Page 53 - KBHA BULLETIN 3

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weather too hot in the Gardens, Cape Town and preferred the cool sea breezes of Kalk Bay. It

was a magnificent hotel and of the highest quality and standard of workmanship. During the
mid-1920s it underwent further extensions to its north side and towards the back. (Fig. 4.14.)

A harbour plan of the 1930s shows a pipeline (together with pump) running from the sea back

to the hotel, suggesting that guests may have been able to take salt water baths.

It was a successful venture and a popular resort both before and after World War Two. In

1939 it was bought by Mr Koenig and run by him, and then by his son Arthur until 1974. Mr
Koenig was from all accounts an excellent hotellier. It was then sold to Lifecare (Pty) Ltd.

who have run it for the last 25 years as a home for disabled people.

The Kalk Bay Hotel

It seems that the first substantial building on this site was constructed around 1906 by a Mr
Lazarus. In old photographs it appears as a double-storey building with double-pitched roof

and front verandahs. It apparently burned down and was rebuilt in 1919 in the three-storey

form familiar today with its name, Harbour Mansions 1919, standing in bold relief on the
central high point of the facade. (Fig. 4.15.) Initially the upper floors were occupied by

Leslie’s Private Hotel, and in a later 1920s advertisement it had been re-named the Kalk Bay

Residential Hotel. It offered about 28 rooms plus kitchen and dining hall. The manager at this
time was G. E. Steinmann and he was succeeded later by Mrs A. Millar.

At some stage Arthur Goles, who for many years had run the Olympia Cafe on the Windsor
Road corner of the building, bought the whole building from Mr Lazarus. The name Olympia

reflected Mr Goles’ Greek origins in Tropolis on the Peloponnisos not far from Olympia. In

1945 the building was bought by Alexandre Bassios and it remains in the Bassios family to
this day.

The building behind the hotel was known as the Olympia Picture Palace and silent movies

were being shown there from 1920 onwards. It was re-named the Olympia Theatre around

1937 and it ran as a popular cinema venue until 1968 when the interior was unfortunately
burnt out.