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 Whatever arrangement Horak had had with He thought his land had considerable potential for development and in
1855 decided to offer forty building lots in Camps Bay for sale, one of
which had a ‘substantial building” on it called Camps Bay House - this had
been Somerset’s house. He announced that he was selling because he was
intending to leave the colony but he seems to have changed his mind
when he was unable to sell and decided to build instead.96
The Retreat and Argyle Cottage are believed to have been built by
Glendinning between 1857 and 1860. The main building is three bays
wide, single storeyed with strong Georgian characteristics and a semi
circular fanlight above the main entrance. The Retreat was probably a
farmhouse and Argyle Cottage an outbuilding together with a twin cottage
built against the farm wall that predates the cottage.
Another tiny cottage in the grounds of The Retreat was owned by Mr
Jan Bloemendal Spyker, accountant, who lived in Camps Bay between
1866-1878. Later in the century it became a “sleeping hut for natives and
then a stable.” In 1906 this hut was converted into St Peter’s Church by
architect E.J.Cooke.
The Retreat can be found between Argyle Street, Park Avenue and
Central Drive and now forms part of The Retreat, a townhouse scheme of
fifteen family homes in a garden setting. It is the second oldest building in
Camps Bay and now functions as a senior centre.
In 1859 Glendinning moved to The Bellevue Estate in Sea Point and
advertised his Camps Bay property once more. This time he announced
that he had found gold at Camps Bay!
There was a brief flurry of excitement, but even this does not appear to
have stimulated prospective home owners or prospective prospectors to
buy his forty plots and they were finally bought by Joseph Blackburn
when Glendinning went insolvent in 1863. It was to be another century
before the ‘gold’ in Camps Bay was to be exploited by the merchants,
restaurateurs and property agents.
Camps Bay House attracted nature loving holiday makers, especially
visitors from India on long leave, although permanent residents did not
take Glendinning’s bait.
Here is a beautiful description left by Mrs L.G.Ross who stayed here
with her children in 1861.
 “21st September, 1861. You will ask: Where is Camps’ Bay: And what are
you doing there?... Camp’s Bay, then, is a most lovely and sequestered little
bay, within six miles’ ride from Cape Town, and ought to be the future
Brighton of the Cape. It lies at the back of Table Mountain, is almost deserted,
and beyond the smoke ascending from a couple of farm-houses and the
patches of corn near some shepherds’ huts, bears scarcely any trace of man’s
presence. It was, nevertheless, once the favourite sea-side residence of Lord
Charles Somerset, from whose admitted good taste and judgment in planting
trees and breeding horses, the Cape has derived incalculable benefit. Here the
queer old Viceroy was wont to recruit his wasted energies, and obtain some
freedom from that care and worry which are always incident to a public man’s
life. Camps Bay
Camp’s Bay House is now shorn of its former glories, and is almost hidden
from riders on the Kloof Road by the
thick plantation of stone-pines which
shelters it from the rude blasts of the
south east winds. The ______ ‘s still say
that in November month the wind blows
with such violence as to pluck their
cabbages out of the ground, and toss their
garden soil into clouds of fine dust; but
though all stories of this kind should be
taken cum grano salis, I am afraid the bay
is very open indeed to the assaults of
hurricane gusts and to fierce tornados
from the overhanging cliffs.
Behold us, then,....surrounded by good
books, pictures and abundance of music
to add zest to the secluded life and
charming solitude of this delightfully
healthy spot! The house itself is a long
range of barrack-like rooms, opening by
French windows to the ground, and
capable of accommodating with ease three or four families. The court is gay
with flowers, and the verandahs are fragrant with honeysuckle and monthly
roses, but the wind sadly deranges any attempt to get up a conservatory.
Every morning I have been up by five o’clock to see the weird-like effects
of dawn breaking on the hills and...take the youngsters down to bathe. How
you would enjoy the long stretch of hard, smooth, white beach, where the
waves come gently peeping over the edge, and then hoarsely retiring again
among the rocks.
I don’t allow the children to stay too long in the water as it is intensely cold
and stinging with brine and they are all the colours of the rainbow when they
emerge. After five minutes scampering on the beach, and half an hour spent
in hunting for shells, crabs, and sea weed, or any of the hundred-and-one
delights that abound here, as they do at Bournemouth or at Ilfracombe, the big
bell summons us to breakfast and we hurry up with such appetites....
There is a fine fir wood behind the house, which ought to be a great
blessing during the approaching hot months, and where we retire every
morning after the gentlemen of the family have driven over to Cape Town on
business... blinking at the flies and drinking in the quiet beauty of the scene.
Such colouring! - such shifting shades of green and purple, - such very green
waves and such very white sands; such very bold, big black rocks and
boulders - breaking the skyline, and causing the spray to be dashed over them
in lofty sheets of vapour, - that one’s eyes become fairly dazzled with the
excessive purity of the fresh air and sunshine! No need for careful toilet, no
unnecessary anxiety as to boots or gloves. We have no neighbours within a
mile of us,... Whenever a tiny wreath of smoke blots the blue horizon, we all
run for telescopes; and for another hour watch its gradual growth and
progress...until at last some...steamer heaves into sight and passes so close that
we can distinctly make out people on the deck. We hoist a red flag - dip it, and
hoist it up again, and of course our salute is courteously acknowledged in the
same fashion. Small coasting vessels are frequently sighted by us, and a regular
fleet of fishing boats ever on the move in the offing.
23rd September. Yesterday afternoon we took a glorious stroll up the hills
behind us and - so over to
the Round-house Gardens
- (which are famous for
their almonds and fruit
trees, and a great resort
for Cape Cockneys on
high days and holidays).
In the course of our walk
we gathered heaps of wild
flowers... Then, just as
the sun was about to dip,
we sat down to rest on the
margin of the Upper
Kloof Road and then
witnessed such a glorious
sunset as I shall never
forget.”
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of both the publisher and Holiday Rentals in Cape Town
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