COOL | youthfully cultured | AFRICAN chic
You are all invited to one of the hottest hotels in the Southern Hemisphere – whether it’s winter or summer!
Knowing about this sustainably-minded, edgy boutique hotel feels like being a part of a members-only clandestine sanctuary for the discerning. This urban Cape escape is even better though.
WELCOME TO THE GORGEOUS GEORGE HOTEL.
The botanical-hued city bolthole, facing the cobbled Green Market Square, is unequivocally for the smart traveller and open-minded kinds of vagabonds who aren’t too bogged down by a bucking of the system. A sultry place like this forgoes communal spas and lets you actually order in-room Spa treatments, for example. How great is that?!
If you favour design, art, and youthful culture, then this curated but chill Cape Town hotel is for you!
DESIGN?
A visually delectable capsule of trends held steady by its historic bones.
Gorgeous George Hotel’s unassuming 40s-stitched facade, comprised of a New Edwardian as well as an Art Deco structure, plays a time-honoured game of hide-and-seek, with the mundane grey cocooning vibrant reimagined spaces that visitors love to roam to, play at, rest within, and meet in too.
My first encounter with the hotel’s award-winning Interior Designer, Tristan du Plessis, work was in Roma, Italy, where one of the most fabulous hotels I’ve ever rested in within Europe, Chapter Roma, was the result of the commissioning of the South African designer.
The mandate was clear: interiors that rebelled with global hospitality convention but respected the Italian property’s history in the neighbourhood’s storied street.
There, in Rome, the results of the design brief were a fresh and utterly unapologetic, bold hotel layered with vibrant jewel tones, textures that guests couldn’t resist fixating on, and an understanding of proportion and restraint in wonderful balance.
Gorgeous George seems to have chosen a similar design brief, but mandated that the innercity-based hotel celebrate Africa’s rich cultural properties in a most cosmopolitan way. Now, locals and travellers alike spend hours transiting and languishing amid the raw beauty of the building’s steel and concrete historical features, as well as its bohemian additions and even Victorian elements, thanks to talents like Dokter and Misses, Gregor Jenkin, and Porky Hefer.
The truly mesmeric design begins on the ground floor with the 1800 white & blue Delft-inspired ceramic tiles by ceramicist Lucie de Moyencourt, a bold black mural, the cloudy kaleidoscopic ceiling art installation, and then…well, then the hotel elevator doors open and elevator selfies are due.
Thirty-two (32) luxurious hotel rooms across four (4) floors are moody and rich opportunities to drop your luggage and just go (decent compact room storage), or refresh and rest along your leather headboard. The gloriously clean and metro-tiled white bathroom (and those Scentuary-made bathroom products) definitely invites an ‘Everything Shower’!
If you can, treat yourself to the ultimate two-bedroom suite or the one-bedroom, for more of an apartment-like layout, with their double-glazed windows, thick curtains, and velvet couches, as well as utilitarian, mildly masculine kitchenettes decorated with Lucie de Moyencourt’s tiles as backsplash, and a shelved reading selection that’ll leave you amused, reeling, and entertained.
Forest greens, burgundy, pink, and black, thickly settle over the modern furnishings – textiles invitingly thick and sturdy enough for the medley of interesting guests they get.
Watch for the stunning hand-painted serpentine wall art by David Brits, too, which emboldens otherwise bland hotel room walls the way I’ve seen quite popularized in the 25Hours hotel collection!
QUALITY OF SLEEP: 7/10
Do make sure your bedroom side table has a pair of the hotels complimentary earbuds as, similar to the other Design Hotel I stayed at (Chapter Roma), Gorgeous George also has oak floors you can slightly hear the upstairs folk moving about on.
GRAZING WHERE ITS LUSH
The triumph of Gorgeous George Hotel according to visitors though, is its 6th-floor lush rooftop oasis, complete with genuinely comfortable shaded terrace sofas you can sit on for hours – I’ve put it to the test!
I regularly complain that Cape Town does not have enough rooftop bars and restaurants, and this plant-draped hotel reaffirms how much of an amazing experience it can be even if you are dropping in for an early morning solo coffee as you sit on the Chesterfield leather banquettes inside.
The svelte and statement-making glass-panelled rooftop pool and (daytime) exclusive hotel guest-only poolside seating tempt many in the indoor-outdoor space to step up from the brick-tiled terrace and marvel at the Cape Town cityscape in the sunshine, or jam on with the nighttime DJ on deck come weekends!
And aside from what is arguably one of the most Instagrammable spots in Cape Town thanks to the pool stuccoed folly matching the hotel’s heady botanical aesthetic with its interior walls of wonderfully bright nature murals, GiGi Rooftop happens to serve the most delicious cocktails and organic breakfasts I’ve recently had in the city.
Whether you are into infusions or classics, the GiGi bar is lined with imports and local spirits and fixings to suit your tastes. The ever-evolving cocktail menu (including CBD-oil-based ones) is also an adventure through sweet, sour, and soft, as well as pungent and punchy.
Hotel guests complimentary welcome drink is quintessentially Cape Town though – refreshing where needed, and titillating in flavour profile!
The breakfast dishes are the champion that will placate you against the sometimes dismissive service customers get. The quality (free-range and traceable), freshness, and outstandingly delicious food made with seasonal ingredients is honestly what more people should try here.
Their Shakshuka can honestly make your day with its wholesome and mildly spicy temperament!
I, personally, think any breakfast here trumps the small plate Lunch and Dinner dishes – having worked my way through most of them with repeat visits while sitting alongside GiGi’s colourful coffee tables.
LET’S PLAY?
Travellers who don’t want to map an entertainment itinerary need not go far to have fun – just take the elevator to The Pink Room, to start!
Taking a page out of the playbook of renowned hospitality brands like Mama Shelter and the coolest hangouts in the world (like Soho House), depending on the day and time, Gorgeous George Hotel has magical nights filled with art, music, comedy, tastings, and even just a good movie. The elevator walls have postings on the hotel’s goings-on, as do the official brand’s social media accounts.
Guests can honestly head there in slippers and enjoy a drink and talented artists doing what they love among an eclectic audience.
Its unpredictable magic after dark – from hotel halls to rooftop!
VERDICT?
In the realm of accessible mid-range luxury, Gorgeous George Hotel is the unique, environmentally-conscious urban haven that stands out for a night’s stay in the city.
Close enough to some express stores for forgotten essentials, as well as boutique shops for local treasures, Gorgeous George Hotel is ideally situated to people-watch, be removed from street-level crowds, and also be embraced by chic and industrial objets d’art that look as storied with history as the sturdy building itself.
Perks of a hotel stay include access to a:
- Clean Mini Fridge
- SMEG kettle and really aromatic coffee and organic rooibos tea options
- Smart TV with Netflix
- Rotary-dial telephone
- Free bottled water
- A sanitized Yoga Mat
- A Free Gym Pass for nearby facilities
- Marshall Bluetooth speaker
- Eco-friendly Cleaning Supplies used
- Recycled hotel waste
- And average-sized robes and slippers which work doubly to protect guests room-to-pool modesty.
*NOTE: The drinks/snacks cart, with its tipples, is not complimentary.
All the falterings I have experienced at Gorgeous George, upon my prior visits, were tempered by one timeless hospitality essential this time: wonderful front-of-house service. The on-duty Front Desk and Bellhop who welcomed me with amazing warmth and swift efficiency made the difference. If I return, it will be because they, along with the breakfast menu, made a staggering impression in their favour. The pool in the summertime will help.
For a hotel still in its relative infancy, Gorgeous George has grown to be so cool, cultured, colourful, and unmistakably chic that not just the glamorous exclusively frequent its floors. It’s your time now!
Experience modern hotel life like never before…
By My Recommendation: GORGEOUS GEORGE HOTEL
Gorgeous George, 118 St Georges Mall, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa
