Interesting news from the Oranjezicht City Farm is that the City of Cape Town has announced a public participation process for Greenmarket Square, calling for proposals as to how the historic city centre space can be used to its best potential.
In the weekly newsletter of the Oranjezicht City Farm the historic use of Greenmarket Square is detailed, dating back to 1696. Its first building is what is now the Old Town House. After a number of name changes over a hundred year period, the block was named ‘Groente Markt‘, home to the city’s vegetable market. The area has subsequently served as a slavemarket, a parking area, and now as an unsightly rip-off flea market of African (rather than South African or Cape) curious, crafts, and souvenirs.
Beautiful Art Deco buildings surround the Square, including Market House, and Kimberley and Namaqualand 
House, as well as the gothic Methodist Church, not only used for church services but also as a home for classical and jazz music concerts.
There would be no better operator than Oranjezicht City Farm, and its dynamic co-founder Sheryl Ozinsky, to turn Greenmarket Square into a vibrant and colorful fruit, vegetable, artisanal food, beverage, and flower market, going back to Cape Town’s original roots as a refreshment station for passing ships.
The Oranjezicht City Farm writes in its newsletter: ‘We dream of the day when Greenmarket Square could once again be a vital centre of exchange connecting rural and urban environments and anchoring culture and social life for all residents’!
A green market Greenmarket Square would bring many Capetonians back into the city centre, who avoid it currently for its perceived threat of danger, and fewer and fewer shops being of interest to them. This is contrary to the many restaurants which are opening in the area, recognizing the beauty of the buildings and the international trend to regenerate city centers. Most major cities around the world have such markets, and as Cape Town is regularly rubbing shoulders with such cities on Top Destination lists, it would make absolute sense to re-open a market on Greenmarket Square, operated by Oranjezicht City 
Farm!
The Oranjezicht City Farm market operates at Granger Bay in the V&A Waterfront on Saturday mornings from 9h00 to 14h00.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Tel (021) 433-2100, Twitter:@WhaleCottage Facebook: click
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