• 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 Manenberg. 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

The suburb got its name from  Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone, the Governor-General of and Commander-in-Chief in South Africa. He was a member of the royal family and was in this position from 1924 to 1930. Previously, the area was called West London.

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.

Modern Athlone

The area has been called the dumping ground of the apartheid regime, where thousands of people were relocated because of the Group Areas Act. 70 years after the Earl of Athlone left, it became a melting pot, and it is an example of how many different cultures can coexist.

The train station is on the Cape Flats line. Other parts of the district include Manenberg, Gatesville, Rylands, Belgravia Estate, Bridgetown, and Hazendal. Garlandale, Rondebosch East, Crawford, Silvertown and Kewtown, but also Bokmakerrie, which is an older area that was built before World War II
Athlone is the cultural hub of the Cape Flats community

local WEATHER  TODAY

Browse businesses and places to visit in Athlone

Things to see and 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.