Jul
2014
Sir Benjamin d'Urban did a lot of travelling in South Africa and he seems to have had a hand in a few settlements.
Another settlement he had a hand in was King William's Town in the Eastern Cape. In 1835 he founded the town and it was named after William IV.
The town was abandoned in 1836 and re-occupied again in 1846. It was the capital of British Kaffraria until it was incorporated into the Cape Colony in 1865.
The British German Legion disbanded after the Crimean War and many of the descendants were provided with homes in King William's Town hence many of the settlement names are German, of which most are towns in Germany like, Stutterheim, Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Braunschweig.
King William's Town has a famous hippo too, named Huberta, famous for travelling the furthest in South Africa. The hippo is housed in the Amathole Museum in King William's Town.
The town is supported by cattle and sheep farming along with textile mills, soap manufacturing and a clothing industry. Thus subsequent satellite industries are also in place to maintain these industries.
Property values are what you would expect from a large city and the whole income spectrum is catered for.
The East London beach is not too far at a 45 minute drive. This would make King William's Town an ideal inexpensive suburb to invest in for the holiday home.
The town has public schools to cater for learners along with malls for retail therapy, as is customary of any large city in South Africa.
Here is a list of schools in town:
- St Thomas Private School
- Central Primary School
- St Christopher’s Private School
- Kaffrarian High School
Take a tour of the properties on the MyRoof website, your gem is hidden in one on the thousands of pages and suburbs.
