Cape Town Property - Simon's Town

Simon's Town is a quintessentially English seaside town with intricate Victorian wrought-iron balustrades and the flag-flying British Hotel dominating the main street. Enticing alleyways lead up to whitewashed houses on the hillside, which overlooks a charming waterfront complex and the False Bay Yacht Club alongside extensive Navy buildings.


In 1814 the English colonial governors of the Cape turned Simon's Town into a Naval Base and it has remained one ever since. In 1940, when the sailors' favourite Great Dane dog created a nuisance of himself on the trains, a request was sent to the British parliament asking for him to be enlisted in the Navy. Permission was granted and the dog was brought to the Recruiting Officer, who inquired: “Name?”

“Nuisance, Sir”, the sailor replied.

“First name?”

“Just Nuisance, Sir,” the sailor stated.

Able Seaman Just Nuisance was the only dog ever to hold rank in the Royal Navy and he became a legend in his own lifetime. He died prematurely after a boisterous leap from a moving vehicle but is immortalised in a life-sized statue in Simon's town's Jubilee Square.

This is a delightful area in which to spend some of your holiday, and a visit to the rare African Jackass Penguin colony at Boulder’s Beach, a couple of kilometres out of Simonstown, should not be missed. Further along the road towards Cape Point you are very likely to come across the resident troop of baboons who rule the road and jump onto car bonnets to peer nonchalantly in.

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