It is primarily a residential suburb, with shopping and business districts as well as the main campus of the University of Cape Town.

[2] Four years after the first Dutch settlement at the Cape in 1652, the first experimental crops were grown along the banks of the Liesbeek River (at that stage called the Amstel or Versse Rivier).

[citation needed] In October 1656, Jan van Riebeeck visited Rondeboschyn, whose name derived from a contraction of "Ronde Doorn Bossien," referring to a circular grove of thorn trees growing on the banks of the Liesbeek River.

In 1657, the first group of VOC employees gained free burgher status, four of whom were granted land along the river and founded "Stephen's Colony" in the area now known as Rondebosch.

[5] The first permanent title of land in southern Africa was issued, by Van Riebeeck, to the four free burghers of Rondebosch.

[7] On 4 May 1990 the 'Groote Schuur Minute’ was co-signed in Rondebosch by the then leader of the African National Congress, Nelson Mandela, and then State President of South Africa, FW de Klerk, as a commitment to a peaceful negotiation process to end Apartheid.

Also located in this area is Rondebosch railway station, which is the main public transport facility in the suburb.

The terrain is generally flat east of the railway line, while to the west it slopes upwards towards Devil's Peak.

The historic Groote Schuur estate in Rondebosch includes presidential and ministerial residences with Cape Dutch origins.

The Groote Schuur building is the biggest, rebuilt by Cecil Rhodes according to a design by Herbert Baker after a fire in 1896.

Previously part of Cecil Rhodes's estate at Groote Schuur, it was frequently used by the famous British poet and author Ruyard Kipling when he used to visit Cape Town for his winter holidays between 1898 and 1908.

[10] The home of Simon van der Stel (first governor of the Cape Colony) is now part of Rustenburg Junior School.