Prestwich Memorial

Old bones that were discovered during excavations for a new residential block in Cape Town, turned out to be the unmarked graves of slaves dating from the 17th and 18th centuries.

In 2003, when construction began for a luxury apartment block on Prestwich Street, Excavation was halted when bulldozers uncovered the graves.

The remains were exhumed and taken to the mortuary at the Woodstock Day Hospital.  As human remains are sensitive issues decisions had to be made about consulting the descendants and the reburial.

So the Prestwich Memorial was opened in 2008. It is built next to the first Presbyterian Church in the country which was completed in 1828. This was the first church to allow freed slaves through its doors after slavery was abolished in 1838 in South Africa.

Buitengracht St, Cape Town City Centre