Claremont Wash House and Caretakers Cottage

ScheduleThe demarcation of the Provincial Heritage Site is as follows:Remainder Erf 50406 being the Claremont Wash House and Caretakers Cottage, off Chess Road, Rondebosch, Cape Town as depicted in attached diagram A.SignificanceThe Claremont Wash House and Caretaker’s Cottage is a significant representation of the transitioning lives of the freed slave washerwomen who continued to serve the homes they were previously bound to.The washerwomen were freed slaves who continued to serve homes in the area by collecting dirty laundry and going to the river to wash it.These women, who had husbands who either worked on distant farms, or as fishermen at sea, became resourceful in their endeavour to provide for themselves and their children in the absence of their men, and extended their services to homes in the area to continue doing the washing, but for a fee. It was an important social event in the lives of the women and children, and they worked as a group. The day would include fires made to boil water and cook food, while the children played on the banks of the rivers. This caused major dissention as the rivers quickly became polluted which in turn rendered the river water further down useless and caused sickness in the community. The City Council outlawed this practice when it built municipal wash houses.The washerwomen were mandated to use them, but it was managed, and a fee was levied to the women for this service. This made the women unhappy and many of them continued the practice on the riverbanks. The City Council resorted to policing the river which then led to some using the private properties with riparian rights to continue to launder in the river. The washerwomen lived in what is now Harfield Village, (in the Durham Road area), Belletjebos (Cavendish Square area – Bishop Lea) and a settlement near Protea Road in Newlands. With modern technology came washing machines and the wash houses were all closed in the 1940s.