Photograph of St George's Cathedral, Cape Town. The facade has a portico with pediment, on six doric columns above which is an octagonal tower with a clock and two tiers with columns. At the top of the tower is a cross on an orb.

This photograph shows the original cathedral that was built in 1830 in Cape Town. A larger building was planned but was never fully realised until 1901, when a new and larger cathedral was constructed on the site of the old building. The foundation stone for the new building was laid by the Duke of Cornwall and York in 1901. On 27 February 1881, Prince Albert Victor and Prince George visited St George's Cathedral with Sir Hercules Robinson, the 8th High Commissioner for South Africa, to attend morning service.  

This is a photograph from one of the nine albums compiled following Prince Albert Victor (1864-92) and Prince George of Wales' (1865-1936) world tour aboard HMS Bacchante from 1879 to 1882. The photographs were collected by their chaperon and tutor, John Neale Dalton.

The majority of the images in these albums are topographical views and architectural studies, loosely arranged according to the group’s itinerary. They include photographs of artefacts, local people and public figures, as well as portraits of the princes taken during the tour. The attempt to recreate the experience of a journey through such an assortment of images is common to many amateur travelling albums of this period. In 1886, some of the photographs in the albums were reproduced as engravings in the published accounts of the voyage, The Cruise of Her Majesty's Ship Bacchante, 1879-1882.