From farmland in the late 17th century, to more people settling there until it became a fashionable seaside locale in the mid-1800s with cottages next to the sea and a beach which stretched until the Castle of Good Hope, Woodstock is one of the oldest residential and business suburbs in the Western Cape.
Steeped in history, nowhere in the province let alone the country – aside perhaps from Jo’burg central – can you find such diversity, particularly from an architectural point of view, as you do in Woodstock, says artist and resident Mark Hilltout. “It’s reminiscent of Soho or Tribeca in lower New York in the 1960s,” he adds.
Hilltout initiated a personal project to document the two main roads of Woodstock in an unusual illustrated map.
The detailed drawings of every building, shop, office and residential facia along both sides of these two arteries covering a total of 18 kilometres will not only be a guide to the businesses, design hubs, art galleries, places of worship and restaurants, but the prints of the drawings will be exhibited at The Alex Hamilton Studio Gallery from the end of January, 2013.
Hilltout would love to see people coming there from other parts of Cape Town, South Africa – even the rest of the world – to literally walk from one end of Woodstock all the way to Observatory, and experience its charm for themselves.
“Besides being a fascinating melange of old and new, the nature of emerging artistic and craft oriented businesses are significant in light of Cape Town being 2014 World Design Capital.”
Street View: Woodstock – Drawings of Woodstock, Salt River and Observatory by Mark Hilltout
Venue: The Alex Hamilton Studio Gallery, 3rd Floor, 9 Barron Street, Woodstock, telephone 021 447 2396
Exhibition run: Open until Monday, 25 February 2013
Opening times: Monday to Friday 10am to 4pm
