About Dock Road Junction

Dock Road Junction is the gateway district linking the City of Cape Town CBD with the V&A Waterfront. The district is an extension of the V&A’s 84 000 m2 (8.4 hectare) mixed-use Canal District.

Dating back to the mid-nineteenth century, the old Queens Hotel used to be an important social gathering spot in the City. At that time the hotel was located right on the water’s edge like most coastal city hotels of the time. For decades, the old Queens Hotel served as the go-to place for captains, sailors and tradesmen from all walks of life to overnight, refuel or exchange ideas. It was seen as the gateway between the city and the harbour.

The area in front of Dock Road Junction, now known as the Canal District, was of strategic importance until the Amsterdam Battery was disbanded in 1898. After World War II, extensive land reclamation from the sea to build a deep-water harbour shifted the Table Bay coastline a significant distance away, and the area subsequently fell into disuse. At the time that the V&A Waterfront commenced development in the area it was being used as a car park and occasionally used for events.

The Dock Road Junction provides the first point of contact for visitors entering the V&A Waterfront from the city, creating a seamless link to Dock Road in the Waterfront from the CBD via Buitengracht Street or Alfred Street, and from the Prestwich area via Ebenezer Road.

Many of the old buildings, including the Queens Hotel, still exist but have been revamped and redeveloped into commercial and retail space. The buildings retain their historical charm but offer modern-day convenience. The area also contains spacious open-air parking facilities.

In 2014, the V&A Waterfront Company acquired the old Queen’s Hotel and Amway buildings and has redeveloped these as part of the new District. The area accommodates bespoke shops, a shared working space and a flagship retail store.

• Global Eyes South Africa’s leader in luxury eyewear stocking the world’s finest international brands.
• Seattle Coffee is a South African family-run business specialising in quality coffee with an artisanal approach.
• Native child Hair Salon Natural Hair salon & body care brand created for the underserved needs of women of colour.
• iStore has moved into the Queens building (appropriately painted white) in July 2020 as a flagship store. The carefully renovated old building represents a break in tradition for iStore which is usually housed in ultra-modern buildings.

SPACES is the second co-working hub in the V&A Waterfront, with the first being Workshop 17 in the Watershed. SPACES is equipped with four meeting rooms, 16 desks, fast wifi and a cafeteria. It is an innovative, carefully thought-through space with a variety of work settings and new technologies dedicated to make you feel at ease and motivated. Companies or individuals can view the SPACES website for more information.

To protect and enhance views of the Old Queens Hotel from the road, a landscaped parking lot was created. Dock Road Junction offers 85 new parking bays designated for the public. Parking tariffs range from R5 to R170 depending on the duration of one’s stay. Parking is available daily.

Pedestrian walkways seamlessly link Dock Road Junction to the V&A’s Canal District and Battery Park. The paths are safe and accessible and offer wheelchair access.

The interior of the Queens building had to be structurally supported as, over the years, it had begun listing to the right. Righting the building proved to be a complex task as the original brick structure was so brittle. The painstaking process of structurally support the building involved the use of micropiles, raft foundations, adding support concrete walls, roofing and structural steel supports. During the restoration process the development team unearthed a set of historical train tracks leading up to and alongside the hotel. These were built before Cape Town’s land reclamation campaign, at which point they were covered up. Dock Road Junctions unearthed train tracks are now a visible tribute to the building’s past.