Mouille Point, Cape Town

Mouille Point is an affluent suburb of Cape Town, situated between the V&A Waterfront to the North, Sea Point to the South and Green Point to the east. The suburb hugs the coastline, and consists primarily of high-end apartment blocks.

It is a very small suburb, having only two major roads (Beach Road and Bay Road). It is also home to the Mouille Point promenade; a paved promenade on the coast that is used daily by thousands of Capetonians. Behind it lies the Green Point Common, where numerous playing fields and a golf course are situated.

The name comes from the Dutch word for breakwater. In the early 1700s, wrecks were common in Table Bay and the then governor decided that a breakwater (moilje in Dutch) was needed to protect vessels. Work began in 1743. All farmers who delivered their goods to the city were required to load up their wagons with stones, drive out to Mouille Point and offload. Slaves and convicts were also used to build the breakwater, but after three years of labour and high seas, just 100m had been built and the project was abandoned. In 1781 the French arrived and built a battery near the unfinished moilje, naming it Mouille Point Battery.

The Mouille Point lighthouse is prominently located here, but despite this, the SAS Seafarer, a cargo ship, was wrecked between it and Three Anchor Bay in 1967. For many years, opposite the lighthouse was a drive-in roadhouse, where many people used to go for a snack and coffee during the day, or after a movie at night.