Simon's Town ( af, Simonstad), sometimes spelled Simonstown, is a town in the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

, South Africa and is home to

Naval Base Simon's Town Naval Base Simon's Town is the South African Navy's largest naval base, situated at Simon's Town, near Cape Town. The base provides support functions to Fleet Command. History A small dockyard facility was first established in Simon's Town by ...

, the South African Navy's largest base. It is located on the shores of

False Bay False Bay ( Afrikaans ''Valsbaai'') is a body of water in the Atlantic Ocean between the mountainous Cape Peninsula and the Hottentots Holland Mountains in the extreme south-west of South Africa. The mouth of the bay faces south and is dema ...

, on the eastern side of the

Cape Peninsula The Cape Peninsula ( af, Kaapse Skiereiland) is a generally mountainous peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean at the south-western extremity of the African continent. At the southern end of the peninsula are Cape Point and the Cape o ...

. For more than two centuries it has been a naval base and harbour (first for the British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

and now the South African Navy). The town is named after

Simon van der Stel Simon van der Stel (14 October 1639 – 24 June 1712) was the last commander and first Governor of the Dutch Cape Colony, the settlement at the Cape of Good Hope. Background Simon was the son of Adriaan van der Steland Maria Lievens, a ...

, an early governor of the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with t ...

Topography

The land rises steeply from near the water's edge and the town is boxed in along the shoreline by the heights above. The small harbour itself is protected from swells by a breakwater that was built with thousands of huge blocks of sandstone quarried out of the face of the mountain above. Simon's Town is now in effect a suburb of the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality. The Simon's Town railway station is the terminus of the Southern Line, a railway line that runs south of the central business district of Cape Town. In places, the railway line runs along the steep eastern shore of False Bay, and in bad weather waves and foam from some heavy swells wet the trains.

Attractions and amenities

Boulders Beach

Boulders Beach is located a few kilometres to the south of Simon's Town, in the direction of Miller's Point. Here small coves and beaches are interspersed between boulders of Cape granite. There has been a colony of African penguins at Boulders Beach since 1985. There is no record of the birds having lived here prior to that date. There are only three penguin populations on the mainland in southern Africa; the others are close to Hermanus at Stoney Point and

Betty's Bay Betty's Bay is a small holiday town situated on the Overberg coast of South Africa's Western Cape province. It is located 100 km from Cape Town beneath the Kogelberg Mountains on the scenic R44 ocean drive between Pringle Bay and Kleinmond. Thi ...

Martello Tower

In the last weeks of 1795 or the first weeks of 1796, the British built a round tower on a site that today falls within the Naval Base. Britain had just annexed the Dutch colony at the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is ...

and wanted to establish some defences to ward off possible Dutch or French attacks. The resulting tower was high, had a base diameter of , and walls thick, though there is no evidence that the British ever installed the guns the tower was designed to hold. In front of the tower, the British also constructed a battery that they did arm with cannons. The

Martello tower Martello towers, sometimes known simply as Martellos, are small defensive forts that were built across the British Empire during the 19th century, from the time of the French Revolutionary Wars onwards. Most were coastal forts. They stand u ...

was used as a navigational beacon for ships entering Simon's Bay and was consequently white-washed in about 1843. The tower was restored in 1972 by the Simon's Town Historical Society (in conjunction with the South African Navy), and proclaimed a

provincial heritage site Provincial may refer to: Government & Administration * Provincial capitals, an administrative sub-national capital of a country * Provincial city (disambiguation) * Provincial minister (disambiguation) * Provincial Secretary, a position in Cana ...

; today it houses a small museum.

South African Naval Museum

The

South African Naval Museum The South African Naval Museum is a maritime museum in Simon's Town, South Africa. It contains collections and artefacts related to the maritime history of South Africa and the South African Navy. History The South African Naval Museum at the S ...

is a

maritime museum A maritime museum (sometimes nautical museum) is a museum specializing in the display of objects relating to ships and travel on large bodies of water. A subcategory of maritime museums are naval museums, which focus on navies and the militar ...

, which contains collections and artefacts related to the maritime history of South Africa and the South African Navy. The Residency built in 1777

Simon's Town Museum

Simon's Town Museum Established in 1977, Simon's Town Museum is a community museum situated in Simon's Town, a suburb of Cape Town in the Western Cape Province of the Republic of South Africa. It is a province-aided museum which receives support from the Government o ...

is a community museum established in 1977 and located in The Residency, a historical building erected by Governor Joachim van Plettenberg in 1777. The museum records and preserves all aspects of the history of Simon's Town community.

Public art

In 1985, a statue of

Just Nuisance Just Nuisance (1 April 1937 – 1 April 1944) was the only dog ever to be officially enlisted in the Royal Navy. He was a Great Dane who between 1939 and 1944 served at HMS ''Afrikander'', a Royal Navy shore establishment in Simon's Town, South ...

, the only dog ever to be officially enlisted in the

, was erected in a position overlooking the harbour. The Simon's Town Museum has an exhibition dedicated to his story.

Notable inhabitants

Georgia Papageorge Georgia Papageorge (born 1941) is a South African installation artist active in the field of earth art. Life A native of Simon's Town, Cape Province, Papageorge earned her bachelor's degree in fine arts from the University of South Africa in Pret ...

installation art Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often calle ...

ist *

Hendrik Vermeulen Hendrik Meyer-Vermeulen (born ''Hendrik Mentz Vermeulen'', 7 April 1982) is a South African Couturier and fashion designer, specialising in Haute Couture and Corsetry as well as a singer-songwriter performing under stage name Joh Urban. In 20 ...

couturier ''Haute couture'' (; ; French for 'high sewing', 'high dressmaking') is the creation of exclusive custom-fitted high-end fashion design that is constructed by hand from start-to-finish. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, Paris became th ...

* Simon Peyton Jones,

computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus ( ...

born in (and named after) Simonstown Simon's Town (43182022921)

Economy

Simon's Town became a

free port Free economic zones (FEZ), free economic territories (FETs) or free zones (FZ) are a class of special economic zone (SEZ) designated by the trade and commerce administrations of various countries. The term is used to designate areas in which com ...

in 1832.

Coat of arms

The Simon's Town municipal council assumed a coat of arms, designed by Adelbert Bonn, in September 1905.Chapman, F.P. 'How the town obtained its coat of arms' in ''Simon's Town Historical Society Bulletin'' (July 1973). It was granted by the

College of Arms The College of Arms, or Heralds' College, is a royal corporation consisting of professional officers of arms, with jurisdiction over England, Wales, Northern Ireland and some Commonwealth realms. The heralds are appointed by the British Sover ...

on 27 September 1957. The design is described as ''Quarterly: I and IV, per pale, the dexter Argent, three towers placed 2 and 1 Gules, the sinister per fess Or and Azure, in chief on a mount Vert a peacock in his pride proper and in base three plates placed 2 and 1 Argent; II and III, Azure, an estoile and in chief three crescents Argent; over all an oval cartouche with scrolled edges Or, charged with a demi-lion rampant Gules, issuant from three barrulets wavy Vert''. In layman's terms, the shield is divided into four quarters. The first quarter is divided vertically, one half depicting three red towers on a silver background, the other a peacock on a gold background above three silver discs on a red background; the second quarter is blue, with three silver crescents at the top and a wavy star below on a blue background; the third quarter is the same as the second and the fourth the same as the first; in the centre is an oval with a decorative edge displaying a red lion emerging from wavy green stripes on a golden background. These were a slightly modified version of the arms of

Willem Adriaan van der Stel Willem () is a Dutch and West FrisianRienk de Haan, ''Fryske Foarnammen'', Leeuwarden, 2002 (Friese Pers Boekerij), , p. 158. masculine given name. The name is Germanic, and can be seen as the Dutch equivalent of the name William in English, ...

, which Bonn mistakenly thought were those of his father

. The crest was the figure of

Britannia Britannia () is the national personification of Britain as a helmeted female warrior holding a trident and shield. An image first used in classical antiquity, the Latin ''Britannia'' was the name variously applied to the British Isles, Gr ...

resting on a golden naval crown. Two golden anchors were placed behind the shield. The motto was ''Fac et spera''. When the municipality was dissolved in 1996, the council placed its regalia, including the letters patent from the College of Arms, in the custody of the Simon's Town Historical Society.''Simons' Town Historical Society Bulletin'' (July 1997). The society registered the arms in its own name at the Bureau of Heraldry in October 1999.National Archives of South Africa : Data of the Bureau of Heraldry
Department of Arts and Culture, Republic of South Africa

Gallery

N.N. (1806) p046 VIEW OF SIMONS BAY.jpg, Simon's Bay - Naval Base, 1806 SAS Isandlwana F146 Simon's Town.jpg, The South African Naval Base in Simon's Town. Kalk Bay, Sudáfrica, 2018-07-23, DD 06.jpg, View of the bay from the railway line. Simons Town station.JPG, Simon's Town station Wikimania by Rehman - 2018-07-18 - B015 - Simon's Town.jpg, Simon's Town station was also visited by Wikimania attendees in July 2018. Simon's Town Harbor.jpg, Boats in Simon's Town harbour. Admiralty House St Georges Street Simonstown Cape Town - Side view 1.JPG, Admiralty House Simonstown.jpg, The historical centre of Simon's Town Simon's Town 2008-08-16.jpg, View of the harbour with the civilian yacht moorings in the foreground and the naval base to the right in the background. Just Nuisance at Jubilee Square - panoramio.jpg, Statue of

in Simon's Town. Middle North Battery Simon's Town 9 inch Gun firing 24th September 2014 v2.jpg, A restored 9 Inch MLR Gun being fired at the Middle North Battery overlooking the town. Roman Rock Lighthouse.webm, A flight around Roman Rock Lighthouse just outside Simon's Town harbour.

References

External links

Simon's Town Historical Society
{{Authority control Maritime history of South Africa Ports and harbours of South Africa Suburbs of Cape Town Populated places established in 1680 Articles containing video clips 1680 establishments in the Dutch Empire Populated places established by the Dutch East India Company