Church Square sits at the heart of Cape Town's oldest district, carrying more history than most visitors realize. From 1730 to 1753, the city employed an official dog whipper to keep dogs out of the adjacent church and off the square. It has been considerably more consequential since then.

At midnight on 30 November 1838, the bell of the Groote Kerk across the road rang out to mark the end of slavery at the Cape, a moment of reckoning for a city that had traded human beings in this very square. Today, eleven polished black granite blocks form the Slave Memorial, bearing the names of enslaved people, ship captains and the vessels that brought them here.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours use Church Square to trace Cape Town's slave history, connecting the Memorial to the Slave Tree, the Slave Lodge and the Groote Kerk's role in abolition.