District Six Museum

The District Six Museum in Cape Town, South Africa, preserves the history and memories of District Six, a vibrant community forcibly relocated during apartheid. Established in 1994, the museum offers exhibitions featuring photographs, personal memorabilia, and oral histories, including a detailed map marking former residents’ homes. It serves as a memorial and educational center, hosting programs and workshops to raise awareness about apartheid’s impacts. The museum is located at 25A Buitenkant Street, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa.

Planning your visit

The District Six Museum is one of the most affecting small museums anywhere, and it works because of who made it. District Six was a mixed, densely populated inner-city neighbourhood of Cape Town — some 60,000 people — declared a whites-only area under the Group Areas Act in 1966, then systematically bulldozed, with residents forcibly removed to the sandy, wind-blown Cape Flats far from the city. The land largely stood empty afterwards. The museum, founded in 1994 in a former Methodist church that had supported the community, was created by ex-residents themselves.

The floor is covered by an enormous hand-drawn street map of the vanished district, on which former residents have written their names and where their homes stood. Cloth banners hang inscribed with memories. Street signs saved from the demolition by a truck driver who hid them for decades are displayed. The material is personal rather than institutional, and the museum is often staffed by people who lived through it — conversations with them are frequently what visitors remember most.

It sits on Buitenkant Street at the edge of the city centre. Allow an hour to ninety minutes; it is compact.

Bookable options include skip-the-line entrance tickets, private guided tours, and guided Cape Town city tours with museum entry included. Guided formats are worth considering here specifically because the guides are often connected to the community the museum documents, which turns the visit from an exhibition into testimony. Current availability is listed below.