Brooklyn

• Province: Western Cape
• Coordinates: 33.9085° S, 18.4813° E
• Area: 1.58 km2
• Municipality: City of Cape Town

Brooklyn is situated in the northern part of Cape Town, along the banks of the Black River. It lies north of Maitland, west of the Ysterplaat Air Force Base, and south of Rugby. The suburb is close to the N1 and N7 highways, providing direct access to Cape Town’s city centre, approximately 8 kilometres to the south-east. Brooklyn forms part of the broader Voortrekker Road corridor and is surrounded by light industrial areas, residential neighbourhoods and transport infrastructure linked to the Port of Cape Town.

Once a relatively quiet working-class rail suburb, Brooklyn has developed into a buzzing, multicultural neighbourhood. Koeberg Road, the main artery running through the suburb, has become a vibrant, chaotic Pan-African corridor, lined with informal barbershops, bric-a-brac stores and authentic street-food eateries. Shisanyamas, small businesses and nightclubs add to the lively atmosphere, reflecting the suburb’s transformation into a diverse Pan-African melting pot.

History of Brooklyn

Brooklyn was developed in the 1920s and 1930s by the Cape Town City Council. It consisted of low-cost housing for poor whites. The first 20 cottages in the Good Hope Model Village were built by December 1931. The Good Hope Model Village was built between 1936 and 1944. The Citizens’ Housing League built an additional 742 houses in Brooklyn.

Isolation hospital

Brooklyn has an important place in Cape Town’s medical history. The area was once home to Renzskies Farm, which was purchased by the Cape Colony government and converted into an isolation facility during the devastating smallpox epidemic of 1881-82. Emergency wards were built to help to manage isolation

,The epidemic claimed many lives, with indigenous Khoi-Khoi and formerly enslaved communities suffering the highest mortality.

In 1872,  the Brooklyn Chest Hospital on Stanberry Road was established. The facility continued to serve Cape Town during later health crises, including the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic. During and after World War II, the hospital began to treat servicemen with tuberculosis and other lung diseases.

After years of neglect, in 1979, the site was restored and officially renamed Brooklyn Chest Hospital.

Air Force Base

The area now occupied by Ysterplaat was already being farmed in the early 1800s. According to the 1810 census, Willem Caesar farmed here, while the hay farm known as d’Yzere Plaat belonged to J.P. Ecksteen. Part of the land later became Maitland Common, with another portion owned by the de Villiers Graaf family. Private aircraft began using the area in the early 1900s, and by 1917 the airfield was recognised as an airport, while retaining the name of the old farm, Ysterplaat.

Long before Cape Town International Airport existed, the airfield next to Brooklyn was an important centre of South African aviation. The Ysterplaat airfield was a civilian airfield known as Maitland Aerodrome and later Brooklyn Aerodrome; it was already being used for commercial flying in the 1920s. The SAAF began its Diamond Mail Service in 1925, flying regular mail between Maitland and Alexander Bay at the request of the Department of Mines. Union Airways, founded by Major A.M. Miller, began operating scheduled airmail flights from Ysterplaat in 1927 before moving its operations to Wingfield about two years later. African Air Transport was also operating from the airfield by 1929.

When the Second World War broke out, the South African Air Force took over the airfield. During the first year of SAAF control, 790 aircraft were assembled in Brooklyn, with aircraft arriving in crates through the nearby harbour. Spitfires, Hurricanes and Harvards were among the aircraft assembled here, bringing an extraordinary wartime aviation operation right alongside the residential streets.

In 1946, South Africa’s first operational jet fighter, the Gloster Meteor III, took off from Ysterplaat. The station was renamed Air Force Station Ysterplaat in 1949 and upgraded to an Air Force Base in 1968. The airfield remains one of the most visible reminders of Brooklyn’s unlikely place in South African aviation history.

The postcode for Brooklyn is 7405

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Useful Numbers

• Police: Maitland Police Station-021 506 9400
• Traffic: (Milnerton Pienaar Traffic & Licensing 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
  
• Find a comprehensive list of Cape Town Emergency numbers HERE