District Six Museum
A community museum telling the story of how some 60,000 residents were forcibly removed from District Six under apartheid. The floor is covered with an old street map where former residents have written messages.
District Six was once a lively, multiracial neighborhood in central Cape Town. In 1966 the apartheid government declared it a whites-only area, and by 1982 some 60,000 residents had been forcibly relocated to the township on the Cape Flats, while their homes were almost entirely bulldozed. The museum is housed in a former Methodist church. Its hall floor is laid with an old street map of the neighborhood, on which former residents have marked where their homes once stood. The walls display reclaimed street signs, old photographs and oral histories. Some guides are themselves former residents who were forced to move. Admission is about ZAR 100, with guided tours at an additional charge. It is open roughly 09:00 to 16:00 from Monday to Saturday. The museum is on Buitenkant Street, a 5-minute walk from the Castle of Good Hope.
Opening hours
Mon–Sat, approx. 09:00–16:00
Nearby sights
- Castle of Good Hope
- Greenmarket Square
- Company's Garden
- Bo-Kaap
- Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa
- Two Oceans Aquarium
- Signal Hill
- V&A Waterfront