The Company's Garden

What to expect at The Company's Garden

The Company's Garden began in April 1652, within days of Jan van Riebeeck's landing, as a vegetable plot for the Dutch East India Company to resupply ships rounding the Cape on the run to Batavia. It is the oldest cultivated garden in South Africa and arguably the origin point of the city itself: everything in the City Bowl grew outward from these beds. Over three and a half centuries it shrank from a working market garden of many hectares to roughly six hectares of ornamental park, gaining a rose garden, a fish pond, an aviary, a conservatory of succulents and a magnificent avenue of oaks. The Saffraan pear planted in the earliest years still stands and is generally described as the oldest cultivated tree in the country. Around its edges sit Parliament, St George's Cathedral, the Iziko South African Museum, the National Gallery and the old Slave Lodge.

A visit is a slow amble rather than a tour. Enter from Government Avenue, the long pedestrian oak alley that runs from the top of Adderley Street past Parliament, and you are immediately in the shade with squirrels, introduced by Cecil Rhodes in the 1890s, coming down the trunks for peanuts. The rose garden sits mid-park, formal and heavily scented from October. The fish pond and its ducks are the children's favourite; the aviary and the small conservatory with its aloes and succulents take a few minutes each. Statues and memorials are scattered throughout, including the Delville Wood memorial to South African dead of the First World War and a contested collection of colonial figures. The Company's Garden Restaurant occupies a shaded terrace in the middle with tables under the trees.

An hour is enough to walk it; two if you sit for coffee or bring a book. Nothing needs booking, nothing sells out and the whole thing is free. The best plan is to use the garden as the hinge of a City Bowl morning rather than a destination in itself, arriving after breakfast and moving on to one of the surrounding museums or up Long Street afterwards. Bring peanuts or seeds for the squirrels if you have children, though feeding them bread is discouraged. Skip the garden in the middle of a windy summer afternoon, when the south-easter roars down Government Avenue, and be aware that gates lock in the evening, so it is not an after-dinner stroll.

It is right in the middle of town and easiest reached on foot. From the Grand Parade or Cape Town station, walk up Adderley Street past the cathedral for about fifteen minutes; from Long Street, cut across Wale or Church Street in five to eight minutes. The MyCiTi Civic Centre station, the main city interchange, is about a ten-minute walk down Hertzog Boulevard and Adderley Street, and inner-city MyCiTi fares run roughly R11-R14. Metrorail's terminus at Cape Town station is a similar distance. Driving in is the worst option: on-street bays around Queen Victoria Street are metered at roughly R10-R15 an hour, marshals collect the fee, and the parking garages near the Gardens Centre and on Roeland Street charge around R15-R25 an hour. E-hailing from the V&A Waterfront costs about R60-R90.

Entry to the garden costs nothing, at all times, with no ticket booth anywhere on site. Money only appears if you eat or if you step into the neighbours. The Company's Garden Restaurant serves breakfasts around R70-R130 and mains roughly R100-R180, with coffee about R35-R50. The Iziko South African Museum and the planetarium next door, the National Gallery and the Slave Lodge all charge their own admission, typically in the range of R30-R60 per adult for the Iziko sites with reduced rates for children and pensioners, and Iziko museums traditionally offer free entry to South African citizens on Commemoration Day, 27 April. Deckchairs, bike hire and guided walking tours of the garden and Parliament precinct start at around R250-R450 per person.

Early morning is the garden at its best. Between 7:00 and 9:00 the light comes low down Government Avenue, office workers cut through, and the rose garden has nobody in it. Lunchtime, from 12:00 to 14:00, brings the biggest crowd, mostly city workers on the lawns, and the restaurant terrace fills. Weekends are relaxed and family-heavy. Seasonally, October and November are the peak, with roses in bloom and the oaks in fresh leaf; February and March are hot and glaring; June to August is wet, and the garden empties, though a bright winter morning under bare oaks with snow-flecked mountain behind is a genuinely lovely thing. Gates close at 19:00 in summer and 18:00 in winter, and staff clear the paths in the last quarter hour.

It suits almost everyone and is particularly good for the awkward gaps in a city itinerary: an hour between museum visits, a rest for tired legs, a place to eat a takeaway lunch. Paths are broad, level and tarred or compacted, making it one of the better central options for wheelchairs and prams, though a few side paths are gravel. Children like the squirrels, the pond and the aviary far more than adults expect. It is a poor rainy-day choice, since there is almost no shelter beyond the restaurant terrace, and teenagers will find it dull without the museums attached. Anyone hoping for a botanic garden on the scale of Kirstenbosch should adjust expectations sharply downwards; this is a city park with a very long history, not a horticultural collection.

The whole point of the garden is what surrounds it. St George's Cathedral, Desmond Tutu's church and the starting point of many anti-apartheid marches, is at the northern gate, two minutes away. The Iziko South African Museum and Planetarium sit on the western edge, one minute from the rose garden, and the National Gallery is beside them. The Houses of Parliament and Tuynhuys line Government Avenue on the eastern side. The Slave Lodge is at the bottom of the avenue where it meets Adderley Street, about six minutes' walk. Bo-Kaap is fifteen minutes northwest on foot, Long Street's bars and bookshops are eight minutes north, and the Gardens Centre for a supermarket run is ten minutes south.

Honest caveats. The garden is smaller than its reputation, and visitors who have set aside a half-day for it will finish in forty minutes. Parts of it are tired: some beds are patchy, some benches are worn, and maintenance budgets show. The squirrels are habituated to the point of nuisance and will go into an open bag. There is a visible homeless presence around the edges and along Government Avenue, which is a feature of the central city rather than a danger, but it surprises some visitors. The historic statuary is contested and unexplained by much signage, so the colonial history here is present without being interpreted. And on windy days, Government Avenue funnels the south-easter mercilessly.

Plan your visit TicketsFree Free entryYes Time needed1-2 hr visit WhereCity Bowl Opening hours Daily 7:00-19:00 in summer (Sep-Apr) Daily 7:00-18:00 in winter (May-Aug) Company's Garden Restaurant daily 7:00-17:00 Hotels near The Company's Garden

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