About The President

Long before Bantry Bay became the neighbourhood we know today, Society House stood on the site now occupied by The President, the first substantial building in the area. It was built for the African Society, a club established by wealthy burghers Martin Oloff Bergh and Adriaan van Schoor. Here, beyond the noise and dust of the growing settlement then known as Kaapse Vlek, they found space to meet, relax and enjoy life at a gentler pace.

By the early 19th century, Cape Town was beginning to stretch beyond its original boundaries. In 1808, Society House gained its first neighbour when German botanist Dr Friedrich Ludwig Liesching was granted land behind the property, high on the granite slopes of what is now Bantry Bay. Around the same time, farmer Marthinus Keet acquired Society House and is thought to have planted barley in the surrounding fields. The neighbourhood was beginning to take shape, one piece of land at a time.

Two years later, English landowner Henry Alexander purchased Society House and expanded the estate by a considerable 70 morgen (around 60 hectares). Renamed Sea Point House, supposedly after the rocky outcrop below the homestead, it became a country retreat for Alexander and his family. Significant renovations followed, transforming it into a home that was both comfortable and suitably grand. Comfort mattered. So, it seems, did making an impression.

It was during his ownership in 1817 that the house was first advertised for accommodation. This began a long history of seaside stayovers that continues to this day.

Following Alexander’s death in 1818, his large estate was subdivided into smaller portions, thus beginning the development of the Sea Point suburb in the process. The portion with the house on it (some 16 hectares) went to Christiaan Erasmus Wentzel, who let it out as a ‘country place’.

Despite his high social standing, Christiaan Erasmus Wentzel died insolvent in 1850. Sea Point House passed to Samuell Bushell two years later and, by 1860, had become home to Sir William Hodges, Chief Justice of the Cape Supreme Court.

In 1880, J.H. Munks acquired the property and opened the Wentworth Hotel, the first major hotel in a succession that would eventually lead to The President of today. Believed to have incorporated some of the original Society House walls, the Wentworth stood for less than a decade before being demolished in the late 1880s. The entirely new Queen’s Hotel rose in its place, beginning another chapter for a site already more than a century old.

The Queen’s Hotel, named after Queen Victoria, was designed by the architect G.M. Alexander. Completed in 1887 to coincide with the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, it was officially opened on 1 October that year.The Queen’s Hotel became a Sea Point landmark, especially after James Cavanagh took it over in 1888.

A new chapter began in 1967. Six years after South Africa became a republic and left the British Commonwealth, the Queen’s Hotel name was no longer relevant. The hotel was renamed The President, also known at the time as Hotel President, giving the property a new identity for a new era.

On 3 June 1998, Nelson Mandela officially opened the newly rebuilt, 351-room President Hotel. Construction had begun in August 1996 as a joint venture between developer Chaim Meyer Budow and M2PM, taking 18 months to complete. Today, The President is South Africa’s largest independent hotel, carrying this remarkable site’s long tradition of hospitality forward through warm service, food that celebrates local and seasonal flavours, and unhurried seaside stays.