This is an important moment in which we celebrate the recovery of an element of Cape Town’s lost transportation heritage: milestones. And it coincides with the bi-centenary of their installation along Main Road: milestones exactly like the one pictured below (located opposite the well known Olympia Cafe Main Road Kalk Bay) were first placed along Main Road in 1814 – 1815 during the governorship of Lord Charles Somerset.
A Replica of Milestone XVII
The reason stemmed from the decision by the British in 1814 to make Simon’s Bay their naval station; that in turn necessitated the upgrading of Main Road from Wynberg through to Simon’s Town. The roadworks were undertaken concurrently along three sections: Wynberg – Diep River, Diep River – Muizenberg, and Muizenberg – Simon’s Town, with the Muizenberg – Simon’s Town section being the most important because of the difficult terrain and poor quality of the road. So it got started first in June 1814. The whole programme was probably completed by August 1816.
With the roadworks came the milestones. Installation of milestones along main roads had become mandatory in the home country, Britain, fifty years earlier and the practice was adopted here. Their purpose was both to mark the edge of the road and also enable accurate estimation of distances, travel times and fares for services running...
