Pinelands, Cape Town

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Map of Pinelands from OpenStreetMap.

The "garden city" suburb of Pinelands is located on the edge of the southern suburbs of Cape Town in South Africa and is known for its large thatched houses. The suburb is primarily residential and is often praised for its peacefulness and abundance of trees. Pinelands is one of the few areas in Cape Town in which sale of alcohol is prohibited and is a popular place for senior citizens to retire to. While there are several retirement homes in the suburb, younger people are increasingly moving in.

The main road is called Forest Drive and the suburb contains two small shopping centres, namely Howard Centre (named after Ebenezer Howard who led the garden city movement) and Central Square. Dutch Reformed, Anglican, Presbyterian and Methodist churches are located near to Central Square, while Baptist and Catholic churches are located elsewhere in the suburb. Pinelands is served by two railway stations: Pinelands Station on the western edge of the suburb and Mutual Station on the northern edge. The suburb is bisected from the north east to the south west by the Elsieskraal River, which has flowed through a large concrete drainage canal since the 1960s.

The postcodes for Pinelands are 7405 for street addresses and 7430 for post office boxes. The telephone exchange codes for Pinelands are predominantly 531 and 532 (within the 021 dialling code for Cape Town).

[edit] History

View of the commemorative founding stone and sundial in Central Square park.

The layout of Pinelands is based on the revolutionary town planning ideas of Sir Ebenezer Howard, and was the first attempt at a town-planned area in South Africa. Pinelands was originally a Victorian era farm named Uitvlugt that had thousands of pine trees planted in it, and was later deemed an economic failure by the Department of Forestry. The land was then granted to "The Garden Cities Trust" and the founding Deed of Trust was signed in 1919. One of the first members of the trust, Richard Stuttaford (head of the department store Stuttafords), made a £10,000 gift donation to serve as capital, and a loan of £15,000 from the government was invested in Pinelands. The trust brought in an overseas expert, Albert John Thompson, in 1920 to design the area.

The first (thatched) house in Pinelands is 3 Mead Way and was built in February 1922. The house and entire street were declared a national monument in 1983. New thatched roof houses have not been permitted due to the fire hazard for many years. Pinelands converted to a municipality in 1948 and has since been merged into the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality.

[edit] Demographics

According to the 2001 Census, the population of Pinelands was 10 618. The following tables show various demographic data about Pinelands from that census.^[1]

Gender

Ethnic Group

Home Language

Age

[edit] Politics

Pinelands is part of ward 53 of the City of Cape Town.^[2] The ward also includes Maitland Garden Village, Thornton and part of Langa; the current ward councillor is Brian Watkyns of the Democratic Alliance.^[3] Of the six voting districts in this ward, three of them cover Pinelands: the voting stations are at the Pinelands Town Hall, Pinelands High School, and Pinehurst Primary School. Generally, the majority of voters in Pinelands vote for the Democratic Alliance.

The following tables show the sum of the votes cast in the three Pinelands voting districts at the most recent national, provincial and local elections.

National Election (2004)

Provincial Election (2004)

Local Election (2006)

[edit] Road names

Many of the road names in Pinelands have originated from local history or from places in England. One such road is named Uitvlugt after the historical farm of the same name that covered what is now Pinelands. There are also roads are named Letchworth and Welwyn after the first two garden cities in England. Other roads in Pinelands are named after places in the Lake District in England, as well as the names of birds, trees and flowers.

[edit] Schools

In Pinelands there are three public primary schools, each of which is commonly known in the community by a colour: Pinelands Primary School ("The Blue School"), Pinelands North Primary School ("The Red School") and Pinehurst Primary School ("The Green School"). Pinelands High School is a public high school, centrally located in the suburb. Cannons Creek Independent School is a private combined primary and high school. There are two private pre-primaries in Pinelands: Meerendal Pre-Primary and La Gratitude Pre-Primary. The high school campus of Vista Nova (a school for children with cerebral palsy and other special needs) is located in the suburb. Oude Molen Technical High School, while located on the northern edge of Pinelands, draws students from all over Cape Town. The Pinelands Campus of the College of Cape Town is also located on the northern edge of the suburb.

[edit] Sports

Pinelands has sporting facilities including a tennis club and lawn bowling club. Other sports include the cricket and hockey clubs situated at The Oval sports grounds situated on St. Stephens Road just off Forest Drive. Pinelands hockey club [[1]] was founded in 1937 and is currently one of the largest clubs in the country fielding 12 men’s teams and 7 ladies teams in the Western Province Hockey Union league. Both the men’s and ladies first teams play in the Grand Challenge league with the mens team having won the title for the first time in 2006.

[edit] References

• The History of Pinelands, Cape Town

1. ^ Pinelands. City of Cape Town - Census 2001. City of Cape Town. Retrieved on 2007-06-08.
2. ^ Western Cape/City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality/Ward Number 53. Municipal Demarcation Board. Retrieved on 2007-06-09.
3. ^ Councillor Information: Brian Watkyns. City of Cape Town. Retrieved on 2007-06-09.

[edit] External links

• Old and recent photos of Pinelands, Cape Town
• The Pinelands Directory
• The Pinelands Crimewatch website

Coordinates: 33°56′7″S 18°30′26″E / -33.93528, 18.50722