From shopping to fine dining to art galleries, the V&A Waterfront is one of Cape Town’s most reliable tourist destinations, drawing millions of visitors each year. But it’s also a place built on reinvention.
What began as a hard-working harbour precinct of coal stores, cranes and warehouses has, over the past century, been repeatedly re-shaped to match Cape Town’s evolving relationship with the sea. While once the harbour was a rough-and-tumble space, over decades of development stone quarries have been transformed into luxury resorts, and old warehouses now house well-heeled tourists. Through the years, the bones of the neighbourhood have shifted, as buildings designed for industry are repurposed for culture, hospitality and city life.
For a glimpse at how the precinct has changed, we rustled up this album of photographs, showing the Waterfront both as it was and how you’ll find it today. Keep reading to see the Waterfront’s maritime and industrial past preserved, reimagined and stitched back into the fabric of a contemporary city experience.
Richard Holmes is a writer based in Cape Town. At Time Out, all of our travel guides are written by local writers who know their cities inside out. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines and check out our latest travel guides written by local experts.
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Built in 1921 as Cape Town’s tallest building, the Grain Silo stored grain in 42 concrete cylinders. In 2017, it was transformed into the Zeitz MOCAA, the world’s largest museum of contemporary African art, and the Silo Hotel, linking the port’s industrial past with the city’s creative present.
Opened in 1883, the Robinson Dry Dock is the oldest operating dry dock of its kind in the world. Built from cobblestone and concrete, it allowed ships to be drained and repaired below the waterline. Reopened in 2023, it remains a working heritage site and was declared a national historic engineering landmark in 2024.
Now home to Time Out Market Cape Town, these historic buildings date back to 1882, when the harbour became the first part of Cape Town to have electricity. The Pump House housed the first generator to power harbour lights, while the Power Station, expanded in 1904, kept the port running around the clock.
Built in 1904 as a coal store and customs baggage warehouse, this building now houses the Victoria & Alfred Hotel (revamped in 2023) and Alfred Mall. Its 1990 transformation was one of the first adaptive reuse projects at the Waterfront, marking the shift from a working dock to a vibrant mixed-use destination.
The iconic Clock Tower, built in 1882 in Victorian Gothic style, originally served as the Port Captain’s office and a signalling tower guiding ships safely into Table Bay. Today it anchors the Clock Tower precinct, home to galleries, shops and the Robben Island Gateway, and remains a striking symbol of Cape Town’s maritime history.
Built in the early 1900s as the headquarters of the Union-Castle Line, which managed mail, freight, and passenger ships between South Africa and the UK, the building helped establish Cape Town as a global shipping hub. Today, it houses retail stores including Nike, Thule, and Wedgewood, with the Marble Restaurant on its rooftop.
Completed in 1904, this two-storey colonial structure once served as the headquarters of the Port Captain, who oversaw the movement of ships through the Alfred and Victoria Basins. Today, much of its original façade and interior remains intact. It is now home to the African Trading Port, a gallery and cultural hub celebrating African art and craftsmanship.
The recently restored Time Ball Tower is now one of a few operating time ball towers in the world and has stood for over 130 years. As Cape Town became an essential stop along international trade routes, the need for accurate time signals grew. The first time ball was installed in 1836 at the Royal Observatory, but as the harbour expanded, it was relocated to the Waterfront in 1894 for clearer visibility to ships at sea.
Each day at precisely 13h00, the ball would drop, giving ships a visual signal to reset their chronometers, a vital instrument for determining longitude and ensuring safe navigation. This restoration returns the tower to its original 19th-century form, preserving a remarkable piece of Cape Town’s maritime heritage.
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