Cape Town, South Africa has a long history of enthusiasm for markets, but the city’s market scene has experienced a renaissance in recent years, with artisanal foods, craft beers and designer goods becoming the ‘Mother City’. ‘ I’m attracting a crowd.
In the late 18th century, in the cobbled Green Market Square, the city’s second oldest public space, slaves were traded for foodstuffs such as fruit and vegetables. Today the same site is popular with tourists for its mix of arts, crafts and curio stalls. Since 1860, buckets of colorful flowers, including the national flower protea, have lined the Trafalgar Place flower market. It’s a great photo opportunity and a chance to chat with the chatty vendors, many of whose families have been working here for generations.
And for years, Milnerton Flea Market has drawn bargain hunters and those looking for genuine antique or design pieces from one of the 250-odd stalls lined along Marine Drive.
The new-style markets have similarities between them, such as live music, whimsical decorations (hay bales for seating, milk jugs filled with flowers hanging from straws) and children’s playgrounds. But each also offers a completely different browsing and shopping experience, as well as an ideal opportunity to engage with locals, soak up the current environment and pick up unique items, often from the makers themselves. From Thursday to Sunday, zig-zag around the Cape Peninsula to the following locations.
Thursday
What better way to drive off the city than by arriving at Cape Point Vineyards, a boutique winery overlooking the long sweep of the Noordhoek coast along the spectacular, cliffside Chapman’s Peak Doctor? Every Thursday evening, the tasting room, restaurant and grounds are taken over by the Noordhoek Community Market (4.30-8.30pm). The focus is mainly on food, which can be enjoyed with the vineyard’s award-winning wines, but there are also fashion, handmade candles and some flower stalls.
Friday
The place to visit on a Friday night in the South Peninsula community of Muizenberg is the Bluebird Garage Food and Goods Market,which continues from 4 pm to 10 pm. Housed in a 1940s hangar that was once the base of the first airmail delivery service in the southern hemisphere, it’s a fun place to shop, browse and sip local wines and ales, especially for jazz. .
A little further north, check Cool market on the rangeHeld from 4.30pm to 9.30pm at the leafy Tokai. It’s a delightful location surrounded by vineyards and pine trees and offers a family night out with live music, a children’s play area, delicious food and some boutique wine.
Saturday
When Justin Rhodes and Cameron Monroe started Neighborgoods Market in 2005, little did they know it would grow into the wildly popular enterprise it is today. This expertly curated collection of local producers and micro-entrepreneurs has been the inspiration for many more markets including handicrafts, artisan foods and designer goods that have opened up around the Mother City. It runs from 9am to 2pm on Saturdays at the Old Biscuit Mill in Woodstock (but get in and out early if you want to avoid the crowds). Gourmet eateries gather in the main area, where you can pick up groceries and food gifts or just browse, while a separate designer goods area offers a selection of must-have local fashion and accessories. Check out Grant Mason Originals for tailored shirts in eye-popping patterns, blue-collar white collars and shoes made from luxury fabric off-cuts.
Just as popular, but with a completely different vibe, is Oranjescht City Farm Market. It was originally based on Homestead Farm, along with their beautifully designed urban farm, built in November 2012 on a previously abandoned bowling green, and a place where you can visit Monday through Friday at 8am. to 4 p.m. and on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. These days the market – one of the city’s best – is held in Granger Bay from 9am to 2pm on Saturdays and 3pm on Sundays.
Sunday
For many years Hot Bay, on the Atlantic coast of the peninsula, has been a destination for its excellent Sunday craft market (10am to 5pm), held on the village green. Among the items on offer are beadwork and other trinkets made in the nearby settlement of Amizamo Yethu.
At the extreme western end of Hout Bay’s harbor is the new Bay Harbor Market. This imaginatively designed indoor market, which runs from 9.30am to 4pm on Saturdays and Sundays (and from 5pm to 9pm on Fridays between November and February), has been a huge success. There’s a good range of gifts and crafts, as well as very tempting food and drink options and live music.
Originally written by Simon Richmond and published in 2015, this article was updated in 2019 by Lucy Corn.