History of Brooklyn
- Province: Western Cape
- Coordinates: 33.9085° S, 18.4813° E
- Area: 1.58 km2
- Municipality: City of Cape Town
Brooklyn is a suburb on the banks of the Black River, North of Maitland. It lies just West of the Ysterplaat air force base.
 Brooklyn was developed in the 1920s and 1930s the Cape Town City Council developed. It consisted of low-cost housing for poor whites. The first 20 cottages in the the Good Hope Model Village was By December 1931, the first 20 cottages had been built in the Good Hope Model Village was built between 1936 and 1944. The Citizens’ Housing League built a total of 742 houses in Brooklyn.
In 1872, 1872 the Brooklyn Chest Hospital in Stanberry Road was established. During the smallpox epidemic and the later Spanish Flu epidemic, the hospital was turned into an isolation facility
The SAAF Base Ysterplaat, which, according to the 1810 census, was farmed by Willem Caesar. The hay farm known as d’Yzere Plaat belonged to J.P. Ecksteen. Part of it became theMaitland Common, with part owned by the de Villiers Graaf family. Private aircraft started using it in the early 1900s, and by 1917, it was recognised as an airport whilst keeping the name of the farm (Ysterplaat)
. The Ysterplaat airfield was a civilian airfield known as Maitland Aerodrome. As far back as 1929, African Air Transport operated here. Post the outbreak of the Second World War, AAT moved to Tempe and the airfield was taken over by the South African Air Force. In the first year since the SAAF took over, 790 aircraft were assembled here in Brooklyn. Ysterplaat was upgraded to an Air Force Base in 1968.
The SA Air Force began what was then known as the SAAF Diamond Mail Service in 1925. At the request of the Department of Mines, the SAAF instituted regular mail flights between Maitland and Alexander Bay. ‘Union Airways’, was started by Major A.M. Miller. It began operating an airmail service in 1927 that used the airfield at Ysterplaat before the operations were moved to Wingfield about 2 years later.
The postcode for Brooklyn is 7405
weather in brooklyn today
Useful Numbers
- Police: Maitland Police Station-021 506 9400
- Traffic: (Milnerton Pienaar Traffic & Licencing Department)021 550 1236
- Fire:021 510 5180
- Water: 0860 103 089
- Electricity: 0860 103 089
- Ambulance: 10177
- Post office; 012 346 2454
- Closest hospital; Albow Gardens Clini-021 444 5950
- Goeie Hoop Daghospitaal-21 511 8606
- Brooklyn Chest Hospital 021 508 7400
- Pharmacy;Koeberg Pharmacy-021 511 6131
- SPCA: Cape of Good Hope SPCA-021 700 4140
- Municipal hall, Martin Adams Hall. 021 511 6759
- Schools:
- Buren High School -021 511 1912
- Holy Cross Convent School – 021 511 4337
- Ysterplaat Primary School-021 511 1493
- Ysterplaat Junior Primary School- 021 511 1646
- Museum: South African Air Force Museum 021 508 6561
Suburbs adjacent to Brooklyn are Paarden Island; Windermere and Maitland
