Facelift for a grand old lady
Hotel starts new life as one of the marvels of Maboneng
Still, there was no holding back progress as the city was growing. People needed places in which to stay. The Cosmopolitan came to life We believe it was both of those things simultaneously at another point, too.”
Liebmann and Freemantle, co-founders of the Hazard Gallery, think they now have the right mix of tenants to make the Cosmopolitan shine again.
Their gallery has a new space in the hotel. Along with it is a top-end restaurant, the most striking feature of which is the original wooden bar counter from the Cosmopolitan’s heyday.
The backyard was once used for stables. Liebmann says there was a trough where horses were tethered and watered as their humans threw back a few whiskies or checked in for the night.
The trough survived, as did a few horseshoes – Liebmann dug up two during early renovations in November.
Now the stables area is a sculpture garden and retail space. There are also a deli, a teahouse (a gesture to the euphemistic ladies’ bar at the Cosmopolitan), a bar and a studio space.
Freemantle, an artist and Cape Town transplant who lived in the UK for about 20 years, says the Cosmopolitan is the magnet that has made him call Maboneng home.
“I just knew this was the building for the Hazard Gallery that started out at Arts on Main. I was blown away when I saw it,” he says.
He and Liebmann say it’s not just the art that’s close to their hearts, but the heritage of the building. They know many other people have a soft spot for it, too.
Two visitors to the gallery, Christoff Swanepoel and Sinki Mlambo, couldn’t be happier for the hotel.
“There was a lot of anticipation when we started seeing the outside being whitewashed. It was a sense of yay, something is finally happening to the Cosmopolitan,” says Swanepoel.
Mlambo says: “I like that it’s the old and the new, that the architecture will stay authentic, but the vibe will be South Africa right now.”
For Freemantle and Liebmann striking this balance is a tall order, but they are up to the challenge.
Says Freemantle: “We don’t make a move without the heritage people being all over us, but we prefer it like that. It protects the building and it protects us from ourselves.”
Working with their team of heritage conservation architects and consultants means careful consideration of every detail, from the replacement for a broken sheet of glass to permissible paints for the exterior, and features that cannot be altered.
Says Freemantle: “We don’t want to change her essence. For me the Cosmopolitan is like a grand duch- ess, we just want to give her a new dress and a G&T.”
McDougall says the reality is that heritage conservation can happen only with significant spending by private developers. He knows the injection of big money inevitably leads to the gentrification debate.
McDougall’s middle ground on both issues comes down to sensitivity, balance and inclusive communication.
“It’s not a case of old is good and new is bad or about ignoring that this is an issue of economics in heritage and gentrification. Development does create a degree of gentrification, maybe, which I think Joburg can handle, but it also creates jobs and a way out of poverty.”
Both issues can be about tricky trade-offs and balancing priorities in a city with yawning gaps between rich and poor, contested spaces and competing agendas.
Still, if one building can make it, it’s probably the old lady herself in the hands of gentle custodians. Now scraped free of years of neglect and prettied up, the Cosmopolitan Hotel seems ready to show a new generation why her grace and grandeur have stood the test of time.
We don’t want to change her essence The architecture will be old, the vibe right now