This street in South Africa was voted as one of the coolest in the world

Cape Town’s Bree Street has been named the 11th ‘coolest street’ in the world in a recently released TimesOut ranking.
“Streets are the heart of local life; they’re where communities come together, where new local businesses become go-to staples and where urbanites go out, hang out and have fun,” said TimesOut, and as such had set out to compile this ranking through the work of its contributors across the globe.
“On every street on this list, there are bold, creative new ventures in food, drink, nightlife and culture: from listening bars to repurposed heritage buildings, these streets are where you’ll find a city’s most exciting cultural trends,” it added.
The top 15 ‘coolest streets’ in TimesOut’s list are:
- High Street, Melbourne (Australia)
- Hollywood Road, Hong Kong
- East Eleventh, Austin (USA)
- Guatemala Street, Buenos Aires (Argentina)
- Commercial Drive, Vancouver (Canada)
- Jalan Petaling, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)
- Rua da Boavista, Lisbon (Portugal)
- Arnaldo Quintela, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
- Chazawa-dori, Tokyo (Japan)
- Consell de Cent, Barcelona (Spain)
- Bree Street, Cape Town (South Africa)
- Oranienstraße, Berlin (Germany)
- Fifth Avenue, Park Slope, New York City (USA)
- Ban Tad Thong, Bangkok (Thailand)
- East 3rd Street, Los Angeles (USA)
Bree Street
From going out for a bite to eat, to bar hopping, to visiting boutique stores, occasional markets or just browsing works of art at various galleries, it seems that Bree Street in the Mother City has it all.
With the iconic Table Mountain in the background, the street has long earned high praise, being called “Cape Town’s hippest street” by the Wall Street Journal and dubbed “Cape Town’s coolest restaurant strip” by Eat Out.
For centuries, this vibrant boulevard in the heart of Cape Town has served as a key cultural hub and has established itself as a central culinary destination in the Mother City, according to various food publications.
The name ‘Bree’ originates from the English adaptation of the Dutch word ‘breë’, signifying ‘broad’ or ‘wide’. This name was chosen because the town’s layout was specifically designed to accommodate ox-wagons making U-turns.
Going forward, this busy strip in Cape Town is set for another revamp, with TimesOut contributor Richard Holems saying that in 2025, it will see the “redevelopment of the City Park building, a former hospital which will become a multifunctional hub of apartments, restaurants, co-working spaces and a design-driven international hotel brand.”
Read: The best city in South Africa – also ranks second in the world