Mount Nelson, A Belmond Hotel

On 6 March 1899 the Mount Nelson Hotel opened on Orange Street in Cape Town, built by Sir Donald Currie's Union-Castle Line so that passengers stepping off the mail ships from Southampton would have somewhere to stay that matched the voyage. Seven months later the South African War broke out, and the new hotel filled with officers, correspondents and the families following them.

History

Winston Churchill arrived in late 1899 as a correspondent for the Morning Post and stayed at the Mount Nelson before heading to the front. Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener used the hotel as their headquarters during the war. The pink paint came in 1918: the hotel was repainted to celebrate the end of the First World War, and the colour has been kept since. In 1925 a gateway of white columns was built at the Orange Street entrance for the visit of the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII, and the palm-lined drive behind it is still the approach.

The guest book of the twentieth century includes Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling, Agatha Christie and John Lennon, who checked in quietly in 1980. James Sherwood's Orient-Express Hotels bought the property in the 1980s, in the years when the company was assembling the Cipriani in Venice and the Copacabana Palace in Rio. Orient-Express Hotels became Belmond in 2014, and Belmond was bought by LVMH in 2019. The hotel's name became Mount Nelson, A Belmond Hotel.

Architecture and design

The original building is a Victorian pile of the late 1890s, two main storeys with a pitched roof, verandas and a central portico, set back from the road behind lawns. Wings and garden cottages were added through the twentieth century, so the hotel now spreads across nine acres of grounds with mature trees, roses and two swimming pools. The interiors keep the colonial hotel grammar: a long lounge for tea, a bar with a terrace, high ceilings and chintz, refreshed in recent years without changing the character.

Rooms and suites

There are 198 rooms and suites in the main building and in the garden cottages and wings. Garden rooms open onto the lawns; rooms in the main house face Table Mountain or the city. The suites in the historic building are the ones with the Victorian proportions and the views.

Dining

Afternoon tea in the Lounge is the thing the hotel is known for, with a long table of cakes, scones and sandwiches served every day and booked ahead by visitors who are not staying. The Planet Bar and its terrace are the city's meeting place for an evening drink. The Red Room opened in 2022 as the main restaurant, with a menu drawing on Asian cooking. A bistro by the pool serves through the day.

Wellness

The Librisa Spa occupies a garden building with treatment rooms, a sauna and a steam room, and the two heated pools in the grounds are open to all guests.

Weddings and events

The hotel is one of Cape Town's established wedding venues, with ceremonies held on the lawns and receptions in the ballroom and in marquees in the garden. Meetings and conferences use a set of function rooms in the main building and the garden wings; the largest can seat several hundred for a banquet. Capacities for each room are confirmed by the hotel.

Location

The hotel stands at the top of Government Avenue, between the Company's Garden and the slopes of Table Mountain, in the Gardens neighbourhood. Parliament, the South African National Gallery and the Iziko museums are at the foot of the avenue; Long Street and Kloof Street are a short walk. The cableway to the summit of Table Mountain is ten minutes by car, Camps Bay beach fifteen. Cape Town International Airport is about 25 minutes away. For a luxury hotel in Cape Town the position is rare: in the city, under the mountain, inside a garden.