Reinventing the Tavern of the Seas: A V&A Waterfront Walking Tour

(176 reviews)

Cape Town audio tour: Reinventing the Tavern of the Seas: A V&A Waterfront Walking Tour

This is a 1.2mi walking tour

It takes an average of 75 mins to complete.

Cape Town

South Africa

Free

Access all 41 locations offline with the VoiceMap app

Reviews

About the Tour

The V&A Waterfront is one of Africa’s most popular destinations, and more than 24 million people visit it every year. But just a few decades ago, South Africa’s oldest working harbour was an uninviting, industrial port. The place that sailors once called the Tavern of the Seas found itself cut off from Cape Town and its people.

Our tour starts at the Contours of the Cape, an artistic interpretation of the eight iconic peaks found around the Western Cape. From here, you’ll pass Ferrymans Irish Tavern, the very first tenant at the V&A Waterfront, where our story about how the strong bonds between the city and its port were broken begins. From the old, you’ll find the new Time Out Market Cape Town, the first of its kind in Africa, where you can sample its world-class culinary offerings. At the Two Oceans Aquarium, you’ll learn about the important work done here to protect local marine wildlife. Our tour ends at the Zeitz MOCAA (short for Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa), the largest museum of contemporary African art, in the trendy Silo District. Here, you’ll discover more about the role the V&A Waterfront has played in rebuilding links between the city’s port and its people, creating new ways for everyone to rediscover Cape Town’s connection with the sea.

Along the way, you’ll have a chance to:

Find out how The Watershed, a popular indoor market, has become the home for leading African entrepreneurs and small businesses
Hear about Life Grand Cafe’s origins as a former post office in the 1900s, and the point where people gathered to watch Union-Castle Line’s Cape Mail Express weekly voyage to Southampton depart
Learn how the Time Ball Tower helped sailors accurately tell time in the late 1800s
Take a picture with the statues of South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize laureates at Nobel Square
Meet the V&A Waterfront’s laziest residents at Seal Landing
Stare into the Robinson Dry Dock, the oldest in South Africa, and learn the fascinating process that workers go through to repair ships here

On this walking tour, you’ll discover the story of Cape Town’s complicated history with its port, via unusual objects like shipping containers and unfinished highways. You’ll learn about the V&A Waterfront’s humble beginnings, and meet some of the characters who’ve helped shape its evolution. Whether this is your first time at the V&A Waterfront, or your hundred and first, this walking tour will open your eyes to hidden traces of the past, the complex dance of daily operations, and the exciting opportunities of the future.

Tour Producer

V&A Waterfront

1 tour

Looking onto Table Mountain & wrapped around an historical harbour, the V&A Waterfront offers shopping, dining, leisure, residential and commercial options.

Preview Location

Location 5

Time Ball Tower

Narrator: To your right, poking out above the hill, you’ll spot a red tower with a ball on top of it. That’s the Time-Ball Tower, and it’s one of the oldest structures here.

Let’s stop for a minute to revisit these early days at the Cape, when the ships that sailed into its... Narrator: To your right, poking out above the hill, you’ll spot a red tower with a ball on top of it. That’s the Time-Ball Tower, and it’s one of the oldest structures here.

Let’s stop for a minute to revisit these early days at the Cape, when the ships that sailed into its port used the time of day to navigate.

They arrived with an instrument called a marine chronometer. But over weeks and even months at sea, being tossed by the waves, their chronometers lost time. They needed to be reset with as much accuracy as possible, which is where the Time-Ball Tower came in.

Steven Bentley: Exactly on the hour, the ball is dropped and with the sailor out at sea, with his binoculars or periscope, would observe that the ball has been dropped and at that time he could tell his navigator on board that that’s the exact hour, and they would then reset all the instruments.

Narrator: That’s Steven Bentley, the former Harbour Master here at the V&A Waterfront.

I asked Steven if he had a good sense of what the port must have been like back then before steamships and the Suez Canal changed everything in the 1800s.

Steven Bentley: I do have a good sense of what that port must have been like. The vessel would have creaked its way in, and when I say creak, sailing ships with tall masts and mizzen masts, they creak in the wind. Sails get rolled up and stowed. And then on the decks as well, everything was timber and all manhandled. Lines were thrown ashore and all that comes with shouting, calling, signalling, whistling, people shouting, people greeting, people asking questions – a lot of this was the news: what’s it like…what’s happened in the other parts of the world – which must have been very entertaining for the people of Cape Town to come and watch.

Narrator: Let’s start walking again. Stay beside the road as it curves around to the right. We’re making our way over to a public square. It’s in front of the Time Out Market.

The Time-Ball Tower at Cape Town was the second in the world, which tells you a lot about how important this port was back then. The first was at Greenwich in London.

This Time-Ball Tower wasn’t the only way to keep time in the early days. There was also a nearby cannon, and it’s still fired every day at noon. Listen out for it. Read More

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Major Landmarks

V&A Waterfront
Time Ball Tower
Ferrymans Irish Tavern
Nobel Square
Time Out Market Cape Town
The Watershed
Two Oceans Aquarium
One&Only Cape Town
Robinson Dry Dock (1882)
Life Grand Cafe Waterfront
Clocktower Bridge
Seal Landing
The Nelson Mandela Gateway To Robben Island
Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa

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Getting There

Route Overview

VoiceMap tours follow a route from a set starting point. It’s how we give turn-by-turn directions and tell a story greater than the sum of its parts.

Start location
43-12 Dock Rd, Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa
Total distance

2km
Final location
S Arm Rd, Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa
Distance back to start location

321.02m

Directions to Starting Point

This tour starts in front of the Contours of the Cape sign, just next to Dock Road.

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Tips

Places to stop along the way

There are restaurants and retailers at points all through the walk. If you want to grab some coffee or a drink – or if you spot something you want to buy – you can either pause or stop the tour and then resume it later.

Best time of day

The tour goes through the Watershed, which is open from 10:00 to 18:00. It also goes through the Time Out Market Cape Town which is open between 11:00 to 22:00. We recommend doing it between these times, but it is possible to do the tour at other times.

Precautions

There is no shelter for large parts of this walk. Wear sunscreen and a hat if you have one.

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App Store Review

“Great app. walk around at your own pace, stop where you want, move on or speed up when you want. Read the script before you go or during the commentary, speed it up or replay it. Repeat the tour whenever you like.”