Simon's Town Simonstad
Aerial View Historical buildings in St Georges Street Victoria fountain at Jubilee Square Simon's Town Waterfront Simon's Town Welcome Sign
Simon's Town Show map of Western Cape Simon's Town Show map of South Africa
Coordinates: 34°11′36″S 18°26′00″E / 34.19333°S 18.43333°E / -34.19333; 18.43333
Country	South Africa
Province	Western Cape
Municipality	City of Cape Town
Established	1680[1]
Named for	Simon van der Stel
Government
• Councillor	Simon Liell-Cock (DA)
Area [2]
• Total	19.81 km2 (7.65 sq mi)
Population  (2011)[2]
• Total	6,569
• Density	330/km2 (860/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011) [2]
• Black African	24.5%
• Coloured	12.7%
• Indian/Asian	4.4%
• White	56.4%
• Other	2.0%
First languages (2011) [2]
• English	18.5%
• Afrikaans	68%
• Xhosa	3.5%
• Zulu	2.5%
• Other	1%
Time zone	UTC+2 (SAST)
Postal code (street)	7975
PO box	7995

Simon's Town (Afrikaans: Simonstad), sometimes spelled Simonstown, is a town in the Western Cape, South Africa and is home to Naval Base Simon's Town, the South African Navy's largest base.^[3] It is located on the shores of False Bay, on the eastern side of the Cape Peninsula. For more than two centuries it has been a naval base and harbour (first for the British Royal Navy and now the South African Navy). The town is named after Simon van der Stel, an early governor of the Cape Colony.^[4]

Topography

The land rises steeply from near the water's edge and the town is boxed in along the shoreline by the heights above. The small harbour itself is protected from swells by a breakwater that was built with thousands of huge blocks of sandstone quarried out of the face of the mountain above.

Simon's Town is now in effect a suburb of the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality. The Simon's Town railway station is the terminus of the Southern Line, a railway line that runs south of the central business district of Cape Town. In places, the railway line runs along the steep eastern shore of False Bay, and in bad weather waves and foam from some heavy swells wet the trains.

Attractions and amenities

Boulders Beach

African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) on Boulders Beach

Boulders Beach is located a few kilometres to the south of Simon's Town, in the direction of Miller's Point. Here small coves and beaches are interspersed between boulders of Cape granite. There has been a colony of African penguins at Boulders Beach since 1985.^[5] There is no record of the birds having lived here prior to that date. There are only three penguin populations on the mainland in southern Africa; the others are close to Hermanus at Stoney Point and Betty's Bay.^[6]

South African Naval Museum

The South African Naval Museum is a maritime museum, which contains collections and artefacts related to the maritime history of South Africa and the South African Navy.

The Simon's Town Museum

Notable inhabitants

• Georgia Papageorge, installation artist
• Hendrik Vermeulen, couturier
• Simon Peyton Jones, computer scientist born in (and named after) Simonstown

Simon's Town harbour

Economy

Simon's Town became a free port in 1832.^[8]

Coat of arms

The Simon's Town municipal council assumed a coat of arms, designed by Adelbert Bonn, in September 1905.^[9] It was granted by the College of Arms on 27 September 1957.

The design is described as Quarterly: I and IV, per pale, the dexter Argent, three towers placed 2 and 1 Gules, the sinister per fess Or and Azure, in chief on a mount Vert a peacock in his pride proper and in base three plates placed 2 and 1 Argent; II and III, Azure, an estoile and in chief three crescents Argent; over all an oval cartouche with scrolled edges Or, charged with a demi-lion rampant Gules, issuant from three barrulets wavy Vert. In layman's terms, the shield is divided into four quarters. The first quarter is divided vertically, one half depicting three red towers on a silver background, the other a peacock on a gold background above three silver discs on a red background; the second quarter is blue, with three silver crescents at the top and a wavy star below on a blue background; the third quarter is the same as the second and the fourth the same as the first; in the centre is an oval with a decorative edge displaying a red lion emerging from wavy green stripes on a golden background.^[10]

These were a slightly modified version of the arms of Willem Adriaan van der Stel, which Bonn mistakenly thought were those of his father Simon van der Stel.^[9]

The crest was the figure of Britannia resting on a golden naval crown. Two golden anchors were placed behind the shield. The motto was Fac et spera.

When the municipality was dissolved in 1996, the council placed its regalia, including the letters patent from the College of Arms, in the custody of the Simon's Town Historical Society.^[11] The society registered the arms in its own name at the Bureau of Heraldry in October 1999.^[12]

Gallery

• 
  Simon's Bay - Naval Base, 1806
• 
  The South African Naval Base in Simon's Town.
• 
  View of the bay from the railway line.
• 
  Simon's Town station
• 
  Simon's Town station was also visited by Wikimania attendees in July 2018.
• 
  Boats in Simon's Town harbour.
• 
  Admiralty House
• 
  The historical centre of Simon's Town
• 
  View of the harbour with the civilian yacht moorings in the foreground and the naval base to the right in the background.
• 
  Statue of Just Nuisance in Simon's Town.
• 
  A restored 9 Inch MLR Gun being fired at the Middle North Battery overlooking the town.
• A flight around Roman Rock Lighthouse just outside Simon's Town harbour.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Simon's Town.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Simon's Town.

• List of heritage sites in Simonstown – Sites recognised by SAHRAPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Simonstown Agreement – Naval cooperation agreement between the UK and South Africa
• Selborne Graving Dock – dry dock in Western Cape, South AfricaPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
• Roman Rock Lighthouse – Lighthouse in False Bay, near Simon's Town, South Africa

References

External links

• Simon's Town Historical Society