De Waterkant, adjacent to Green Point and on the CBD's seaward side, is perhaps the hippest area in town. Not that it lets on. A few hundred years ago its buildings were at the very edge of Table Bay, its taverns servicing swarthy seamen, its women and waifs no doubt, too.
“Waterkant” — as it was called — was so near the sea it had a boathouse and was where customs officials were headquartered. But then the beaches and the ocean were staved off to make room for development.
It is one of the oldest parts of the city, its earliest homes dating from 1790. Until 1966, when the city was re-zoned, it was a part of Bo-Kaap, and its connection to the Cape Malay quarter
