Gorgeous George

Gorgeous George fills two adjoining heritage buildings on St George's Mall, a pedestrianised street through the middle of Cape Town, and the restoration left the workings on show. Raw concrete beams cross the ceilings, with pipes painted pink running beside them: the plumbing, promoted to decoration. The interiors are by Tristan Du Plessis, who also did Chapter Roma, and they set warmer things against the concrete, in one bedroom a quilted leather headboard and a black telephone with a dial. Every room has walls hand-painted by the artist David Brits, and in that one his black shapes spill across the wall around a tall window of small panes. Elsewhere, wooden shelves climb to the ceiling round an arched window full of trees, stacked with old encyclopaedias and an antelope skull.

Recommended for a Cape Town city break with the centre at the door and the beaches a drive away, and for families who take a two-bedroom suite, which sleeps four; 9th on George, the three-bedroom penthouse, is for adults only. The street runs to the Company's Gardens and Greenmarket Square, and the V&A Waterfront is a fifteen-minute walk. Further out, the hotel books day tours and puts them on the room bill, to the Winelands or whale watching at Hermanus. Up on the sixth floor, Gigi serves seasonal sharing plates and cocktails to locals as well as guests, under a timber pergola hung with wicker lamps and plants; there are often DJs at weekends, and a table has to be booked. Beside it is a petite pool with glass sides, pinched in the middle by a stuccoed folly: a good deal of architecture for a dip.