Salt River art and history tour

The Salt River Street art tour goes through one of the oldest communities in Cape Town

The tour is 2 hours in duration starting from the Old Biscuit Mill as we explore the historic aspects of the community and over 50 local and international art installations 

History of Salt River 

Salt River Lagoon and the surrounds were widely used by San hunter-gatherers and early Khoi nomadic pastoralists.             
 
Salt River, gets its name its name from the river which flows from the Liesbeek river into the sea in the Salt River area and along this coastline is the site of the Battle of Salt River 1510. Cape’s oldest recorded battle between Europeans and indigenous people.

 In 1510, the Viceroy of Portuguese India, Francisco d’Almeida, was killed in a fight with the local Khoi’s Khoekhoen tribe, the Goringhaiquas. He and his sailors were trying to abduct two children and steal cattle. The Goringhaiquas won this was called the battle of Salt River

The event had far reaching effects – the Portuguese not landing here to replenish their supplies gave other nations competitive advantage. – It wasn’t until 150 years later that the VOC (Dutch East India Company) started their refreshment station her

The Salt River area is known to be a fertile area around the Liesbeek river, thus under the early Dutch East India occupation in 1652  the area was used as a farming community 

The real turning point to Salt River’s development was the railway – in 1862 it became a major railway junction. In 1883 it was joined with Woodstock as one municipality – together they became the industrial centre of Cape Town, in particular for textile and clothing manufacturing.

With the arrival of the train in 1860's  it brought growth to the Salt River community and this is the reason why in Salt River you will find rows of small terraced houses for workers, in a Victorian colonial vernacular style – small stoeps, single story, built on roads with British names, like the poets Tennyson and Pope, or places like Chatham and London, while the main roads were given royal names.

Under the years of Apartheid South Africa the area became known as a "Grey Area" where both whites and non-whites could live in the area...interestingly enough Coloured” people could buy houses, while Indian residents could buy, or rent, a corner grocery shop, and if they did, they were permitted to live in the adjoining house.

With the collapse  of the textile industry in 1990's this has brought urban regeneration into the area...and many things have changed in the community in recent years 

The Salt River art and history tour is not only for art lovers but for the whole family