The Victoria and Alfred Waterfront as playground for Capetonians

Abstract

The paper contributes to the exploration and understanding of the social geographies of public space in the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront (V&AW) in Cape Town. The aim is to understand Capetonians’ (visitors and employees) perceptions of the V&AW as public, leisure, shopping and working spaces. The appropriate literature on waterfront developments in providing public, working and leisure space is reviewed. Two questionnaire surveys (visitors and employees) as well as eight unstructured interviews with important role players in the tourism industry of Cape Town were conducted. Findings revealed the most important reasons for Capetonians to visit or use certain spaces in the V&AW, the public open spaces they liked and how they perceived the V&AW as an inclusive space. The research also sought the respondents’ views on how the certain public spaces can be improved; what new activities and retail shops can be introduced; their opinions about the affordability of restaurants and parking; and how the V&AW can improve to cater for the needs of the Waterfront’s employees. Recommendations are made for making the V&AW more functional and accessible to Capetonians.

Keywords

• Cape Town
• waterfronts
• leisure
• tourism
• shopping space and public space