Charlestown

In the 1890s a desperate race for trade began between the three major city ports of Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth. The objective was to complete a railway link to the treasured gold fields of Johannesburg.

The railway from Durban reached the Transvaal border first, but President Paul Kruger refused permission to continue until his own railway, from Pretoria to Lourenĉo Marques in Mozambique, was completed. The town that developed around the junction at the Transvaal border was named Charlestown in honour of Sir Charles Mitchell, Governor of Natal.

The railway was finally completed in 1895, and Charlestown lost the significance of its earlier days as a busy rail junction. Today Charlestown is little more than a trading station.

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