Woodstock's Makers and Studios

Woodstock runs along the foot of Devil’s Peak on the city’s eastern edge: rows of Victorian terraces, old warehouses and factories, and the railway beside them. Over the last twenty years the factories have filled with people who make things, and it is now where many of Cape Town’s designers, furniture-makers and artists work. This is a day for watching them at it.

It starts on the way in, past the Castle of Good Hope, the five-pointed fort the Dutch East India Company built in the 1660s, still standing at the edge of the city centre. It is worth a proper look, since the rest of the day is about what the same city makes now.

The Woodstock Exchange is an old industrial building turned into studios and small shops, with designers and photographers at work behind open doors. People will usually stop to talk about what they are making. Nearby, a shoemaker cuts and stitches leather by hand, and you can watch a pair take shape on the bench.

The Old Biscuit Mill, a former biscuit factory, is the centre of the neighbourhood, with designer shops and small galleries round its courtyard. On a Saturday a food market takes it over; on a weekday it is quieter and you can look at things properly. Between stops, the walls of Woodstock are covered in murals by local and visiting artists, and the guide knows the stories behind most of them.

If there is time, a converted church full of antique lighting and old furniture, worth the stop for the building alone. Then the foundry, where coffee is roasted in one corner and bronze is cast in another. The casting demonstration walks you through the lost-wax process, from the wax model to the finished bronze, and if a pour is on, you watch the metal go into the mould glowing.

Lunch is in the neighbourhood, somewhere the guide knows. Come back on a Saturday for the markets, when the Old Biscuit Mill is a different place altogether.

Good to know

• Private and on request, on the days the studios are open. They keep working hours.
• What is being made depends on the day. We cannot promise a particular demonstration.
• Buying from the maker is the point. Ask about shipping before you buy anything large.
• Woodstock is a busy inner-city neighbourhood. Walk it with your guide and keep phones close.
• Lunch is an extra, and your guide books somewhere good. We confirm what is included in writing.