I wonder how many people realise that the building located behind Greenmarket Square (in the background of this photo) is in fact a hotel - the Park Inn, to be precise. I scoured the web for anything about the building's history, but it seems as though there is just NO information... which is kinda strange if you ask me... (I'm thinking conspiracy theory here). ;)
Apart from the fact that the building itself looks like it's been around for some time, the Park Inn's website is just so '80s. (That's really saying something, since the first http website was only launched in 1990.) And why do I say their site is looking dated? Just take a look at the antiques in the photo on this page. :D
julie scottsdaledailyphoto.com
excellent perspective and such good details
Nielfa Hanifa
You know, I wait on that corner for my husband to pick me up every day, but I’ve never seen the street name’s sign up there ever. Great perspective!
Michael Vella
The building was originally Shell House and was then taken over by Southern Suns to become a Holiday Inn Garden Court. Southern Suns sold it and it became the park Inn
Guinivea
Michael, after reading your post I did a little search and found this snippet on Turtle SA Tours Site
“Many of the other buildings in the square also date back to the 1860’s.
One of them is the Holiday Inn. It was originally a townhouse and was the only one that was not demolished. It was used by the Shell Oil Company as their Head Office in Cape Town until 1979 and was then converted to a 170 room hotel which is still there today.”
Thanks for such an interesting post…I thoroughly enjoyed it and learned something new today!!!
Beverley
Great perspective with yet another super capture from you Paul on what I see was another sunny day in Cape Town…I found an interesting site giving a little history of Green Market itself http://www.greenmarketsquare.com/index.php?option=content&pcontent=1&task=view&id=26&Itemid=54 and on the pic. you can see the hotel in the background..
Kerry-Anne
Thanks for the info, Michael, and thanks for investigating it a bit further, Guinivea. Always good to learn something new about the city…
There’s some great information on that site, Beverley; thanks for the link. Interesting that they took their photo of the hotel on the opposite diagonal to Paul’s one. :)
cape town tours
I like this , the secrecy.