ADDERLEY STREET. by PEE-WEE
The principal street and the centre of Cape Town,Adderley street is named after Sir Charles Adderley, a British parliamentarian who,in 1850 , led the successful opposition against a British plan to turn the Cape into a convict settlement.Notable buildings in Adderley street include the Groote Kerk,the parent of the Dutch Reformed Church in Southern Africa and the oldest church in the Republic of South Africa.
It was completed in 1704 and has twice been enlarged.The church contains a wooden pulpit elaborately carved by Anton Anreith.
At the northern end of Adderley street is the lodge which housed slaves who worked in the garden of the Dutch East India Company.
The lodge is now the South African Cultural History Museum.
Among its exhibits is a unique display of furniture and household items of early Cape Town.Also displayed are arms, maritime exhibits, coins and silver, costumes and Malay arts and crafts.
Other buildings of interest in Adderley street include the Heerengracht Hotel and the imposing new Golden Acre ,with its weather- protected shopping area.The Woolworth's store in Adderley street marks the site of Cape Town's first trading centre.
Adderley Street also boasts the modern railway station,southern terminus of the railway network of Southern Africa.
On the concourse of the station stands South Africa's first locomotive, a handsome "Puffing Billy" built in Scotland in 1859 and shipped out in pieces to Cape Town.
In front of the Medical Centre where Adderley runs into the Heerengracht, is a small bronze ship dedicated to Robert Falcon Scott - The famed Scott of the Antartic,who, stopped in Cape Town before sailing to his death in the icy wastes far to the south.
