Victoria and Alfred H Victoria and Alfred Hotel,
Cape Town’s hotel with a view

By Barbara Kingstone

Okay, so the first night at the Victoria and Alfred Hotel in Cape Town wasn’t a triumph. The hotel was filled to capacity and the only available accommodation was a front room overlooking the parking lot and this on a Saturday night. Slam, bang, music blaring, rowdy voices and me in a complete jag lag stupor after a flight that took about 16 hours. As comfortable as SAA’s Business Class seats are, nothing beats a good night sleep. I didn’t get it. So I was crabby the next day but all that disappeared when Raffi, the marketing woman, phoned to tell me they were changing my room to a waterfront view. What joy. This was the Cape Town I had mentally visualized in a room that suited the occasion of my first visit to the Mother City of South Africa. I could hear the seals, and after a walk along the promenade below, I could certainly smell them as they lolled about on the piers under the morning sun before they cleverly (and gratefully) headed back into the water. I was happy to return to my room and gaze at the vibrant harbour and Table Bay.

In case you’re wondering, Alfred was the son of the Queen and although we’re so accustomed to hearing about Albert, this slight curve is the segue to the tortuous history of the hotel.

Built in 1904 and located in the heart of the Pierhead precinct, minutes away from the city’s business district, and so close to the Atlantic coast, its first persona was as a coal store.

Afterwards, Union Castle Shipping Company used it as a warehouse and customs baggage store. By 1989, the redevelopment of the area saw the rate of tourism climbing and the building, by then North Quay Warehouse, was converted into a 68 double bedroom hotel and a shopping arcade in an area that has become the epicentre of the revitalized city The renovations for Victoria and Alfred Hotel were completed in September 1990 and reopened just before Christmas that same year. Since then, occupancy, I was told by Raffi, has been great.

The shopping promenade, with easy access from the hotel, isn’t filled with souvenir shops although it does have a few ‘tchachka’ stores. Serious quality merchandise can be found in this adjacent mall For instance, there were hand carved wooden articles in one, another had South African designed jewellery some with the national stone –diamonds. However, since the entire area had been revitalized, a very large shopping mall within eye sight and a stone’s throw from the Victoria and Alfred Hotel, has everything from a food market to active nightlife, casual bistros, cinemas, and fine restaurants to please everyone’s taste buds and ditto for clothing boutiques.

What I enjoyed each morning, after looking out the window and observing the seemingly constant sunshine, the blue water, large and small boats and those smelly seals, was walking down the circular metal and wood staircase instead of taking the very modern elevator, both leading almost directly into The Waterfront Café. The entrance is open and the layout is great, given that there’s the choice of either seating inside to escape the often oppressive heat or opting, as I did being deprived of said warmth for 6 months, and finding a seat overlooking the marina at a table under an umbrella. Even early in the morning, the sun at that time of the year is right above and hot.

After a day of sightseeing which included a cable car ride up and down Table Mountain where I tempted fate and climbed down into the gorge with a very encouraging guide, visiting the beautiful brilliant primary colored painted houses in the Islamic Malay area, it was a joy to come back to my bright room. The décor edges on modern simplicity with the transitional touches of Victorian antiquey good taste- a great melding and meeting of old and new. As expected, the loos were marble-lavish and even the amenities had that great fragrance of all things good and wonderful.

The light tumbled in through the metal and glass roof in the restaurant, where I had my last cup of coffee-mid afternoon. I had to give in to the outdoor temperature and opted for the over-air-conditioned in-door section of the restaurant. My lasting memory is of an old warehouse that now seemed like a masterpiece of contemporary architecture.

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Victoria & Alfred Hotel has a 4 star rating
Waterfront, Pierhead, Cape Town, 8001
Tel 021 419 6677
Email: res@vahotel.co.za