Edition has made its African debut with The Cape Town Edition, a hotel of 142 rooms and suites at Quay 7 on the V&A Waterfront, where the city’s historic working harbour looks out towards Table Mountain. It brings the brand’s pared-back design, attentive service and lively restaurants and bars to a city as well known for its food and art as for the mountain that rises behind it.
Cape Town now sits within a portfolio that already includes London, New York, Tokyo, Lake Como, the Red Sea and Riviera Maya, where each hotel takes its character from the culture of its city rather than following a single look. “Cape Town has a distinctive energy shaped by extraordinary landscapes, diverse influences and an exceptional culinary scene,” said George Fleck, senior vice president and global brand leader, Edition.
Brick, light and harbour views at The Cape Town Edition
The hotel takes its cue from the warehouses that once stood on Quay 7, reinterpreting them as a long, low building with pitched roofs and materials that echo the working harbour around it. More than six million bricks, laid by hand in patterns that shift across the façade, give an everyday material unusual depth, while the setting above the Waterfront’s new superyacht marina puts museums, galleries, restaurants and shops within easy reach, with Table Mountain filling the view.
At its centre is The Drum, a tall cylindrical space left open to the sky so that the Cape’s changing light and sea air reach right into the building. A spiral staircase climbs to an outdoor viewing platform with views over the harbour, the Atlantic, the mountain and the Waterfront below, and the lookout is shared with locals and visitors as much as with hotel guests.
Rooms, suites and art from across the continent
The 142 rooms and suites lean towards the residential, with bespoke furniture, natural finishes and built-in joinery modelled on 19th-century travel trunks, and large windows framing the harbour and mountain. Custom furnishings and rugs from a KwaZulu-Natal weaving studio add South African craft, and the 240-square-metre Penthouse and 112-square-metre Harbour Suite crown the hotel with expansive living areas and panoramic views.
Art and design throughout draw on Africa’s creative landscape, with pieces sourced from makers across the continent, among them Zulu ukhamba vessels and recycled glass blown by mouth in Eswatini. The art collection brings together established and emerging African voices, with Zanele Muholi’s monochrome portrait photography hanging in Punch Room, Usha Seejarim’s Fading Dish Cloth, a work built from hundreds of wooden clothes pegs, in the spa, and smoke-fired ceramics by Chuma Maweni adding sculptural form to the lobby and restaurants.
Cape flavours from breakfast to late night
Executive chef Phil Carmichael, whose career spans Berners Tavern at The London Edition and several of the Cape’s top kitchens, leads the food and drink alongside George Hunter, the award-winning South African beverage partner. At Shale, the signature restaurant, a seasonal menu is built on produce from local farmers, coastal fishers, winemakers and independent producers, with meat dry-aged in-house and a wine list that is largely South African. Familiar dishes are given a gentle twist, as with Saldanha Bay mussels in a curry velouté with seaweed salad and braised black rice.
Up on the roof, EAVE sits beside the heated pool as an indoor-outdoor restaurant and bar, moving from lazy afternoons to sundowners, dinner and music after dark, with small plates that draw on the Winelands and the nearby coast alongside cocktails and a considered wine list. Next door, the Pool Terrace tracks the sun from breakfast and midday bites through to cocktails at sunset and lighter evening meals.
At ground level, the Lobby Bar is conceived as a living room for the city, anchored by a statement bar and a pool table and used for everything from morning coffee meetings to evening drinks. Punch Room, Edition’s modern version of the old punch house, revives a drinking ritual that travelled the trade routes through the Cape, with punches served in bowls for sharing amid panelled walls, velvet banquettes and soft, low light. Its local signature, Brandewijn, combines brandy, Pinotage, rooibos, pineapple, lemon and winter spice.
A spa below sea level
Set beneath sea level and well away from the bustle of the Waterfront overhead, the spa has five treatment rooms plus a suite for couples, a sauna and steam room, infrared beds and Therabody recovery boots. Treatments combine skincare, massage, fascia work and aromatherapy using Omorovicza’s mineral-rich products, while daily yoga, breathwork, sound bath and movement sessions take place on the rooftop beside the heated pool and sun deck, and a 24-hour gym rounds out the offering.
A meeting place for Capetonians and travellers
For general manager Leonie Andereya, the aim is a hotel that belongs as much to the city as to its visitors. “We want The Cape Town EDITION to feel as relevant to a Capetonian as it does to someone visiting the city for the first time,” she said. “Inspired by the warmth and authenticity of South African hospitality, we have created a place where locals and travellers come together through food, culture, creativity and conversation.”
Between its hand-laid brick façade, kitchens rooted in Cape produce and an art collection drawn from across the continent, The Cape Town Edition offers travellers a new way to experience the V&A Waterfront, and gives Edition a first African address that feels closely connected to the city around it.
Quick summary – The Cape Town Edition
- Location: Quay 7, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town
- Style: harbourside hotel with a hand-laid brick façade and African art throughout
- Rooms: 142 rooms and suites, including the Penthouse and Harbour Suite
- Dining: Shale, EAVE, Pool Terrace, Lobby Bar and Punch Room
- Wellness: spa below sea level, heated rooftop pool and 24-hour gym
- Ideal for: design-minded travellers who want the Waterfront and Table Mountain on the doorstep
