Victoria & Alfred Waterfront | |
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Location | Cape Town, Western Cape |
Coordinates | 33°54′11″S 18°25′22″E / 33.90306°S 18.42278°ECoordinates: 33°54′11″S 18°25′22″E / 33.90306°S 18.42278°E |
Ocean/sea sources | Table Bay Harbour of the Atlantic Ocean |
Basin countries | South African |
Website | www |
The Victoria & Alfred (V&A) Waterfront in Cape Town is situated on the Atlantic shore, Table Bay Harbour, the City of Cape Town and Table Mountain. Adrian van der Vyver designed the complex.
The Waterfront attracts more than 23 million visitors a year.
Situated in South Africa’s oldest working harbour, the 123 hectares (300 acres) area has been developed for mixed-use, with both residential and commercial real estate.
Prince Alfred, second son of Queen Victoria, visited the Cape Colony harbour in 1860 as a sixteen year-old Royal Navy Midshipman on HMS Euryalus. He made a big splash with the colonials and the tribal chiefs on this first-ever visit by a member of the Royal Family. The first basin of the new Navy Yard was named after him and the second after his mother.
The complex houses over 450 retail outlets, including fashion, homeware and curios, to jewellery, leather goods and audio-visual equipment. The V&A Waterfront is also still a working harbour and fishing boats bring in fresh fish, and larger container ships are towed in by tugboats.
The Waterfront has recently seen development in its new Silo district, which currently houses the new headquarters of Allan Gray Investment Management at Silo 1 and apartments at Silo 2. The project is expected to be completed in 2017 with the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, a Virgin Active gym and a hotel in the works.