Athlone

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• Province: Western Cape
• Coordinates 34°0′S 18°30′E
• Area 2,445 km2
• Municipality City of Cape Town

Athlone is located on the Cape Flats, approximately 10 km southeast of Cape Town’s city centre. The suburb is bordered by Crawford, Rylands, Lansdowne, and Mannenberg. It is accessible via major routes, including the M5 and N2 highways, providing easy links to central Cape Town, the Cape Town International Airport, and other surrounding suburbs. Its location on the flat, low-lying plains has made it a densely populated residential area with schools, parks, shopping centres, and community amenities.

History of Athlone

History of Athlone

Athlone developed on the Cape Flats and was originally known as West London. The area was also referred to as Milner in the early 20th century, but the name West London remained in use for some time. In 1924 it was renamed Athlone after Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone, who became Governor-General of the Union of South Africa that year and served until 1930.

The early settlement developed slowly on the Cape Flats, where the sandy ground presented its own building problems. Wood-and-iron houses were among the early forms of construction, and the area eventually developed into a substantial residential suburb. A railway connection also served the settlement in its early years, although the service did not continue.

Building first began in the area around 1901; the land consisted of shifting sand dunes.  Cape Town suburbs enforced strict, expensive brick-and-stone building codes, but independent builders worked in Athlone where wood-and-iron homes were permitted. To anchor these structures into the loose sand, paraffin tins filled with concrete or bricks stacked entirely without mortar were used. Athlone’s history changed considerably during the 20th century.

Housing was built for returning servicemen after the Second World War, including developments in Kew Town, and the area became closely associated with the Cape Corps and its military history. The Cape Corps itself had a much longer history, having been established in 1915 and serving in both World Wars.

Apartheid transformed the Cape Flats. Under the Group Areas Act, people forcibly removed from other parts of Cape Town were relocated to Athlone and surrounding areas. South African History Online records that Athlone became one of the areas to which people were moved after other parts of the city were declared for white occupation. The resulting Cape Flats communities developed their own strong social and cultural identities.

Athlone also has an important place in the history of resistance to apartheid. The suburb was affected by the political unrest of the 1970s and 1980s, and the Trojan Horse incident of 1985 took place in Athlone, where three anti-apartheid protesters were killed and fifteen others wounded in a police ambush.

But Athlone’s history is not only about politics and upheaval. It has a strong community culture and plenty of stories that are distinctly local. In the 1970s, people gathered at what is now Nantes Park with portable radios to listen to the popular Springbok Radio serial Die Geheim van Nantes. The programme became so closely associated with the gathering place that it acquired the name Nantes Park.

Athlone is also widely associated with the Gatsby, the large filled sandwich that has become part of Cape Town’s food culture. Rashaad Pandy of Super Fisheries in Athlone says he created the first Gatsby in 1976 when he needed to feed a group of workers and combined chips, polony and atchar in a loaf of bread. The story has since become part of the suburb’s identity.

Another piece of Athlone’s everyday history is Wembley Roadhouse, one of the old-style Cape Town roadhouses where customers can still park and order food from their cars. The suburb has also produced musicians, including Jimmy Nevis, who was born and raised in Athlone and later used the suburb’s postal code, 7764, as the title of one of his songs. Listen here.

Modern Athlone

The suburb includes parts of the Cape Flats line, and neighbouring districts such as Manenberg, Gatesville, Rylands, Belgravia Estate, Bridgetown, Hazendal, Garlandale, Rondebosch East, Crawford, Silvertown, Kew Town, and Bokmakerrie, the latter being an older area built before WWII. Today, Athlone is considered the cultural hub of the Cape Flats, blending its rich history, military heritage, and community life into a vibrant suburb.

Read more about the story of the Cape Flats

Transport

Athlone is served by MyCiTi Bus,  Golden Arrow Bus Services, and minibus taxis. See linked pages for details. Other options for getting around the Western Cape.

Ancient history of Athlone

Geologically, the Area is a vast sheet of Aeolian sand, originally of marine origin. It would have been blown up from the adjacent beaches over about a hundred thousand years. Below the sand, the bedrock consists of Malmesbury Shale. Most of the sand is unconsolidated, but in some places near the coast, the oldest dunes have been cemented into a soft sandstone. These formations contain fossils of animals such as the extinct Cape lion and also show evidence of Stone Age people hunting in the area tens of thousands of years ago.

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Resources

For permits, fishing rules, shell collecting regulations and other practical outdoor information, see the Colourdots coastal and nature use guide

local WEATHER  TODAY

Browse businesses and places to visit in Athlone

 

Things to do in Athlone

• Athlone stadium
• Athlone Power Station, or the ‘Cooling Towers’, was built in 1960 and is managed by the Cape Town City Council. Today, it is declared out of bounds due to damage caused to the structure by the strong Southeastern wind.
• The Robert Waterwitch / Colleen Williams Memorial was established in memory of two activists who died in the anti-apartheid struggle
• Nantes Park Outdoor Gym, Loerie Road, Silvertown
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• The Gatsby mural in Kannabast commemorates the creation of this Cape Town speciality.

• The Trojan Horse Memorial in Thornton Road commemorates a tragic event that happened during a peaceful anti apartheid protest.