Kramerville’s reluctant hero
Thami Kwazi
Picture walking into a bar in Havana, Cuba, the sound of mariachi fills the room. The smell of coconut floats in the air and the laughter of people enjoying themselves in a welcome, celebratory environment gives you a sense of calm and peace.
This is Katy’s Palace, a bar that has become a popular venue in the district of Kramerville. The bar and venue is owned by Mark Valentine, an interesting worldly, businessman who started his career as a game ranger.
Valentine owns two of the buildings in Kramerville and is described as a hero in the community – a title he shies away from.
He has has been instrumental in transforming a once derelict and dark area into a flourishing and vibey space with venues that are packed with the upwardly mobile looking to network.
“Kramerville owes an enormous amount of its success to the participation of the community as a whole. I honestly cannot say I did it alone. I just happened to buy a couple of buildings and transform them,” says Valentine.
Valentine runs his Katy’s Palace bar, Sir James van der Merwe, Amatuli Artefacts and a few more businesses with his partner, Elize Van der Merwe.
Amatuli is a décor and art collector’s dream. The store sells décor pieces from the world over, masks from east and west Africa, doors from Zanzibar and Tanzania, chairs and pots from India, stunning portraits of Kenya’s Masaai tribe and intricate pieces from Asia.
“As a game ranger I was also a runner and I learned how to buy and collect artefacts,” Valentine explains. “If a person visits Nigeria and decides they want to decorate their South African home in a West African style, I have all the elements that can make their house look west African. We want to cater to a large décor market but we also want to remind them of their trip and how it felt when they were in that country.”
The multiple venues that Valentine owns all seem to have unusual names, when asked about Katy or Sir James Van der Merwe, he explains that Katy is his 25-year-old daughter and Sir James is his son and he combined his partners surname to come up with a name for a venue.
“My children are my light and I want people to experience the warmth we feel as a family. That’s why I incorporated their names into my businesses.
“There are a lot of famous places around the world that are remembered by their stand-out names. We need to let people enjoy the journeys of our lives with us and I do this with my venues.”
Valentine’s hopes for Kramerville are that it continues to flourish as a place where people can converge and have a good time.
He would like to see more art gallaries, more cafés and more edgy retail spaces.
His passion for the area is apparent in the incredible amount of effort he’s taken into making spaces more aesthetic.