Cape Town’s Bree Street and Lerotholi Avenue open up for play and connection. In a recent reel, Geordin Hill-Lewis shared scenes of children playing cricket, riding bicycles and spending time outdoors with parents and guardians along Bree Street and Lerotholi Avenue, Cape {town} Etc reports.
The video places readers in the moment, with families spread across the road, children weaving between cyclists and onlookers enjoying a slower, safer pace in the CBD. The activation forms part of Bree Street Sundays, a weekly open-street initiative that typically runs on Sundays from 10am to 5pm, creating a people-first space in the heart of the city.
Modern Bree Street Sundays initiative began in late October 2024, when Bree Street and surrounding roads were first closed to vehicles as part of an open‑streets experiment to create a safer, more pedestrian‑friendly space. It has been running each Sunday since then, typically from 10am to 5pm, and continued into March 2026 and beyond.
The open‑streets style initiative on Lerotholi Avenue grew out of community space activations in Langa in late 2025.
The first car‑free road closures and public space celebrations on Lerotholi Avenue occurred around 26 October 2025 as part of the Open Streets Langa / Open Langa programme.
These events closed Lerotholi Avenue to traffic for community use and celebrated local culture and movement.
Hill-Lewis said, ‘Opening Bree Street and Lerotholi Ave every Sunday has been such a joy to see,’ adding that it has ‘brought Capetonians together’ and that he is ‘grateful to Young Urbanists for this partnership.’
The programme was introduced as a pilot over the summer period and has continued into April, signalling ongoing public interest and city support.
It invites pedestrians, cyclists and families to experience the CBD at a slower pace, with traffic temporarily cleared to prioritise recreation and community use.
Cllr Angus McKenzie said he was ‘so appreciative for the open streets in Langa’ and added that he had visited earlier that day while dealing with an issue at the Langa Swimming Pool, noting he ‘just saw the joy when I visited the open streets.’
Supporters say the initiative reflects a growing appetite for more accessible and family-friendly urban spaces and is reminiscent of a bygone era when kids played in the streets till the streetlights switched off.
The reel captures that shift in real time, where a simple game of street cricket and a child on a bicycle turn everyday roads into places of joy.
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