Bakoven Heritage

The main Beach called Big Beach, which is where teh NSRI station is based. Originally a fishing harbour, being one of the few reasonably protected inlets near the City. The boats were the usual 25 ft carvel built wooden sail and oared craft targeting Snoak, Kob, Mackerel etc. Fishing shacks were erected above the water mark all along the beach.

Little Beach (Logan's Beach) which faces North into Horn Bay, (nickname 'Kak Ballie Bay').

Tiny Beach, facing West, alos into Horn Bay.

There are some wonderful photographs in existence dating back to the beginning of the 1900's one of which was taken in 1910 shows the boat shed situate at the foot of the main stairs to the beach, this being the only surviving boat shed and you will note that the structure is exactly the same and thanks to Carlos Liltved is beautifully maintained.

Bakoven was originally under the control of the British Colonial Forces to be used, presumably, as a muster point for the defence of the colony from enemy attack by sea.

Sometime later the area was placed under the management of the Cape Town Municipality subject to the provision that it would return to military control in the event of x amount of square yardage of enemy sail being sighted.

Bungalows erected here up to the time of freehold had to be temporary, removable structures built mostly of corrugated iron on timber, but without foundations, merely resting on the ground. The few surviving old bungalows still rest on small piles of stone, paraffin tins filled with concrete made with sea sand and amazingly have survived years of gale force South Easters without being blown into the sea.

In the earlier days, up to the 1930's, sewerage was removed by way of the bucket system with the contents being disgorged into the Horn Bay sewerage pipe which was situate just below the Police station... hence the nick name of Kak Balie Bay for Horn Bay.