Company's Garden

The garden was the reason Cape Town exists. The Dutch East India Company established a refreshment station here in 1652 to grow vegetables for ships on the route to the East, and this plot was that garden - scurvy prevention as urban planning. It shrank as the town grew and became ornamental in the nineteenth century, and what survives is about six hectares of lawns, an oak-lined avenue, a rose garden, an aviary and a fish pond, with a saffron pear tree planted in the 1650s that is generally called the oldest cultivated tree in the country. Around the edges stand the institutions that grew up beside it: the South African Museum, the National Gallery, the Slave Lodge, parliament and St George's Cathedral. Squirrels introduced by Cecil Rhodes are everywhere and beg openly. A section has been replanted as a working vegetable garden again.

What you actually see

• The 1652 origin - the vegetable plot that the city was founded to protect.
• The saffron pear - a tree planted in the 1650s, the oldest cultivated one in the country.
• The oak avenue - Government Avenue running the length of the garden.
• The institutions - museums, gallery, cathedral and parliament around the edges.

When to go

All year. Two hours, more with a museum. Weekday lunchtimes bring office crowds.

Honest expectations

It is a busy city park with the usual urban issues - watch belongings, and there is persistent begging along the avenue. The squirrels are aggressive about food. Museums each charge separately. Parliament's precinct restricts some paths.

Nearby

The Slave Lodge and National Gallery are at the edges; Bo-Kaap is a short walk.