Description

Essentials about the Company’s Garden in brief

In the middle of Cape Town’s inner city, surrounded by pulsating streets and tall houses, lies a small green oasis of peace: Company’s Garden. The approximately eight-hectare park is the ideal place to take a break from the hustle and bustle of the South African metropolis in the shade of the trees or to escape the summer heat of the city. Many locals also take the opportunity to spend their lunch break here. But Company’s Garden is also a convenient place for museum visitors to take a breather due to its central location between many of Cape Town’s museums (in the area surrounding the garden are the Iziko South African Museum, the South African Jewish Museum, the South African National Gallery, Slave Lodge, and other institutions). If you take some time, you can discover a lot in Company’s Garden: small themed gardens, large monuments and the oldest living inhabitant of Cape Town.

The grounds of the Company’s Garden

The garden was established in 1652 by the Dutch East India Company (VOC). It provided fresh fruit and vegetables for ships stopping at the Cape on their way to Asia – hence the name Company’s Garden. Today, the park is about eight times smaller than the original vegetable garden, and most of the area has gradually been used as building land. Recently, however, Company’s Garden has been partially reused according to its old purpose. In 2014, the VOC Vegetable Garden opened, which is a small-scale replica of the original Dutch layout, growing fruit trees and berry bushes, as well as vegetable plants and herbs.

If you stroll along the paths of the Company’s Garden, you will discover many hidden gems. In addition to the rose garden, there is a Japanese rock garden and an area for succulents. Most of the plants in the park are native to South Africa; only a few plants – such as the large bamboo – were brought from other regions of the world.

Picnicing in the Company’s Garden

The perfect place for a picnic is on one of the park’s many lawns. If you don’t want to feed yourself, you can also eat at Company’s Garden Restaurant. Incidentally, a picnic spot that is particularly popular with Capetonians is the spot right next to the city’s oldest living resident – a pear tree that is several hundred years old. The tree is said to have been planted on this spot as early as the year the garden was founded and is now protected from destruction by a fence.

The monuments and wildlife of Company’s Garden

In addition to the plants, monuments and works of art characterize the atmosphere of the park. Besides the statue of Cecil Rhodes from 1907, the Delville Wood Memorial commemorating the South African soldiers who died in the First World War in the battle of the same name in France is one of the most famous monuments. In addition, there are fountains, a sundial and a carp pond in the garden. If you are lucky, while walking or from a park bench, you can see one of the rare white albino squirrels that live in the park with their hundreds of gray-brown conspecifics. The furry residents are tame and are happy to let visitors feed them. In addition to the lively squirrels, several other rodents live in the park, as well as Egyptian geese and herons. There is even an aviary where you can observe dozens of bird species.

Website

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Opening hours

Admission fees

None.

Address

Getting there

By public transport:

Bus line 101: Stop Michaelis

Bus lines 101 and 107: Stops Dorp and Upper Long

By car:

In the immediate vicinity of the Company’s Garden there are a number of parking lots.