GRAAFF'S POOL
Simultaneously iconic and notorious, Graaff’s Pool along the Sea Point promenade is bathed in legend, myth and a multitude of entertaining, largely apocryphal, tales. Built in 1910 for the “Lady of Bordeaux”, the wheelchair-bound wife of vintner Pieter Marais, owner of a majestic villa on Beach Road, the tidal pool and its wall shielded her from the gaze of the public. (Overy, 2016) In the early twentieth century disability was stigmatised, hence the need to afford Mrs. Marais privacy from prying eyes. Wheeled through a subway tunnel constructed for ease of access, she would bathe in the salt water and later return to the villa, from where she could discreetly watch passers-by. (Swim History, 2005) There is some doubt about the origin of the tunnel, though, as its construction is also attributed to the subsequent owners of Villa Bordeaux, Jacobus Graaff and his family. Sold to the Graaffs after the Marais family fell on hard times, it is alleged that the new owners built the tunnel for access to the pool without the need to interact with “common folk.” (Malan, 2000)
Be that as it may, Graaff’s Pool was opened to the public in 1929 – the owner and former cabinet minister Jacobus Graaff having bequeathed it to City of Cape Town. From that time it started its descent into ignominy. For many years access to the pool was restricted to men who would bathe nude behind the wall. Stories abound about old ladies in the buildings adjacent to the promenade expressing indignation at this public nudity. One is reputed to have called the police to lodge a complaint and, upon investigation, the officer was informed by her that she was offended by the panorama of naked men which she could easily see if she stood on a chair and peered through a fanlight above her lounge window.
Surprisingly the exclusion of women and boys younger than sixteen remained in place until sensibilities regarding gender equality caught up with the modern era. It was only in about the year 2000 that naked women began to scare off the mostly gay gentlemen in their birthday suits. As the gender demographic began to change at this bathing and sun tanning enclave, the even seedier and later the criminal element plied their nefarious trade in drugs and prostitution at Graaff’s Pool, once the exclusive preserve of Beach Road mansion dwellers. The residents of the upmarket strip of Atlantic Seaboard dwellings became increasingly vociferous in their clamour to have what had become of Graaff’s Pool torn down, and the wall sheltering the seedy underbelly of Cape Town demolished. The chorus of indignant voices pointed to this as a hotbed of rent boys, paedophilic perversion, and public indecency. Apparently the filthy litter strewn around, evidence of urination against the wall and the blocked entrance to the tunnel and malodorous human waste, seriously detracted from what once had been a pristine beach environment.
By 2005 the last ‘brick in the wall’ (credit to Pink Floyd’s lyrics) was carted away by the City Council. The only evidence of a tidal bathing pool is now a rocky remnant of what once had been the Lady of Bordeaux’s private Pool of Siloam from which her struggle with paralysis would be a trifle ameliorated. The discarded prophylactic latex raincoats that had later served as evidence of the presence of unseemly reprobates, were cleared. A sign deters loafers, prohibits the consumption of alcohol, illicit drugs and the playing of loud music. Sleeping overnight (and presumably the staying awake bit, too, by all accounts) is also “verboten”. The pictures on the sign address wayward dogs as well – they are not allowed on this beach. One assumes that the pictogram on the notice is clear enough for dogs to understand – given their inability to read any of South Africa’s multitude of official languages. Young kids swimming apparently quite safely and cheerfully where Graaff’s Pool once was, creates a favourable impression of what is now Graaff’s Pool Beach.
As is often the case with the authorities that deter the abuse of facilities by undesirable elements in one area, the problem has been relocated a block or so away, it seems. Sea Point pavilion is home to upper crust apartment dwellers, joggers and walkers and is welcoming to the broad spectrum of residents in the Greater Cape Town metropole – but not to hooligans and hobos. One block away, Main Road gives a hint of underworld relocation thence. Shady types appear to guard dark alleyways and entrances to older and less salubrious blocks of flats.
Yet Sea Point, despite clusters of dubious elements, remains a welcoming and delightfully cosmopolitan part of the city. The demographic is splendidly eclectic. The backdrop of Table Mountain/Lion’s Head shrouds a handsome neighbourhood whose demise is - not yet, and embraces rich and poor, African émigrés from the north, European foreigners, with an apparent generosity of spirit.
As the preamble to the Constitution declares: ‘South Africa belongs to all who live in it’. Sea Point deserves its renaissance as a suburb of Cape Town and should, indeed does, belong to all who call the city their home.
Comments
Post a Comment