Simon van der Stel arrived at the Cape as commander in 1679 and soon after was appointed its first governor. Later that year he undertook his first tour of inspection, which brought him to ‘the most charming valley he had yet seen.’ So enchanted was he that he set up camp in a grove he named Stellenbosch, and there decided to establish a second settlement after Cape Town. ‘Simon van der Stel always retained a particular love of the town he had founded,’ wrote TV Bulpin in Discovering South Africa. ‘It became his habit to spend his birthdays there and the occasion became regular holiday galas for the inhabitants. Van der Stel also ordered the planting of oak
trees in the town, making of the place a regular eikestad (city of oaks).
Today massive oaks shade Dorp Street, which runs through the well–preserved old town. Along this avenue is the best student bar in the country, De Akker (the acorn), in what used to be a manor house. The mansion was built towards the end of the 18th century, and completely rebuilt a short while later after being destroyed during a slave revolt. In 1872, at about the same time as the predecessor to Stellenbosch University opened across the way, it acquired a liquor licence, making it the oldest existing business in the town. Theme of this institution is wine, women and song, portrayed in the decor by the walls embedded with empty bottles, copies of the Mona Lisa, and posters of music icons. It so fits the ethos of the place that it achieved the Good Pub Guide Pub of the year award in 1986. But what makes it special is the sense of anarchy about the place. It was the first bar in the country to welcome women and cock a snoot at the establishment by throwing open its doors to all races when it was still illegal. And the progressive Afrikaners grew restive in the 1980’s, it was more often than not that they huddled in these cubicles to discuss the demise of the apartheid regime, while upstairs alternative Afrikaner musicians like Koos Kombuis fomented a rock revolution.
