Clock Tower Retail Centre

This guide to the Clock Tower in Cape Town's harbour follows the Port Captain who climbed its spiral stair each morning in 1882 to scan the basin from a mirrored lookout, tracking every mast and funnel without turning his head. You'll hear about the tide gauge below him that decided whether a captain could risk the harbour mouth, and the Edinburgh-made clock still keeping time behind Gothic arches. It closes on the tower's slight, deliberate lean, and on what has replaced the old harbour master's watch along this same quay.