possible
introduction of other species of
plants.
Consider Impact on homogenous
character of Avenue.
HL1
Investigate
replacement
of
interlocking cement pavers with
more appropriate material;
HL2
Reinstate and upgrade water
channels in Avenue and elsewhere
in Garden;
H/AS1 Commission archaeological
study of water channels;
H/AS2 Integrate water channels in
a broader project looking at
historical water courses in
the City Bowl, historical
sites and urban pedestrian
routes.
H/AS3 Catalogue lampposts, benches,
bins etc. and identify historical
elements;
DES1 Design street furniture vocabulary
which is discreet, modern and
compatible
for
required
replacement and augmentation
(include security camera supports);
D&INTS1
-
Review interpretative and
directional signage as part of
furniture vocabulary as well
as part of an overall initiative
to look at signage throughout
the Garden and Government
Avenue (refer DES1);
Identify sites for interpretative
signage as part of study on
interpretation in the Garden
as a whole (integrating with
other elements such as
interpretative displays);
LOD15 Liaise with Roads Department
regarding access and signage as
well as S.A. Police regarding
access;
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February 2002
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Prepared by OvP AssociatesCompany’s Garden Policy Framework and Action Plan
February 2002
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8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS –
INFORMANTS
8.1.1
WALE – ADDERLEY ELBOW
Description :
The Wale – Adderley Street elbow is the
principle gateway to the Avenue (its
forecourt). A shaded, paved open space
with free-standing trees and minimal
furniture enclosed on one side by the
stone walls of the Cathedral and
contained on the Parliament side by pillars
and open railings.
The place is joined and enriched by the
narrow pedestrian Parliament Lane, tying
the adjacent Parliament garden into the
frame.
Here there are small scale
activities related to Garden use – vendors
selling peanuts for squirrels and ice
cream, a bright row of four payphones and
various signage. The moment of entrance
to the Avenue is marked by the paving
material changes from red brick (the
language of the CBD pedestrian network)
to grey blocks.
Its relationship to Adderley Street and
Wale Street with road curve and low
granite curb is weak and unresolved; the
space ‘bleeds’ out and pedestrian linkages
are tenuous and unclear.
Essential Character, Qualities, Values
and Significance :
•
The axis of Adderley Street continuing
into the Avenue is the oldest urban
landform in Cape Town, as old as the
Castle.
•
This axis further constitutes the most
powerful axis in the City, continuing
down to the foreshore and Harbour,
formin the guiding principle in the
urban form of the City.
•
Important role as principal gateway to
Garden and point of linkage to CBD
pedestrian network.
- The point of termination of
Adderley Street in an avenue of
trees is one of Cape Town’s most
striking townscapes that, instead of
blocking the vista, continues it and
transfigures it;
- Significant
transition
space
between Adderley Street and the
Avenue (where Rus and Urbe meet,
where the scale is at once reduced
and pedestrians wander at will);
•
Avenue forecourt part of node of
important buildings on curve of Wale –
Adderley Street elbow; (Board of
Executors, St George’s Cathedral, the
Slave Lodge, with the Groote Kerk
beyond).
8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS –
ACTION
8.1.1
WALE – ADDERLEY ELBOW
Management & Development Guidelines :
•
Retain trees as over-arching gateway
element;
•
Retain difference in paving from
forecourt into Avenue;
Actions / Projects :
UDS1 Commission urban design study
to:
Strengthen
Avenue
forecourt (presently weak
space) as a principal
gateway;
-
Strengthen
axial
relationship to Adderley
Street
as
transitional
‘knuckle’ on the axis;
-
Strengthen links to CBD
pedestrian
network,
particularly past Cathedral
to St. George’s Mall;
LOD16 Liaise with SAHRA and Telkom
regardingthe relocation of public
payphones on Avenue forecourt.
LOD17 Liaise with Roads Department
regarding prohibiting use of Wale /
Adderley elbow as tourist bus drop
off zone.
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February 2002
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Prepared by OvP AssociatesCompany’s Garden Policy Framework and Action Plan
February 2002
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8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS INFORMANTS
8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS ACTION
8.1.2
BETWEEN
PARLIAMENT
LIBRARY
8.1.2
BETWEEN
PARLIAMENT
LIBRARY
HOUSES
OF
AND
NATIONAL
HOUSES
OF
AND
NATIONAL
Description :
Management & Development Guidelines :
Beyond the oak trees, verges and water
channels on both sides, the lower part of
the Avenue is framed by double-storey
buildings.
•
To conserve buildings, railings and
essential relationships of buildings to
Avenue;
•
To encourage more active building
frontages and access to the Avenue;
On one side is the apse of the Cathedral,
St George’s Grammar School extension
and the side of the National Library and on
the other side is Parliament.
Interpolated among these buildings are
screened gardens, clearly private in their
character.
Parliament’s impressive (back) portico and
stairs insufficiently address any place and
the Cathedral frankly turns its back.
Opposite a minor gate to Parliament is the
recessed gateway to the “ Public
Gardens” and the narrow gate to the
National Library.
Essential Character, Qualities, Values
and Significance :
•
Flanking
essential
elements
to
Avenue, rhythmic railings and a
succession of grand buildings and
gardens offer a variety of vistas and
glimpses;
•
The paved area widens at the
Parliament portico and steps, and
again higher up on both sides, where a
Parliament gate is situated opposite
the angled entrance to the Lower
Garden, with its impressive pillars and
gates, and the discreet gate to the
National Library;
•
This section presents an intermediary
zone between the urban form left
behind
and
approaching
soft
landscaping and a unique spatial
experience – water channels and
significant buildings.
Actions / Projects :
LOD1 Investigate access to Parliament
steps and portico enabling an
approach
to
this
otherwise
inaccessible
institution,
giving
tourists
a
wonderful
photo
opportunity.
Discreet security
measures to the sides of the steps
could enable this.
LOD2 Liaise with adjacent landowners
regarding opportunities of ‘opening
up’ (physically and / or visually) to
the Avenue - existing gates are
closed;
bridges
and
paths
overgrown.
Prepared by OvP AssociatesCompany’s Garden Policy Framework and Action Plan
February 2002
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Prepared by OvP AssociatesCompany’s Garden Policy Framework and Action Plan
February 2002
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8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS INFORMANTS
8.1.3
BETWEEN
TUYNHUYS
AND
LOWER GARDEN SHRUBBERY
Description :
In this stretch the Avenue is at its most
typical, its own place. On the Signal Hill
side, over the shrubbery and railings, are
serial views of the Lower Garden. The
Devil’s Peak side starts with the intrusive
four-storey-and-attic side of Parliament,
that crowd close to the side of the
struggling trees.
8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS ACTION
8.1.3
BETWEEN
TUYNHUYS
AND
LOWER GARDEN SHRUBBERY
Management & Development Guidelines :
•
•
Encourage visual access as well as
physical access to Parliament and
other adjacent buildings as far as
possible.
Reinforce Tuynhuys axis, emphasising
historical importance of Tuynhuys.
Actions / Projects :
SL1
A narrow garden alongside but lower than
the Tuynhuys garden has concrete
retaining blocks – an alien element. This
gives way to the fine walls, posts and
railings that screen Tuynhuys and, lining
the Avenue, a wide and deep pre-1791
water channel and pool.
Halfway to the Cross Axis is a bridge
across the channel: crossing it and
peering through the wrought iron gates
gives a magnificent view of the 18th
century Tuynhuys facade and its parterre
setting. Opposite is a gate to the Lower
Garden.
The Avenue continues to the Cross Axis
between fine cast iron railings with
continuing views of the Lower Garden
above hedges and railings, but the upper
Tuynhuys garden is almost completely
hidden by dense shrubbery.
Essential Character, Qualities, Values
and Significance :
•
•
•
•
•
Cross-axis established by Tuynhuys
gates and recessed gateway to
sundial opposite.;
Pre-1791 water channel and pool
crossed by arched stone bridge and
curved end walls of great age and
intense
historical-archeological
interest;
Strong containment of cast iron
railings on both sides;
The Tuynhuys-Sundial cross-axis is a
significant event along the Avenue –
Central entrance to Garden through
modest early 20th Century “Dutch”
gateway.
As part of overall Government
Avenue Planting and Maintenance
Programme for trees and verge
planting:
SL2- Investigate
trees
adjacent
Parliament in terms of growing
conditions and soil quality as
well as in terms of ‘opening up’
vista of Tuynhuys;
SL3- Replace stump at Garden
Entrance with new tree;
LOD3 Investigate retaining walls in
southern garden of new Parliament
extension as this material is out of
character with the Avenue precinct
and
liaise
with
Parliament
regarding replacement or planting;
Conserve Tuynhuys channels and
pool:
SL4 Maintenance of ferns in moat area;
H/AS4-Commission archaeological study
of the pre-1791 water channel,
pool and surrounds (refer H/AS1);
•
HL3
•
Paint service box left of Garden
entrance ;
As part of Garden’s overall
interpretation system, investigate
interpretation possibilities, (refer
D+INTS1) e.g.;
INTS1
Tuynhuys channels and
pool;
DS1 Garden
entrance
opposite
Tuynhuys.
LOD4 Liaise with Parliament regarding
visual
access
and
possibly
controlled, occasional physical
access to Tuynhuys. gardens;
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February 2002
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Prepared by OvP AssociatesCompany’s Garden Policy Framework and Action Plan
February 2002
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8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS INFORMANTS
8.1.4
AVENUE
/
DELVILLE
MEMORIAL JUNCTURE
WOOD
Description :
Half way up its length the Avenue is
crossed by the formally laid out Delville
Wood Memorial Garden.
HL32 Repair and reinforce stormwater
culvert cover to handle maintenance
vehicle crossing;
The Avenue bridges the cross axis by
acquiring a second line of trees at the side
to endorse its continuity.
The planted verges are here related to the
cross axis layout .
The water channels are covered over.
Essential Character, Qualities, Values
and Significance :
•
Significant cross-axis in Avenue – side
views open up;
•
Simple elements of Avenue mesh with
strong geometry of memorial Garden;
•
Important
Avenue;
shaft
of
continuity
8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS ACTION
8.1.4
AVENUE
/
DELVILLE
MEMORIAL JUNCTURE
of
WOOD
Management & Development Guidelines :
•
Alterations to either cross axis or
Avenue at juncture of the two spaces
e.g. paving material and colour needs
to maintain present balance;
Actions / Projects :
HL4
Restore benches flanking Avenue
(refer DES1);
HL5
Repaint service box (refer HL3);
HL6
Resolve current confusion of bins,
poles and signs (refer DES1).
Prepared by OvP AssociatesCompany’s Garden Policy Framework and Action Plan
February 2002
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February 2002
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8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS INFORMANTS
8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS ACTION
8.1.5
BETWEEN PADDOCKS AND SA
MUSEUM
8.1.5
BETWEEN PADDOCKS AND SA
MUSEUM
Description :
Management & Development Guidelines :
In most places there is a screening hedge
or wall beyond the Avenue’s verge, but
adjacent to the Paddocks there is not.
From the Avenue there is an open view
under the oak canopy, punctuated by tree
trunks and characterised by plain lawns.
Along this side, the ground between the
path and water channel is grassed, with
an Agapanthus bed beyond. There are
several side paths to the paddocks.
•
Ensure that new landscaping or
development
proposals
do
not
compromise relaxed and modest
character of this stretch through overdesign;
•
Ensure that present open character as
perceived from Avenue should not be
screened by building, fencing or
planting;
•
Investigate ways to enliven experience
from Avenue on side of SA Museum
through active building frontage, views
of inside activities or outdoor activities;
•
Reduce impact of over-scaled SA
Museum Annexe through e.g. thicker
screening with plants or human scaled
colonnades, shaded seating areas
(outdoor bistros, etc.);
On the Signal Hill side, just above the
Cross-axis is the entrance to the SA
Museum forecourt road, with low walls
curving back.
The oaks of the Avenue do not continue
across it. Beyond this the shallow cobbled
water channel resumes, with the lawns of
the Museum garden beyond. There is a
second entrance in line with the front of
the building, then a fine run of cast iron
fencing and the side of the Museum and
its extension. The latter is oppressively
dominant; not far behind the railings, four
storeys high with a flat skyline.
Essential Character, Qualities, Values
and Significance :
•
Water channels more accessible than
elsewhere as planted beds are
replaced with lawn;
•
Openness of Paddocks unique
landscape experience in the Garden;
•
Significant modest and relaxed, almost
bucolic, quality that contrasts with the
highly controlled landscape of the
Delville Wood Memorial cross axis and
SA Museum forecourt.
Actions / Projects :
•
At Museum display:
HL7
Modify paving;
SL5
Continue line of oaks past this
point;
•
Liaise with SA Museum about
prohibition of parking on front lawns of
SA Museum as this disturbs the
character of the Avenue (this section
forms part of subsequent item 8.5 –
action LOD14).
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February 2002
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February 2002
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8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS INFORMANTS
8.1.6
THE TOP END OF THE AVENUE
Description :
In the stretch above the Paddocks and SA
Museum, beyond the verge and water
channel, there is a continuous wall with
open fields or courtyards beyond,
sometimes interrupted by single-storey
buildings. At the mid-point of the wall are
two early 19th century gateways, each
flanked by masonry lions or lionesses.
Through their cast iron gates other spaces
can be glimpsed – a playing field on the
Devil’s Peak side and a courtyard
clustered with buildings on the Signal Hill
side; the UCT Hiddingh Hall campus. Two
minor gates, incidental and unstudied in
their manner also penetrate the wall
higher up. The building interruptions to
the wall are only On the Hiddingh campus
side; the Little Theatre and its rear
quarters and the Egyptian building
Bertram House is also close to the wall
and has an entrance gate to the Avenue,
opposite that to the school. These gates
have bridges made of large sheets of slate
over the channel.
The Orange Street end of the Avenue is
concluded by Cape Revival pillars and
railings that follow the shape of earlier
walls. The shaft of space is terminated by
the magnificently columned gateway
portico of the Mount Nelson Hotel across
Orange Street.
Essential Character, Qualities, Values
and Significance :
•
Simplicity, clarity and quietness;
•
Double row of trees;
•
Containment of wall beyond water
channels;
•
Historical walls and gateways (and
buildings beyond / adjacent);
•
Symmetrical punctuation of lion and
lioness gateways with views through,
are of artistic as well as heritage value;
•
Open views over wall on Devil’s Peak
side;
•
Character of Avenue established 1804
persists today.
8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS ACTION
8.1.6
THE TOP END OF THE AVENUE
Management & Development Guidelines :
•
Lion and lioness gateways will not
benefit from being restored to any past
guise, as they gain part of their
meaning from their numerous layers
over time (interpretation required);
•
Functionally, termination / entrance to
Avenue on Orange Street needs to
improve in terms of pedestrian
crossing from / towards Mount Nelson
to disperse into street network.
Actions / Projects :
INTS2 As part of Garden’s overall
interpretation system, investigate
interpretation possibilities (refer
D&INTS1):
–
Lion and lioness gateways;
LOD6 Investigate possible opening of
arches in Cape Town High wall to
reveal views through and so
enliven experience from Avenue:H/AS5 Commission historical and
structural investigation as to
whether these were ever openings
and, if so, what kind;
UDS2 Urban design intervention required
to
investigate
potential
of
strengthening links and arrival /
termination point at Orange Street
crossing to Mount Nelson portico.
DS2
Resolve clutter of signage at
Orange Street entrance to the
Avenue.
HL 31 Retain and restore origibnal
gateway structures/ historical piers
on Orange Street (take cognisance
of change in ground level – refer
action UDS 2).
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February 2002
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Prepared by OvP AssociatesCompany’s Garden Policy Framework and Action Plan
February 2002
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8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS INFORMANTS
8.2
LOWER GARDEN
Description :
Aged Victorian landscape with a central
path, intensely packed both sides with
minor places and routes, used for leisurely
perambulations and as a shortcut to other
places. Most people, perhaps, think of
this as the heart of “the Gardens”. It is
referred to here as the Lower Garden to
distinguish it from the full Company’s
Garden which is referred to as the
Garden.
•
Botanical specimens are labeled and
are reminders of the Garden’s
previous role as a botanical garden;
•
Social significance – valued by
Capetonians from far and near:
symbolic ‘green heart’ of the City;
•
Contrast with the densely urbanised
centre of Cape Town – Rus in Urbe;
The Lower Garden is primarily a Victorian
design of unified character. Its richness
may conveniently be considered in parts
2.1 Entrance area
2.2 Around Japanese pergola
2.3 Around public lavatory and cottage
2.4 Around herb garden and aloe
rockery
2.5 Sinuous paths
2.6 Around Sundial-fountain
2.7 Around Restaurant
2.8 Around Cecil Rhodes-Aviary
2.9 Around Circular pond
2.10 Rose garden-former hothouse area
•
Great unity of character deriving from
Victorian layout, in turn superimposed
on an earlier formal Dutch layout,
containing numerous ‘outdoor rooms’
with distinct character and usage
which form the Garden’s ‘palette of
places’ – strikingly different in the
Garden as a whole, subtly different in
the Lower Garden;
•
Due to its great age, the Garden is
characterised by enormous trees – it
has never been as shaded as it is
today.
Essential Character :
•
Underlying geometry – central straight
path and cross-paths making internal
axes and long vistas of central sundial
and fountain, overlaid by:
– informal, ‘soft’ park layout: clumps
of trees with dense undergrowth,
organically shaped beds and
lawns;
– winding paths; and
– various ‘rooms’, details and
incidents of deliberately differing
character.
Qualities, Values and Significance :
•
Deep layering of cultural historical
significance associated with origins of
settlement in the Cape;
•
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February 2002
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8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS ACTION
8.2
LOWER GARDEN
Management & Development Guidelines :
•
Improvements should not disturb the
basic design / spatial layering of the
Garden: the foundation of Dutch
geometry and the Victorian parkscape;
•
The principle should be to add layers
without destroying what is already
there;
•
Most of the ‘foundation’ is basically
sound, and held in great affection by
citizens;
•
The principal problem is visible neglect
– basic level of housekeeping that is
negligent;
•
Some of range of places and functions
within the Lower Garden are so
overgrown and neglected so as to
have lost their meaning, others no
longer have the curiosity value they
once did, as a result of changing
tastes and attitudes;
•
The Garden derives a large part of its
character and value from the age of its
enormous trees with their extensive
tree canopies, however these impinge
negatively on ideal growing conditions.
Note that some of these trees are vital
to the definition of place and to hiding
or enhancing adjacent streetscapes;
•
Overstandardisation of paving and
path edgings should be avoided as
some variation may be regarded as
part of historical layering.
Actions / Projects :
MAN1 Appoint appropriately qualified
garden manager with the specific
responsibility of the upkeep and
improvement of the Garden;
HL8
Remove rusting, inappropriate and
crookedly erected plastic-covered
wire fences around many beds of
planting;
HL9
While the layout and course of
principal paths is part of the
layering and does not require
change, paving and edgings are
patched and mismatched in some
areas and need to be examined;
DES2 Since
some
places
need
upgrading
and
possibly
substitution, study should be
conducted of gardens found in
similar parks world-wide e.g.
gardens for blind people, specific
strategies to encourage bird life,
large ponds for model yachts – a
water wise Cape Garden would be
especially effective;
MAN2 Comparative studies and analysis
of precedent (this kind of Victorian
Parks found throughout the World)
would enrich our understanding of
forms of maintenance practicalities
and variants;
PINV1 Initiate study of the consequences
of removing some trees: a form of
‘parachute debate’ to isolate
benefits
and
losses,
refer
development and management
strategies of this section;
LOD7 Investigate planning of urban trails
for instance following the use of
water (herb gardens);
D& INTS2As part of overall interpretation
+DES3study of Garden apply to various
places in Lower Garden as well as
investigate the location of a central
place to explain the setting, history
and establish characteristics and
features, this could be associated
with a sales point for Garden
literature, postcards, souvenirs
etc.;
DES4 Investigate the requirements and
relocation of maintenance areas
which are currently poorly planned
and intrusive;
DES5 Need to ‘open up’ the old
Director’s house so as to integrate
with Garden (refer DES18, Page
58).
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February 2002
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Prepared by OvP AssociatesCompany’s Garden Policy Framework and Action Plan
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8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS INFORMANTS
8.2.1
ENTRANCE AREA
Description :
The Lower Garden is entered off the
Avenue through wrought iron gates hung
from brick pillars with “Public Gardens”
inset, laid out in a semi-circle; a welldefined spot that also gives access to the
adjacent National Library. From the gate a
determined path runs diagonally through
lawns to meet and merge with the main
central path which leads on out of the
space. Close to the merging is a well;
next to it a water-pump which ha been
grown over and lifted by a tree.
On the left side lawn a sinuous path starts
its winding way into shrubbery. Taking up
the lawn space right of the diagonal path
is a circle of benches; well patronised,
especially at lunchtime. Edging the space
on the eight side are impressive railings to
the National Library and, in the Garden
itself, a related statue of Sir George Grey
on a very high plinth, with his back to the
Library. Beyond it, random shrubbery
screens adjacent spaces (Pergola,
Lavatories and the “private” garden of the
Committee rooms).
Qualities, Values and Significance :
•
Prominent location as the gateway
space to the Lower Garden – spacious
and welcoming;
•
The diagonal path leads clearly
onward but minor alternative routes
tempt preambulation;
•
There is a notable relationship of
Garden and National Library: a notable
building in parkland that determines
and concludes this edge of the
Garden.
8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS ACTION
8.2.1
ENTRANCE AREA
Management & Development Guidelines :
•
Key location for directional signage;
•
No major redesign or changes
necessary, but minor improvements
could be considered;
•
Reinforce noble building (National
Library) within parkland setting.
Following benefits:
– To library users (sitting on steps
taking a break from studies etc.);
– To the dignity of the Library; and
– To the character of the Lower
Garden;
Actions / Projects :
D+ INTS3 Key location for directional
signage, co-ordinate with
Government Avenue and overall
signage/ interpretation study;
INTS3 Pump-in-the-tree and well good
hook to start an interpretation route
about water in the Garden;
INTS4 Investigate
notion
of
an
interpretation route about water in
the Garden and link to broader City
initiative;
DES6 Commission study to redesign the
park / noble building (National
Library) interface, i.e. the spatial
and
landscape
benefits
of
removing or redesigning the
railings and / or parking to
strengthen
the
relationship
between the Library and the
Garden, and of the management
implications of land ownership and
alternative parking arrangements;
LOD8 Initiate discussions with PWD and
National Library Management in
terms of DES 6.
Prepared by OvP AssociatesCompany’s Garden Policy Framework and Action Plan
February 2002
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Prepared by OvP AssociatesCompany’s Garden Policy Framework and Action Plan
February 2002
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8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS INFORMANTS
8.2.2
AROUND JAPANESE PERGOLA
Description :
Between the entrance area and Queen
Victoria Street is a secluded garden. At
the crossing of two secondary paths is a
dilapidated domed timber pergola with
precast columns, below which is a stone
lantern memorial. The pergola extends
north and south along the path, edged by
dense, tall planting.
Covered with
Wisteria and other creepers, the pergola is
very shaded.
Qualities, Values and Significance :
•
Pergola and creepers offer another in
the Garden’s palette of significantly
different places;
•
Japanese memorial of cultural,
historical and social significance.
8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS ACTIONS
8.2.2
AROUND JAPANESE PERGOLA
Management & Development Guidelines :
•
The pergola walks are very overgrown
and shaded in great contrast to their
earlier form in which the pergola sat
amid low flowers and shrubs, open to
them – a shaded route through a
sunny place;
•
Major redesign or changes could be
considered.
Actions / Projects :
HL10 Restoration / reconstruction of
rotting and collapsing timber of the
dome and pergola required.
Investigate possible replacement
of timber with metal structure;
SL6
Pruning of pergola creepers and
possible removal of certain trees to
be investigated so as to alleviate
excessive shade and overgrown
feeling (refer PINV1);
LOD9 Investigate possible funding from
Japan – if major or minor redesign
considerations.
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February 2002
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February 2002
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8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS –
INFORMANTS
8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS ACTION
8.2.3
AROUND PUBLIC LAVATORY AND
BOTHY
8.2.3
AROUND PUBLIC LAVATORY AND
COTTAGE
Description :
Management & Development Guidelines :
On the Queen Victoria Street boundary
are two buildings that function separately
from the Japanese Pergola area adjacent
and are divided from it.
One is a
splendidly exaggerated 1895 Gothic public
lavatory, entered by men from the street
side and by women from the garden. The
other is an 1850s Victorian building,
known as the Bothy, in an earlier Gothic
revival style, originally a committee room
which has been crudely added to at
various times. On the street side it has a
fence slicing off a portion of land.
•
Qualities, Values and Significance :
•
The public lavatory would be rated No.
1 in a Cape Town Good Loo Guide – a
quirky design with good supervision
and cleaning;
•
One of few
lavatories;
central
city
public
•
The Bothy (also known as committee
rooms) is of historic interest but the
later layers, are crudely carried out
and confuse the Gothic form and
detail.
The Bothy interfaces directly with
Garden as part of it.
Actions / Projects
DS3 Directional signage to the toilets
is misleading and confusing, coordinate with Government Avenue
and overall signage / interpretation
study (refer D& INTS1);
SL7
Shrubberies around the lavatories
are overgrown, hindering access to
the women’s side – thin to reveal
building;
•
The Bothy is a conservation
development opportunity:
HL11 Demolish crude extensions to
reveal a small building of great
charm. Its small size is essential
to its character and should not
therefore accommodate functions
that require more space than it can
take;
DES7 Investigate possible long term
uses for the Bothy, related to the
Library forecourt (as trade off for
integration of Library into Garden
i.e. removal of barriers etc.);
SL8
The garden around the building
should be opened up and reintegrated with the Garden;
HL12 Remove crude screening attached
to the National Library railings;
LOD10 The Bothy is currently vacant,
accept short-term lease to National
Library, but no long-term lease
agreements until long term use
determined.
Prepared by OvP AssociatesCompany’s Garden Policy Framework and Action Plan
February 2002
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Prepared by OvP AssociatesCompany’s Garden Policy Framework and Action Plan
February 2002
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8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS INFORMANTS
8.2.4
AROUND HERB
ALOE ROCKERY
GARDEN
AND
Description :
Actions / Projects :
On the Table Mountain side of the
Japanese Pergola is a herb garden and
beyond that a rockery of aloes and
succulents. The herb garden has a small
pattern of concentric and radial plants. It
has run wild. The aloe rockery is raised in
a mound made with quaintly selected
rocks, affording one an elevated view of
the Garden (if it were not so overgrown);
DES8 Redesign and replanting required
+HL13in herb garden as well as
restoration of remnant tiles, paths
and drinking fountain (Design to be
done in co-ordination with DES 9);
Qualities, Values and Significance :
•
The herb garden and aloe rockery add
to the palette of places in the Garden;
•
The formal concentric layout of the
herb garden was accurately recorded
by Thorn in 1895 and there are
remnants of the layout of paths and
the detailed subdivision of beds by
glazed tiles.
8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS ACTION
8.2.4
AROUND HERB
ALOE ROCKERY
GARDEN
DES9 Design study and alternative use
proposals required in rock garden
(Design to be done in co-ordination
with DES 8);
HL30 Redesign
/
restore
pergola
structure and surrounds (coordinate with DES 8&9).
AND
Management & Development Guidelines :
•
There are great opportunities in the
herb garden which is despairing of
attention:
– Herb gardens were a feature of
Cape gardens and there are many
horticultural lists that might inform
a new planting design;
– Increasing interest in indigenous
medicinal plants;
•
The rock garden:
– is
neglected
and
seldom
frequented as well as not as sunny
anymore due to maturing of
adjacent trees;
– rock
gardens
were
popular
features early in the 20th century,
but less so today;
– a garden of succulent plants is /
could be an attractive and relevant
feature in the Garden’s palette of
places.
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February 2002
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Prepared by OvP AssociatesCompany’s Garden Policy Framework and Action Plan
February 2002
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8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS INFORMANTS
8.2.5
SINUOUS PATHS AROUND THE
LOWER GARDEN
8.2.5a SIGNAL HILL SIDE
Description :
Running up Queen Victoria Street is a wall
that divides the Lower Garden from the
street. From the toilets chalet a sinuous
path winds underneath a massive, lightobscuring tree canopy. This area is a
disgraceful mess: dank, overgrown,
neglected, and therefore frequented by
anti-social people. Some side beds have
secondary winding paths: they are too
rough and boggy to walk on in winter.
Qualities, Values and Significance :
•
The pattern of sinuous paths is a key
feature of the 1848 garden design;
•
The side paths through shrubberies
provide a range of quiet and ‘secret’
places.
8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS ACTION
8.2.5
SINUOUS PATHS AROUND THE
LOWER GARDEN
8.2.5a SIGNAL HILL SIDE
Management & Development Guidelines :
•
Retain sinuous pathways as layer of
history and ‘secret places’ value.
Actions / Projects :
DES10 Redesign and replanting study
required for the shrubberies;
PINV1 Assess which plants can grow in
+SL10 shade and investigate whether
selected tree removal could be
tolerated (bear in mind the
important role they play in
screening the buildings in Victoria
Street);
Prepared by OvP AssociatesCompany’s Garden Policy Framework and Action Plan
February 2002
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Prepared by OvP AssociatesCompany’s Garden Policy Framework and Action Plan
February 2002
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8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS ACTION
8.2.5
SINUOUS PATHS AROUND THE
LOWER GARDEN
8.2.5b DEVIL’S PEAK SIDE
Description :
The sinuous path that runs adjacent to the
Avenue, in contrast to its twin adjacent to
Queen Victoria Street, is light and
generally kempt, with various interesting
features along the secondary paths (one
of which leading to a pond is poorly made
and squidgy in winter).
Qualities, Values and Significance :
•
The pattern of sinuous paths is a key
feature of the 1848 garden design;
•
The side paths through shrubberies
provide a range of quiet and ‘secret’
places.
8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS ACTION
8.2.5
SINUOUS PATHS AROUND THE
LOWER GARDEN
8.2.5b DEVIL’S PEAK SIDE
Management & Development Guidelines :
•
Retain sinuous pathways as layer of
history and ‘secret places’ value.
Actions / Projects :
SL11 Improve care and maintenance;
DES11 Review and upgrade marsh pond
+SL12 which is uninviting.
Prepared by OvP AssociatesCompany’s Garden Policy Framework and Action Plan
February 2002
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Prepared by OvP AssociatesCompany’s Garden Policy Framework and Action Plan
February 2002
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8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS INFORMANTS
8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS ACTION
8.2.6
CENTRAL SUNDIAL - FOUNTAIN
8.2.6
CENTRAL SUNDIAL - FOUNTAIN
Description :
Management & Development Guidelines :
This is the central and chief space in the
Lower Garden. It is bisected by the main
longitudinal garden path and an important
secondary axis that aligns with Tuynhuys
across the Avenue. At the crossing is
circular paving with a sundial at the
centre. Also on the secondary axis is a
drinking trough with a statue of a woman
(Rutherford memorial) which continues to
a minor gate to Queen Victoria Street.
The main path, which comes through
shrubbery from the entrance area,
continues towards the Mountain and
adjacent space of Cecil Rhodes / Aviary.
Surrounding the central sundial are lawns
and clusters of shrubs. The venerable
descendent of a Saffron pear, protected
within railings in the lawn, is a tangible
reminder of the provisioning role of the
Dutch garden.
•
As centre of the Garden this should
remain an open space, allowing for
meeting,
gathering,
watching,
circulation etc.
It should not be
cluttered;
•
Opportunity for more fun in paving e.g.
directions and distances to various
landmarks in Cape Town and key
cities.
Qualities, Values and Significance :
•
Cross-paths survive from earliest
geometrical layout of the Garden, later
gaining significance as a central point
in relation to the Tuynhuys and its
garden – deeply significant historical
layer;
•
The intersecting paths and lawns
round them are a key feature of the
1848 landscape design;
•
Very centre of the Lower Garden with
important vistas down all its axes;
•
All surrounding vegetation and outer
frame of trees are significant.
Actions / Projects :
SL13 Care and maintenance;
D& INTS4 Co-ordinate with Government
Avenue and overall signage/
interpretation study
(refer D&INTS1);
DES12 Investigate paving design in
+HL14 terms of features such as
directions and distances.
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February 2002
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8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS INFORMANTS
8.2.7
AROUND CECIL RHODES STATUE AVIARY
Description :
This cluster forms an edge to the central
sundial area. It is quite busy, not only
because of the several structures, but also
because an important user destination the tea room / restaurant. Left-handed
Cecile Rhodes hails you, moving up the
central path. Left of him is a covered
seating areas with a related aviary.
Behind the aviary, very hidden, is a ‘slave
bell’. The area is characterised by high
shrubbery. This presses you close to
Rhodes and completely conceals the view
to come, giving the forthcoming space
considerable impact. Similarly vice versa
entering the central sundial area.
However, the three chief elements sit ill at
ease with each other: too irregularly
placed, obscuring each other, and with
fussy level changes and rockeries further
confusing the space.
•
The 1938 aviary and related covered
sitting area is of interest because of its
suitable scale, pavilion-like quality and
period features. It is in the form of an
incomplete Greek cross;
•
The aviary is popular, particularly with
children, who are otherwise minimally
catered for in the Garden.
Qualities, Values and Significance :
•
This cluster forms an important
gateway experience in the Garden’s
sequence of places:
– Forms a ‘neck’ between open
spaces around sundial and Thorne
fountain.
•
Rhodes statue is of social historical
interest and presents an effectively
powerful moment in the Garden;
•
The Garden is powerfully associated
with slavery – the Slave Lodge was
adjacent and many slaves worked the
agricultural garden.
There are no
physical remnants of this important
history, so the presence of a ‘slave
bell’ immediately acquires implicit
meaning – however bells were rare in
Cape Town – when there was a fire ,
one was rung, this very bell which
hung originally at the Old Town House.
So authentic history is used in the
interests of pastiche history. The bell
tower has minimal heritage values;
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February 2002
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8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS ACTION
8.2.7
AROUND CECIL RHODES STATUE AVIARY
Management & Development Guidelines :
•
The spatial gateway quality is of great
importance in the linkage of places
and closing / opening of views –
should not be significantly reduced by
any development;
•
Spatial relationship between elements
is uncomfortable and crowded - needs
to be resolved;
•
Further undetermined by fussy,
incoherent detail landscaping (edging,
paving, level changes, some of the
planting, fences).
INTS6 Provide interpretative
regarding birds;
signage
LOD12 + DES16 + INTS5
Consider / debate re-use of aviary
e.g. ideal location for visitor /
interpretation
centre
(public
involvement required).
Coordinate with Government Avenue
and overall signage / interpretation
study as to Rhodes memorial,
‘slave bell’, aviary, etc. (refer D&
INTS1).
Actions / Projects :
DES13 Design study - reconsideration and
simplification
of
entire
area
required;
LOD11 Investigate relocation or removal
(to original position at Old Town
Hall) of ‘slave bell’ – These would
need further exploration and public
involvement, demonstrating clear
benefits;
DES14 If thought not to be moved need to
reconsider
/
redesign
and
interpretation essential;
INTS5 If moved another form of reference
to history of slavery to be explored.
DES15 If bell removed explore possibility
of completing the Greek cross form
of the Aviary (T-shaped at
present);
HL15 Overhaul aviary so that period
features are revealed. Get advice
from
experts
regarding
the
establishment of a conducive,
enhancing environment for birds in
aviary;
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February 2002
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8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS INFORMANTS
8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS ACTION
8.2.8
AROUND RESTAURANT
8.2.8
AROUND RESTAURANT
Description :
Management & Development Guidelines :
The restaurant is a neutral building
backing on to an old wall to Queen
Victoria Street. In front is a paved area
with outdoor seating under a tree canopy.
The area is separated from adjoining
spaces by beds of planting and is
accessed by minor paths which makes it
quite distinct as a place. Though it is a
pleasant place, none of the effects seem
to have been designed: the timber building
seems almost portable, the paving seems
to have been laid at will wherever there
was flat adjacent space and oozes around
the trunks. There are various barriers
encountered around the building –
including a dwarf wall to an important
minor entrance into Queen Victoria Street
– so that the building does not address its
landscape. The paved area (and the way
its edges are made) introduces a
vocabulary of materials and details not
encountered
elsewhere
and
not
particularly sympathetic.
A not-fullyrealised opportunity.
•
Qualities, Values and Significance :
•
High amenity value, popular ‘people’s
place’ – an established part of Cape
Town culture;
•
Suitably sited and morphologically well
defined;
•
Important historical association with
outdoor eating;
•
A missed opportunity to make a place
of character and add a landscape
experience to the Garden’s palette of
places;
•
Represents role of City Council in
resisting Apartheid.
This ‘People’s Place’ and tea room
ambience must be retained.
• Existing built fabric has no heritage
value, though surrounding trees, wall
and minor entrance to Queen Victoria
Street are all of importance;
• Shady location inappropriate for purely
garden purposes therefore restaurant
not inappropriate;
• Restaurant needs to be one of planted
experiences in variety of planted places
within Lower Garden – not sea of
paving with maximum number of tables
crammed in;
• Of particular importance is edge
conditions and its morphological
definition – present materials hostile
and
foreign
(shrub
screening
successful);
Actions / Projects :
SL14 Redesign of landscape required,
particularly lower north side;
DES17 Undertake comparative study of
other garden restaurant designs
and functions and review existing,
making
proposals
for
improvements,
additions
or
replacements;
HL16 Upgrade outdoor furnishing –
plastic furniture not commensurate
with the dignity of the Garden.
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8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS INFORMANTS
8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS ACTION
8.2.9
AROUND CIRCULAR POND
8.2.9
AROUND CIRCULAR POND
Description :
Management & Development Guidelines :
Emerging past Cecil Rhodes from the
Aviary cluster, the central path continues
on into the space around the circular pond
(with the Delville Wood statue visible high
beyond in Winter). This is one of the
Lower Garden’s sunniest spots.
The
round pond has a looped metal fence, a
marble boy-strangles-dolphin fountain – its
sight and its sound are both notable and
the khoi fish and an additional delight.
The round pond is set in lawns and the
space surrounded by planting. Under a
large yellowwood tree on the upper right is
a secluded area enclosed by planting,
seemingly where grass will not grow. On
the Devil’s Peak side, at some distance, a
sinuous path winds through dense
shrubbery.
•
Maintain memorable fountain area;
•
The security office behind a timber
fence presents great development
opportunities;
– Once the Director’s House, it takes
little advantage of its site which is
under-utilised and completely cut
off from Lower Garden;
– Great advantages derived from
removing the fence and extending
the garden layout to incorporate
the building in a properly designed
way, revealing it and opening it up
to the benefit of both building and
Garden – as security office, benefit
would be greater surveillance,
increased confidence and knowing
where to go in an emergency (refer
UCT Lower Campus security
centre at Burnage, Woosack
Road).
The Security Office, a single-storey
Victorian house, is behind a timber fence
on the Signal Hill side where a minor path
connects to the Restaurant.
Actions / Projects :
Qualities, Values and Significance :
•
Very characteristic place in the
Garden’s palette of places – a subcentre;
•
Sir William Thorne fountain – marble
statue of boy and dolphin is historic
and beautiful, as is the polished
granite pond surround, water lilies and
fish that flourish there;
HL17 Seek advice from specialist
conservation restorer regarding
erosion of boy and dolphin statue;
HL18 Investigate removal
around pond ;
of
fence
SL15 Design study needed to assess the
advantages of increasing lawn
area by reducing planting;
•
Venerable
yellowwood
magnificent;
is
HL19 Remove fence around Director’s
House and integrate with Garden;
•
Current security office – modest
Victorian villa that gains value from its
historic location as the house of the
Garden’s Director (used to simply
stand beside sinuous path within a
park setting).
DES18 Restore and explore appropriate,
alternative uses for Director’s
House e.g. a management and
information office for the Garden;
maintain as security centre etc..
tree
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8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS INFORMANTS
•
8.2.10 ROSE GARDEN – FORMER HOT
HOUSE AREA
•
Description :
Beyond the circular pond is an old
boundary of the Gardens – the 1848
design ended here. Between it and the
cross axis of the Delville Wood runs the
central path. On the Devil’s Peak side is a
simple rose garden. On the Signal Hill
side is a wall hiding, or partially hiding, a
maintenance area.
Some handsome
Queen Victoria Street buildings are seen
beyond it.. In the maintenance area are
modern garages, and an office for 1930s
hothouses which are now demolished.
Aids Memorial in Rose Garden of
symbolic significance abut location
here is not particularly sensitive;
Roses were a feature of the Garden in
the Dutch period – Old roses would
therefore have significant historical
associations
and
demonstrations
value;
•
Although
popular
for
wedding
photographs, the present rose garden
is comparatively new and uninspired –
the previous one had a central bower
of rambling roses;
•
Central location with convenient
access off Queen Victoria Street.
Qualities, Values and Significance :
•
Place of great significance as an
unresolved void in the otherwise
sensitively linked outdoor rooms of the
Lower Garden;
•
The edges to all sides are distinctly
marked, though they are the ‘backs’ of
adjacent definitions of the Cross Axis,
Avenue and Round Pond area;
•
The Centre for the Book in Queen
Victoria
Street,
a
particularly
handsome domed building overlooks
this space – unfortunately it is not
aligned on it;
•
The Marseille tiled office building is of
minor
heritage
significance
–
outbuildings and wall along Queen
Victoria Street may increase its
significance (this was the edge of the
Garden at an earlier time: the area has
great
archaeological
potential
especially regarding use of water and
irrigation);
•
Particularly sunny part of the Garden,
with open views and few large trees, in
contrast to the more heavily planted
areas to the north;
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8.0
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS ACTION
8.2.10 ROSE GARDEN – FORMER HOT
HOUSE AREA
Management & Development Guidelines :
• Should any new development be
considered within the Garden, this
would clearly be the most appropriate
site, because :
– It was previously built on;
– Existing buildings can be removed /
replaced due to low heritage value;
– It is currently neglected and underutilised;
– There are no existing mature trees
on this site;’
– It is centrally located; and
– It is directly accessible from Victoria
Street.
• In view of limited sunny areas in the
Garden, this area is well-suited to soft
landscaping;
• Future development needs to resolve
worrying alignment of Centre of the
Book;
• Relationship of the design of this space
to the axial formality of the Memorial
Garden must be carefully considered to
enhance, not compete;
• Retain feeling of relative openness and
views of Signal Hill, but possibly
contained and softened with trees;
• Site planning should be integrated with
that of the Director’s House;
• This area could be secured separately
from the main Garden at night, allowing
for evening activity – any fencing /
gates along the lower boundary to the
Victorian garden should be discreet and
screened to maintain continuity and
integration.
Actions / Projects :
H/AS6 Historical
archaeological
investigation of outbuildings along
old wall to Queen Victoria Street;
DES20 Entire area (existing rose garden
and maintenance yard) needs to
be
redesigned
(development
opportunity) and as part of this
exercise assess 1930s office
building
which
could
be
refurbished
and
re-used;
alternatively
demolished
if
significant benefits would result –
investigate options;
SL16 Investigate re-design of rose
garden and choice of varieties to
include old roses, climbers and
ramblers,
specifically
scented
varieties to establish continuity
with the Garden’s history (Note
rose garden may be re-located or
change form).
HL34 Remove rockery along edge,
adjacent to the Delville Wood
Memorial Garden.
• Footprint of new buildings should be of
similar area to existing coverage;
• Development
to incorporate the
provision of supervised public toilets;
• Reflect memory of glasshouse in new
development e.g. conservatory type
buildings;
• A rose garden could be incorporated as
a pleasure garden;
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8.0
8.3
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS –
INFORMANTS
DELVILLE WOOD MEMORIAL
GARDEN CROSS AXIS
Description :
Formally planned Cape Mediterranean
garden with geometrical central ponds and
memorials. It lies at right angles to
Government Avenue terminating with an
enormous gateway on Queen Victoria
Street at the Signal Hill end and SA
National Gallery at the Devil’s Peak end.
Street. It is a hopelessly unconsidered
townscape.
Essential Character, Qualities, Values
and Significance :
•
One of the most graceful and moving
public sculptures in Cape Town. Its
theme of reconciliation of former
enemies is a theme notably relevant
today;
•
Evident importance of social history
aspects and a heritage impact
requiring dignity and reflectiveness;
•
The landscape design has great unity
of expression and resolution of edge
spaces;
•
Notable period design in a style
blending Cape and Mediterranean
features that became very common
between the wars but is currently little
appreciated.
The Memorial Garden memorialises war
heroes’ reconciliation.
The SA National Gallery at the Devil’s
Peak end, at the top of a flight of steps, is
a high single-storey building, at once
simple and complex: a mixture of
Mediterranean features (Roman tiles,
columns), Cape features (windows and
shutters, large expanses of blank wall)
and undeniably 20th century features
(bagged brick, sharp edges) held together
by a rigorous geometry. This geometrical
rigour is extended to the hard landscape
design, as are Cape Mediterranean
features.
Perhaps the most important geometrical
feature is that the main garden space is
decidedly flat despite the natural contours
around it: nature controlled. Adding to this
planar quality are horizontal surfaces
(water, paving) contrasted with vertical
elements (cypress trees, masonry light
pillars and memorials, amongst which are
the Delville Wood Memorial, the Lukin
Memorial, the Constantia Fountain and
Smuts Statue).
Adding further threedimensionally are the vertical reflections in
the planes of water. The edges are
equally controlled. The terrace in front of
the Gallery has a high balustraded wall
overlooking the central space. The sides
have rows of oak trees and large minor
gateways on sub-axes.
The Memorial garden extends across the
axis of the Avenue, yet both spaces retain
their identity. There is a minor lane that
runs at the side of the Gallery providing an
important pedestrian link to St John
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8.0
8.3
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS –
ACTION
DELVILLE WOOD MEMORIAL
GARDEN CROSS AXIS
Management & Development Guidelines :
•
No development should take away
from the dignity and reflectiveness of
the place, or reduce its unity of
expression;
•
Memories
associated
with
reconciliation should be further
developed and may affect not only
interpretation in tourist guidance but
even a new generation of memorial
sculptures;
•
Furnishing should be in the spirit of the
design and period e.g. teak benches;
•
Retain present view of Signal Hill from
the Cross Axis as one of the few
places this landform can be seen from
the Garden;
•
Displays, e.g. posters etc. on building
frontages such as the National Art
Gallery and SA Museum not to detract
from historical / architectural value as
experienced from within the Garden.
Actions / Projects :
DES22 Investigate
construction
of
intended ponds round the Delville
Wood Memorial to reinforce the
design theme of planes of water /
vertical reflections;
LOD13 Extend
unified
paving
and
furnishing within Cross Axis to
forecourt of National Art Gallery;
Liaise
with
PWD
regarding
integration of landscape design
with the Garden, and with Gallery
management regarding events,
displays etc.;
UDS3 Commission
urban
design
intervention on lane at the side of
the Art gallery:
– Integrate paving with that of
the main space (Gallery
forecourt and Cross Axis);
– Emphasis and signpost
entrance in St John’s
Street.
•
After completion of Phase 1
implementation (October 2001) the
following items were identified as
outstanding:
SL17 Additional
soft
landscaping
including the reinstatement of
Lines of deciduous trees in front of
SA Museum as well as the
reinstatement of irrigation system;
HL20 Remedy paving / channels;
HL21 Restore cast iron manhole grids;
HL22 New light fittings and installation
(on columns, walls and uplighters);
HL23 New handrails at National Art
Gallery;
HL24 Install the following furniture
(design in terms of overall street
furniture vocabulary) (refer DES1):
benches (No. 32);
bins (No. 20);
bollards (No. 8);
drinking fountain (No.1);
banners
on
poles
(investigate);
HL25 Restore existing water features;
HL26 Restore monuments and remove
railings from around the Delville
Wood Memorial;
HL27 Investigate design and installation
of
memorial
plaque
to
commemorate
Phase
1
implementation).
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8.0
8.4
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS –
INFORMANTS
THE PADDOCKS
Description :
An innocent and unstudied open place of
six lawns penetrated by the trunks of trees
with benches used for lolling about on,
crossed by periodic waves of afternoon
adolescents in uniform from the nearby
schools.
Visually linked with the Avenue from which
it is clearly seen, the Paddocks has a
separate morphological character given by
its geometry if six rectangles, the oak
trees which fringe each, and the lawns
that surface them. At the intersection of
two paths is a large circle of oak trees with
benches. A watercourse runs along the
avenue, and there were others central and
on the Devil’s Peak side (now
underground, but oozing in winter).
Paddock Avenue is on the Devil’s Peak
side, a remnant of a dense suburban
development now largely demolished
except for a double-storey terrace of 5
houses set well back behind large front
gardens. These are incorporated into the
Commercial High School at the mountain
end. Seaward of the terrace is the 1904
Synagogue with notable twin towers, next
to the old, equally remarkable, 1862
Synagogue. Marist Brothers school (now
an annex to the Art Gallery) is well back in
a car park with an old stone wall fronting
Paddock Avenue, accessed by a pointed
arch gateway. The seaward edge of the
Paddocks is formed by the Cross Axis
with a Cape revival gateway central. At
the mountain end is Avenue Street, lined
with oaks, beyond which a retaining wall,
topped with vibracrete and fencing, edges
a playing field at a higher level. The area
between the street and wall is used for
garden maintenance purposes and is
typified by piles of refuse and a fenced
bright yellow skip - on axis with the central
Paddocks path.
Essential Character, Qualities, Values
and Significance :
•
Unique sense of openness and
broadness of vista beneath a tree
canopy and a bucolic quality, unusual
in the Garden’s palette of places;
•
Culturally and historically significant
landform that arises from 17th century
drainage patterns and 18th century
high hedge enclosures, reduced to
their bare essence:
– the six lawns match enclosures;
– water courses match known
drainage patterns;
– Paddock Avenue matches the
broad avenue around the edge of
the Dutch garden;
– the maintenance area is the size
and position of deep shrubbery.
•
Significant archaeological potential
especially regarding use of water and
irrigation;
•
Value experientially in its simplicity
and lack of over-design in contrast
with nearby places like SA Museum
forecourt and Cross Axis;
•
The Paddocks is the only place in the
Garden where a row of buildings faces
directly (across Paddock Avenue) onto
the green space;
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8.0
8.4
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS –
ACTION
THE PADDOCKS
Management & Development Guidelines :
•
Protect sense of openness, simplicity
and lack of over-design. Disallow any
development or landscape proposal
which will compromise this or destroy
it as a landform of cultural and
historical significance.
•
Do not erase rectangular geometries
which is a landform memory of Dutch
enclosures;
•
Do not erode rare open character with
built form or high / massive landscape
features;
•
Retain qualities of simplicity and
directness,
rural
character
in
considering paving, planting patterns
and furniture;
•
Strengthen Avenue Street as a
potentially important pedestrian link
and gateway to the Garden;
•
Co-ordinate
adjacent
institutions
regarding security, access, parking
and activities.
UDS4 Investigate upgrading and design
input into strengthening Avenue
Street as a potentially important
pedestrian link and gateway to the
Garden as well as potential in its
termination at the side door of the
Little theatre;
Actions / Projects :
DES23 Investigate the creation of a multiuse / performance space, i.e.; the
reinstatement of bandstand; and
•
Consider locating stabling facilities to
serve pony rides and policing on
horseback, combine with public toilets
and change rooms for performers;
HL28 Remove unsightly maintenance
yard and yellow waste skip at
mountain
end
of
Paddocks
adjacent Cape Town High;
HL29/ Screen vibracrete wall on Cape
+ SL18Town High boundary;
HL33 Re-design
(investigate
width
required etc.) and resurface road
between
Paddocks
and
Synagogue.
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8.0
8.5
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS –
INFORMANTS
SA MUSEUM FORECOURT
NOTE::
Apart from Museum Road,
this area is not under the
jurisdiction of the City. The
following are therefore
suggestions for discussion
with PWD and SA Museum
management.
measures onto the street and enclosed
ramp leads up the side of the Planetarium.
Essential Character, Qualities, Values
and Significance :
•
SA Museum forecourt’s landscaping:
– is unsympathetically hard in the
overall setting of the Company’s
Garden and compromises the
spaces adjacent;
– has a clearly expressed design
concept, continuity of expression,
and attention to detail;
– has heritage value.
•
Access routes to the SA Museum from
Queen Victoria Street are confused,
cluttered and ambiguous.
Description :
The SA Museum, a late Victorian building
with French Renaissance features and a
cast iron fringed central tower above a
gable, sits on a slight promontory or bluff.
It is set at one end of an axis, parallel to
the Avenue, that continues across the
Delville Wood Memorial Garden and down
the middle of the Lower Garden,
punctuated by ponds and statues, to end
with the front façade of the National
Library. Between the Museum and the
Delville Wood garden is a hard landscape
of red brick edged with a band of yellow
brick. Central is a shallow amphitheatre,
shaped on the Signal Hill side by a curved
retaining wall with plants at the top and on
the Devil’s Peak side by a curve of
masonry piers with lights and a platform
for a petrified tree.
The forecourt
descends in terraces to the Delville Wood
garden and spreads in steps each side of
one of the Cape Revival gateways where
a gate is replaced by a semi-circular
fountain. Also flowing down the bank is
the pattern of red brick and yellow edge
which spreads throughout the Delville
Wood area (and to the National Gallery
end).
At the Devil’s Peak side of the
amphitheatre a lawn with some trees
slopes towards the Avenue. Here staff
cars, and frequently those of visitors, may
be parked, cluttering the space.
On the Signal Hill side there is a separate
approach area from Queen Victoria Street
– a vehicular route to basement parking
and a second route up a steepish bank to
the front of the museum, separated by a
high circular planting box with plants at the
top. There are various traffic control
8.0
8.5
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS –
ACTION
SA MUSEUM FORECOURT
Actions / Projects :
LOD14 Initiate discussions with PWD and
SA
Museum
Management
regarding the following issues:
–
Softening of forecourt’s harsh
urban impact with greenery
and shaded with more trees;
–
Prohibiting the parking of cars
on the front lawns which is out
of place and intrusive;
–
Non-operation of the fountains
which undermines the design
intention and is a management
problem;
–
Small scale hawking of snacks
and cooldrinks here is not
particularly
intrusive
but
whether it is appropriate and
whether more formal facilities
should be provided should be
considered as part of a broader
policy.
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8.0
8.6
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS –
INFORMANTS
QUEEN VICTORIA STREET
Description :
Along the Signal Hill side, Queen Victoria
Street is a cliff of buildings. These range
from highly modelled set pieces (Centre
for the Book, Supreme Court, Land Bank<
etc.) to high buildings that fill their site and
permissible bulk (Huguenot Chambers, St
Martini flats, etc.), with others somewhere
between
those
design
extremes
(Holyrood, Rhodes House, etc.). At the
seaward end of the street the buildings
are almost completely screened from the
Lower Garden by huge (and ageing) trees.
But at the upper end, where there are few
trees in the Garden (hot house site, Cross
axis, SA Museum) they stand out – with
good and ill effects. The Centre for the
Book is very dominant: it has Cape
Town’s most serene dome, cornered by
towers. Because its site was made form
sub-division of a farm adjacent to the
Garden it has a different rhythm and does
not align with any garden features.
The Garden side of Queen Victoria Street
has a continuous wall separating it from
the street. At the seaward end is an 1894
red brick dwarf wall with granite coping
and ornamental railings. Higher up is an
old stone wall, pulled down and rebuilt
with re-used materials and cement in
1910. Beyond that is the grand entrance
to the Cross Axis with Cape revival pillars.
Along this stretch are several Garden
buildings, discussed as part of the Lower
Garden descriptions.
Essential Character, Qualities, Values
and Significance :
•
Queen Victoria Street is the only direct
interface between the Garden and the
City;
•
Queen Victoria Street and the grid
behind it provide pedestrian access to
the Garden from the western part of
the City;
•
Queen Victoria Street is also a more
direct pedestrian route from St.
George’s Mall than Government
Avenue, although secondary to it in
the pedestrian network;
•
The wall and gateways between the
Garden and the street are significant
townscape elements and in parts
historic;
•
Queen Victoria Street is an important
ensemble of grand and conservation
worthy buildings of various types and
periods , but with some intrusive
structures;
•
The buildings lining the street are in
the foreground of views towards Signal
Hill from the Lower Garden, and thus
have an impact on the green space.
In some cases, such as the Centre for
the Book, views from the Garden are
(or could be) enhanced by views of
these buildings;
•
The Garden and views of it are of
great amenity value to Queen Victoria
Street and the buildings in it;
•
The Street follows the path of an old,
deep watercourse of historical /
archaeological interest and townscape
potential;
•
The top end of the Street is
characterised by an upward sweep to
the right up Grey’s Pass, its form very
telling of its historical origins, which is
of townscape value.
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8.0
8.6
PLACE BY PLACE ANALYSIS –
ACTION
QUEEN VICTORIA STREET
Management & Development Guidelines :
•
Any development in the Garden along
this edge should respond to and
enhance notable elements in, and the
character of, Queen Victoria Street as
well as the Garden frontage. The
Centre for the Book is particularly
striking in this regard;
•
No new openings in the wall should be
considered until archaeological study
completed.
Actions / Projects :
H/AS7 Commission archaeological study
of remnant stone wall along
Victoria Street, co-ordinate with
study of Maritz Brothers and upper
Avenue walls.
UDS5 Investigate alternative parking
areas to relieve traffic congestion
(especially tourist buses) in Queen
Victoria Street.
Possible areas
include Maritz Brothers precinct,
Synod site etc.
UDS6 Increasing development pressure
along Queen Victoria Street will
impact on the qualities of the
Garden, particularly in terms of
shade,
wind,
noise
and
relationship to the Garden’s edge.
Need to identify design and other
constraints to be imposed on
adjacent development e.g. set
backs, traffic implications etc.
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9.0
SUMMARY OF ALL PROPOSED
ACTIONS / PROJECTS
NOTE 1: Forms a supplementary report to
the report entitled
Company’s
Garden
Policy
Framework and Action Plan –
February 2002
bbreviations of Action Categories :
•
H/AS
=
Historical / Archaeological Studies And
Investigations
NOTE 2: To be read in conjunction with
Action Plan – February 2002
•
DES
=
Design Studies
NOTE 3: Tentative proritisation of actions
recommended
within
this
supplementary report based on:
•
UDS
=
Urban Design Studies
•
SL =
Soft Landscaping Design And Actions
MAN
=
Management
Structure
/
Procedures
•
•
•
Primarily
reinforcing
the
Vision
established within this Study;
The understanding that currently the
primary priorities are lighting, security
and the resolution of the need for
additional
public
facilities
and
amenities including public toilet
facilities;
The need to firstly establish a
Management Structure as proposed
within the Study;
And should be re-evaluated as per key
recommendation (item 3) to formulate an
action strategy, including the following:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Potential availability of funds;
Involvement from other departments;
Opportunities for upgrading;
Public support and concern;
Frequency of use;
Potential positive impact of upgrading;
Potential catalytic effect;
Degree of existing degradation etc.
•
•
HL =
Hard Landscaping Actions And Minor
Building / Renovation Works
•
D&INTS =
Directional & Interpretative Signage
DS =
Directional Signage
INTS
=
Interpretative Signage
•
•
•
•
LOD
=
Landowner / Interested & Affected
Parties Discussions And Liaison
PINV
=
Public Involvement / Participation
Required
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10.0
KEY RECOMMENDATIONS
1.
Council to adopt proposed
Company’s
Garden
Policy
Framework and Action Plan ;
2.
Establish
a
Management
Structure for the Company’s
Garden Precinct in line with Policy
6 – Management.
This is to
include the Appointment of an
appropriately qualified Garden
Manager for the Company’s
Garden;
3.
Management
Structure
to
formulate project priorities, cost
schedule and initial five year
action strategy;
4.
Management Structure to source
funds to implement action
strategy; and
5.
Action Plan, Development and
Management Guidelines to be
reviewed every five years.
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APPENDIX A:
BRIEF
PHASE 1 BRIEF –
Previous Report entitled ‘Company’s
Garden – Cape Town: Development of
a Management Plan (Final Report
September 2000)’
3.
A Special Task Team to initiate
discussions with primary landowners,
regarding an integrated future
management approach to security,
marketing and development;
By way of background, the Phase 1 brief,
was to develop a Management Plan for
the Company’s Garden, Cape Town.
4.
A time goal to strategise an action
plan, such as the year 2002, at
which time the Company’s Garden
celebrates its 350th year in
existence. Use this goal to promote
a new vision of management and
development.
5.
A Master Plan and Policy
Framework to inform and guide
decisions regarding
proposed
initiatives
affecting
the
future
management and developmemnt
within and around the Garden, in a
consistant and appropriate manner.
The brief : to develop a Management Plan
for the Garden, with the intention to review
the current situation, in order to establish
an adequate, sustainable and appropriate
management response.
Objectives of this brief included the
following:
•
To develop a sustainable strategy for
the management of the Garden;
•
Such a strategy would address :
– the
provision
of
public
amenities
and
facilities,
including
interpretation,
signage and public toilets;
- maintenance;
- security; and
- the use of available resources.
•
To assist the Planning Department as
well as the Parks and Bathing
Amenities Branch to effectively
manage
the
Gardens
as
a
contemporary amenity in the City and
as a significant historic open space.
This first phase made the following key
recommendations
to
ensure
the
Company’s Garden’s continuation as the
most historically / culturally significant
urban open space in South Africa:
1.
Immediate actions as well as a
longer-term vision is required;
2.
A
contract
maintenance
programme (out-sourcing);
This study also provided a motivation for
the second phase (the current study) to
formulate a draft Master Plan and Policy
Framework. The motivation was primarily
based on the following issues:
1.
The
Company’s
Garden
is
surrounded by a dynamic urban
environment
subject
to
developmental
pressure
and
change;
2.
Development within and on the
periphery can have significant
impact on qualities that make the
Garden a special, contemporary
open space within the City context;
and
3.
It is important that the City responds
(in terms of decisions regarding
development and management) to
developmental change around and
within the Company’s Garden, in a
consistant and appropriate way and
within
parameters
of
existing
statutory controls.
Prepared by OvP AssociatesCompany’s Garden Policy Framework and Action Plan
February 2002
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PHASE 2 BRIEF
At a meeting held at Council on the 12th
October 2000, to discuss the brief for
Phase 2, it was stated that Phase 1
presented a preliminary study to flag
current
issues
pertaining
to
the
Company’s Garden. This study in a sense
acted as a catalyst identifying and
describing various policy directives in
terms of development and management
which needed to be investigated further.
At this meeting it was stressed that the
Phase 2 report needed to provide the
following:
•
•
•
A Vision for the Company’s Garden;
Principles; and
Policies.
These would serve to inform future
upgrading and management.
The products of Phase 2 would include:
•
•
A Landscape Master Plan; and
Draft Policy Framework.
Prepared by OvP AssociatesCompany’s Garden Policy Framework and Action Plan
February 2002
77
APPENDIX B:
CONSULTATION PROCESS
Prepared by OvP AssociatesCompany’s Garden Policy Framework and Action Plan
February 2002
78
APPENDIX C:
MEDIA ARTICLES
Prepared by OvP AssociatesCompany’s Garden Policy Framework and Action Plan
February 2002
79