Greenmarket Square, Cape Town.

Strand Street, or Sea Street as it was previously known, was a fashionable road that initially ran alongside Cape Town's sea front. Greenmarket Square probably developed early on when the VoC brought vegetables from its adjoining garden to this place for sale to Cape Town residents. Farmers and freed slaves soon followed this example and began to bring their produce here in a variety of wagons and carts turning it into a picturesque vegetable market. As the city grew and the residential area about the market gained in substance, so then its simple dwellings gave way to imposing and elegant buildings, including the old Burger Watch House and Council Chamber. By 1840 nearly all single-storey structures round the Square had been replaced by more substantial residences. At the turn of the 20th century, the square gradually began to lose its picturesque quality and much of its trade was transferred to the Parade Ground opposite the City Hall. More recently the area has been pedestrianised, and today is the home of a flourishing craft market. It was declared a National Monument under old NMC legislation on 17 February 1961.