Mount Nelson

76 Orange Street, opened 6 March 1899 at the foot of Table Mountain. Sir Donald Currie, who owned the Union-Castle shipping line, built it for his own first-class passengers — a hotel in Cape Town as stylish as the best in London, at the end of the voyage his ships already sold. It was the first hotel in South Africa with hot and cold running water. The Cape Times said London could not produce anything superior.

The house

The land had been the Garden of van Oudtshoorn, granted to a Dutch baron in 1741; Sir Hamilton Ross built a homestead and the finest garden in Cape Town on it in 1843. Currie bought it in 1890 and spent nine years building. The wooden chairs in the Garden Room were deck chairs from the Union-Castle ships — the vessel furnishing the hotel it delivered passengers to.

Within months of opening the hotel became the unofficial British headquarters of the Second Boer War. Kitchener, Buller and Roberts met here to plan; a young Winston Churchill was based here as correspondent for the Morning Post, having just escaped a prisoner-of-war camp at Pretoria, and called it a most excellent and well-appointed establishment, to be appreciated after a sea voyage.

In 1918 the Italian manager Aldo Renato had it painted pink to celebrate peace at the close of the First World War, and it has stayed that colour ⚑ one source dates the pink to the end of the Second World War; the weight of sourcing is with 1918. The Prince of Wales came in 1925 and the gate and palm avenue were made for his visit. Orient-Express Hotels bought it in 1988; it is Belmond, and through it LVMH. John Lennon stayed under the name Mr Greenwood a few months before his death.

What distinguishes it

A shipping line built it for its own passengers. Currie owned both the Union-Castle Line and the hotel at the end of its route. This is the third house in the Library built by a carrier to receive its own traffic — with the Peninsula at the junction of the Kowloon railway and the trans-Pacific liners, and the George V running offices at Cherbourg to meet Americans off the boats. The pattern is a category, not a coincidence.

The furniture came off the ships. Deck chairs from the Union-Castle vessels became the chairs in the Garden Room and the Lord Nelson Room, and are still in use.

It was a war headquarters within months of opening. The Second Boer War broke out in October 1899. A hotel built for holidaymakers became the room where a war was planned in its first year, with Churchill in the building.

The colour is a peace declaration. Painted pink in 1918 by an Italian manager to mark the end of the First World War. No other house in this Library changed its appearance to say something about a war.

The estate is older than the country. Granted in 1741, gardened from 1843, hotel from 1899 — and the Company’s Garden across the road, founded by Dutch settlers in 1652, is the oldest public garden in South Africa.

Signature rooms and dates

Competitive landscape

Editorial note — The 1741 grant, the 1843 Ross homestead, Currie’s 1890 purchase, the 6 March 1899 opening, the hot and cold running water claim, the Boer War headquarters and Churchill’s residence, the 1918 painting by Aldo Renato, the 1925 Prince of Wales visit and the 1988 Orient-Express purchase checked against Belmond corporate history, South African History Online, famoushotels.org and Historic Hotels of the World; verified August 2026. ⚑ One widely syndicated listing dates the pink paint to the end of the Second World War; every primary and corporate account gives 1918 and the register follows those.