Ellerman House

Kloof Road climbs along the cliff above Bantry Bay, and halfway up, behind a white gate, a Cape Edwardian mansion looks out over the Atlantic as if the century had not moved. Ellerman House, in Cape Town, was built in 1906 for Sir John Ellerman, the British shipping magnate, and has taken guests since 1992. It admits no one who is not staying, which is why most people in the city have never seen the inside.

History

Sir John Ellerman, whose Ellerman Lines was among the largest shipping companies of its day, commissioned the house as a Cape residence and the family kept it for decades. It passed through private hands and a period as a guesthouse before Paul Harris, a founder of Rand Merchant Bank, bought it in the late 1980s and restored it as a small hotel. It opened under his ownership in 1992 with a handful of rooms. Harris began hanging his collection of South African art in the house, a collection that grew into one of the most complete private surveys of the country's painting, from the Cape landscapists of the nineteenth century through to work made this decade. A contemporary gallery was added to the grounds in 2009 and the Wine Gallery followed, built to show the Cape's wines as the house shows its art.

Architecture and design

The main house is a two-storey Edwardian mansion with a columned terrace, bay windows and a lawn that drops in terraces to the road below, with the sea beyond. Inside, the drawing room, library and dining room keep their original proportions and fireplaces, with the art hung floor to ceiling. The villas in the grounds are a different matter: Villa One and Villa Two are contemporary houses in glass and stone, each with its own pool, kitchen and staff, built for families and for guests who want the privacy of a house with the hotel behind them. The Wine Gallery, half-sunk into the hillside, holds around 7,500 bottles on a spiralling wall, and the Brandy Lounge next to it is given over to Cape brandies.

Rooms and suites

The main house has eleven rooms and two suites, all with sea or garden views and furnished with antiques and pieces from the art collection. Villa One has three bedrooms and Villa Two five, each with a private pool, a cinema room and a dedicated chef and butler. In all, thirteen rooms in the house and two villas make up the whole hotel, so the terrace at breakfast rarely holds more than a couple of dozen people.

Dining

There is no public restaurant. Guests eat in the dining room, on the terrace or wherever in the house they choose, from a daily menu written by the kitchen that morning and cooked to order. The Wine Gallery supplies the cellar, and the sommelier runs tastings of Cape wines by appointment. Afternoon tea on the terrace and the honesty bar in the drawing room are part of the house's routine.

Wellness

A small spa with two treatment rooms, a gym and a heated outdoor pool on the lawn serve the hotel. The sea is a steep walk down the road at Bantry Bay, and Clifton's beaches lie around the headland.

Weddings and events

Ellerman House takes small weddings and private celebrations, most often with the whole house or a villa booked, with ceremonies on the lawn above the sea and dinner on the terrace or in the dining room. Capacities are modest and the house does not publish them. Meetings for a board or a family are held in the library or in a villa; there is no conference room and no outside functions.

Location

The hotel stands on Kloof Road in Bantry Bay, on the Atlantic Seaboard of Cape Town, below Lion's Head and above the sea. Sea Point's promenade is a short walk downhill, the V&A Waterfront about ten minutes by car and Cape Town International Airport about 30 minutes outside rush hour. For a luxury hotel in Cape Town it is the quietest address with the best collection on its walls.