East City (Zonnebloem)

The East City goes by many names, from Zonnebloem to The Fringe, and was once (in 2014) labeled the "Innovation District"—that’s when it headquartered Cape Town’s tenure as World Design Capital. It’s also the only part of District Six that's left; the district was demolished under apartheid. The neighborhood has been undergoing a stop-start revitalization for more than a decade, and although many thought the COVID-19 closure of the once-thriving Fugard Theatre might put an end to the East City’s renaissance, cautious gentrification is back in full swing, and you can once again get your culture fix at either the Avalon or the Star theaters, former Fugard spaces now incorporated into the newly expanded Homecoming Centre. And, on the far side of the block, there’s the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, where the legacy of South Africa’s famous cleric and his equally impressive wife live on.

Stare up as you stroll toward the mountain on Harrington Street, and high up on one building you’ll spot a humongous mural of a Jack Russell terrier painted by Belgian street artist Bart Smeets. It was originally painted to advertise Baz-Art’s 2019 International Public Art Festival, but now the daydreaming pup watches over a fast-regenerating pocket of Cape Town’s so-called East City. The bustling, compact precinct is centered on Harrington Street and, running parallel, Buitenkant Street, where there are yet more large-scale murals. This juxtaposition of new art and old buildings suggests something of the gritty nature of this area, where there’s a rambunctious juggling of styles and tastes, an amalgam of grungy old shops and ambitious new ventures, a growing swath of hipster hangouts alongside vintage shopfronts ready to star as movie backdrops. It’s precisely the sort of mix-n-match aesthetic cache every great neighborhood needs. 

Although the past is always on display here—in the architecture and at the District Six Museum—the East City is also looking to the future, and that includes hempcrete (building blocks made of hemp). Located on Harrington Street, a 12-story building has been created primarily from blocks of hempcrete and contains a mix of apartments, shops, and a restaurant.