In 1509 the mighty Portuguese navy suffered one of its worse defeats in history at the hands of the Quena, the original inhabitants of Cape Town. Francisco d’Almeida was a famed Portuguese Viceroy returning from his post in the east, and called in with his fleet at Table Bay to take on water. After unsuccessfully attempting to trade with the locals he sent a raiding party of 150 soldiers to attack a Quena village. In a hail of arrows and charging livestock 64 of the Portuguese died on or near Woodstock Beach, including the Admiral himself.

The area was once called Papendorp. Pieter van Papendorp registered his house and erf between the Castle and Salt River in 1788 for 4000 florins as security for debt.

According to legend, Papendorp’s old thatched house was the venue where the Cape was surrendered to the British in 1806, after the Battle of Blaauwberg. Lieutenant-Colonel von Prophalow signed on behalf of the Dutch and Major-General Baird and Commodore Home Popham signed for the British. Treaty Street in Woodstock commemorates this event.

At the turn of the 20th century Woodstock and the adjoining Salt River were suburbs of vineyards and vegetables, with the sails of a windmill turning in Albert Road and a straggling line of houses with large gardens on the high road.

In the winter, there was a swamp between the main road and the railway line, and cows were often bogged and lost in the high grass and mud.

On the corner of Spring and Treaty Roads (just off Albert Road) is a gnarled milkwood tree known as the “old slave tree”. Slave dealers proclaimed the qualities of their human goods under this branches. Slaves were also hanged from the huge branches.