Style: Industrial extravaganza
Scene: Cape Town waterfront
Seen in the lobby: Anyone who can actually get in, this is the hottest hotel in Africa. THIS one gets our vote for the most exciting hotel opening in years – no question. We predict that its innovative architecture will make it a Sydney Opera House-like icon on the Cape Town waterfront, while its stylish interiors will make it that rare thing; hotel-as-destination. Only a handful of hotels on any continent can claim this honour. The kind of hotels where people don’t say “I want to visit Cape Town where shall I stay”? They say, “I want to visit The Silo, wow, Cape Town looks pretty cool too”.
Up in the Royal Suite I look out on the evening lights of Cape Town, reflected a hundred times in the prism-like floor to ceiling windows. The windows are the piece de resistance of this hotel. An inspired design by Thomas Heatherwick of the London-based Heatherwick Studio. From inside the floor to ceiling windows divide my view into portions, like individual art works. From outside the geometrical glass looks like cut-diamonds set in jewellery. It would have been easy to match this industrial building with minimalist interiors but that would have made it merely clever, Liz Biden’s Biden lush interiors make it mind-blowing. Every one of the 28 rooms is furnished individually with its own combination of colours, artwork and object d’art, all chosen personally by Liz Biden (uber-designer and family owner of The Royal Portfolio) The top Penthouse Suite is impressive but for me it is in the Royal Suite where Biden has excelled herself. The art, the ruby reds and vibrant yellows mix glamour with the soul of Africa. The real genius of Biden’s designer flair is that I also feel immediately at home; the bed whispers, “lie on me”, the sofa says “sink into me” and the whole suite says ‘ “relaxxxxx”. The best news of all, because of how the original building is configured the amazing trademark bathrooms, with standalone tubs in front of the prism-like glass windows can be found even in the smaller rooms. Up on the roof the sjky-high bar has immediately become THE place to be seen in Cape Town and so popular is the hotel with locals that they now have to limit the amount of non-guests who can come in. The rooftop pool shares the bird eye views of Table Mountain with its ever changing cloudscape but you’d have to be pretty confident in a bikini to swim there when evening revellers are lounging around drinking sunset cocktails. (Try The Silo signature of vodka, fennel, grape juice and apple.) The Royal Portfolio properties are known for the quality of their food and the Silo is no exception. For the Willaston Bar and Granary Café on the sixth floor (velvet, leather and leopard print) Chef Veronica Canha-Hibbert creates deceptively simple yet mouth-watering delicious food. The ‘Harvest Table’ trolley is trundled over at breakfast packed with goodies and my evening steak frite (meat from Namibia) melts on the tongue. The Silo Hotel is situated above Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) which is set to house the single largest collection of contemporary African art in the world when it opens in September. The hotel has its own impressive collection, for example Cyrus Kabiru and Frances Goodman (her glittering blue mosaic greets you in the entrance way) hang on its walls. Hotel guests will have a private entrance to the museum and its sculpture garden; which is fitting because when it comes right down to it this hotel is itself a work of art. Other hoteliers take note, the bar has been raised. Other Iconic hotels: Burj Al Arab, Dubai
Hilary Doling 16/5/17
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