Goodwood

Goodwood was established in 1905 and was named after the famous Goodwood racecourse in England. The founders intended to develop the area as a racing centre and built the Goodwood Park racecourse. The venture was short-lived: they held only one race meeting, on 16 September 1905, before abandoning the racecourse because of legal problems. The grandstand was demolished soon afterwards.

The railway was important to Goodwood from the beginning. A station was opened in 1905, helping to connect the new settlement with Cape Town and the surrounding areas. Goodwood later grew beyond the original development and became a municipality in 1938. Elsies River and Monte Vista were incorporated into the municipality between 1944 and 1946, followed by Edgemead in 1969.

Goodwood’s position between residential areas and the growing industrial areas of the northern suburbs also influenced its development. The suburb became part of an increasingly important transport and industrial corridor, with major roads and railway lines passing through or alongside it.

Another important chapter in Goodwood’s history is Wingfield Aerodrome. During the Second World War, the aerodrome was used for military aviation, including by the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm. It also served as Cape Town’s municipal airport after the war and remained the city’s main airport until 1954, when the new airport at the present site of Cape Town International Airport opened. Several historic buildings associated with Wingfield’s aviation and military history have survived and are still in use.

Acacia Park provides another unusual link with Goodwood’s history. The residential area was established in 1947 on part of the former Wingfield Aerodrome to house South African Railways and Harbours officials. From 1948, it also provided accommodation for civil servants and Members of Parliament who came to Cape Town for the parliamentary session. It was originally known as Sassar and was renamed Acacia Park in 1959, after the many Port Jackson trees growing there. A school and recreational facilities were also provided. Acacia Park remains one of Cape Town’s parliamentary villages.

Goodwood therefore has a history shaped by several different uses of the same landscape: a short-lived attempt to establish a racing centre, the expansion of the railway, the development of industry and housing, and the former Wingfield aerodrome and military facilities. The suburb that developed around these activities eventually became part of the larger urban area of Cape Town.