Iziko Slave Lodge – Cultural History Museum
lies at the entrance to the Company’s (Dutch East India Company) Garden at the top of Adderley Street. It was originally built as a slave lodge by Willem Adriaan van der Stel, to house the slaves working in the gardens. They were brought from other parts of Africa, India and Indonesia from 1656. The lodge for the Company’s slaves was built in 1679 and made into a double storey building in 1751 when it housed 1000 people in cramped conditions.
After the second British occupation, the slaves were sold and in 1810 Thibault and Schutte converted the slave lodge into government offices, and finally into a courtroom.
The front of this building was set back in the 1960s to accommodate the widening of Adderley Street, and it is now a museum dedicated to the history of slavery in the Cape.
TRAVEL WORDS 