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Stephen Reagon Primary School / The Bastion of the Deaf Newlands, Cape Town, Western Cape

Date: 1943 Type: School Status: Demolished 2012 Street: Hemlock Street (cnr Camp Ground Road)   Click to view large map Coordinates: 33°58'36.22" S 18°27'56.72" E Alt: 35m

At the time the provincial administration built this school in 1943, the surrounding area was residential, and its educational needs were served largely by church-run mission schools. The school was named after a recently deceased provincial councillor, who had lived in Claremont for many years. However, the enforcement of the Group Areas Act in 1966, and the subsequent forced removal of the majority of the residents of the neighbourhood, made the school redundant and it was closed in 1969. The building was re-allocated to the defence force, which used it as headquarters for two Citizen Force regiments - the Cape Town Rifles (Dukes) and the Cape Town Highlanders - until 1993. After that, the building was occupied by Deaf SA until it was demolished in 2012, to make way for an hotel. The building was a typical government school building of the time : two storeys of classrooms and offices, with a separate ablution block behind the main building. The original ground plan was L-shaped, and a northern wing was added in the late 1940s or early '50s, to make it U-shaped. A portion at the southern end was demolished c1967 to make way for the new Camp Ground Road bridge. (Arthur Radburn, July 2024)