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The Woodstock Design District

Considered the premiere destination for cutting-edge art in Cape Town, just a decade ago the city’s former industrial area of Woodstock was in shambles. As has been the case throughout history, artists took advantage of the area’s large spaces and cheap rents to move in and set up shop. Called by many “the Williamsburg of Cape Town” this similarity isn’t a coincidence: The district owes many thanks to its original champions, Justin Rhodes of New York, and Cameron Munro, a Zimbabwean—who after meeting in NYC as students moved to Cape Town to pioneer an urban renewal transformation. As the pair told the NYTimes in 2011 “It [Woodstock] was close to the city, it had a lot of beautiful buildings, but… was still a bit grotty…Cameron and I had met in Williamsburg in Brooklyn just at the moment that neighborhood was coming up, and we could see that Woodstock was just the same. It seemed like a no-brainer.” Starting small with a niche gallery, the pair also worked on making Woodstock a major design destination. Photo by Laura Feinstein.