Observatory

About this audio guide

This guide to Cape Town's Observatory neighbourhood starts in 1833, when astronomer Thomas Henderson climbed onto the Royal Observatory's roof and fired a flare toward the ships anchored in Table Bay, so their captains could check their chronometers against the exact time. It traces how that daily signal evolved from a falling ball to a telegraph-triggered drop reaching as far as Simon's Town, one of the first remote-controlled devices in southern Africa. Listen for the noon boom that still rolls over these rooftops today, the same ritual, just louder.