Past meets present: the untold tales of Neighbourgood’s buildings

One thing about Cape Town - this city isn’t shy about showing off its history and heritage. From cobblestones to gables and Georgian townhouses, you can’t walk a block without brushing up against centuries of stories. At Neighbourgood, we’ve been lucky enough to give some of those old walls a new chapter. For Heritage Month, we’re opening the history books and sharing the fascinating past lives of a few of our most iconic properties.

Snuggle up and get cosy - this is the kind of read you’ll want a hot choccie for.

Neighbourgood East City: the lasting legacy of the Townhouse Hotel

Before it was home to buzzing hybrid living and Nice Café & Roastery, this Corporation Street address was home to one of Cape Town’s most recognisable hotels.

Back in 1971, Francois and Kitty Petousis opened the Townhouse Hotel right here on the old Trocadero site. It was their very first venture (they went on to own the Vineyard Hotel and Oude Werf Hotel too). For fifty years, the Townhouse was a four-star CBD landmark, welcoming everyone from business travellers to government officials.

But in March 2021, after half a century of service, the doors closed for good, as the hotel became another victim of the pandemic’s toll on the hospitality industry (read more here).

Today, Neighbourgood East City carries that legacy forward, ensuring that this storied building is still a hub of people, ideas, and connections. Only now, it’s designed for a new era of living, with hybrid stays, community spaces, and a bakery and café that roasts its own beans on-site. The spirit of hospitality lives on - just with more freelancers.

Neighbourgood 129 Bree: Bree Street’s workhorse turned workspace

Bree Street has always been a little bit extra. Historically known as “breë” (“wide”), it was the perfect place for ox-wagons to swing through on their way to Greenmarket Square. Fast-forward a few centuries and Bree has become Cape Town’s design-and-dining artery, pulsing with galleries, coffee shops, and co-working spots.

Our building at 129 Bree has its own layered history. It predates 1965 (Heritage Western Cape has a Section 34 case open to prove it), and most recently, it was home to the Housing Development Agency through the 2010s. Before Neighbourgood reimagined it, the building had been sliced up into a mix of offices for various businesses.

When we opened the doors in 2021, we kept the heritage character but reworked the interior into a vibrant co-working hub: private offices, hot desks, and a leafy courtyard with Stellski Café tucked just beyond it. Bree’s always been about people crossing paths. Today, that just happens over flat whites and Zoom calls instead of oxen and trade goods.

Neighbourgood 93 Bree: three centuries in one corner

If walls could talk, the Jan de Waal House at 93 Bree would have a lot to say. The property dates back to 1752, when Governor Ryk Tulbagh granted the erf to Jan de Waal, who promptly built a grand townhouse for his family of sixteen (yes, sixteen 😅).

In the early 1800s, it picked up its Georgian flair, with a second storey, finely detailed teak joinery, and rusticated plaster that still stops heritage buffs in their tracks. Today, it’s a Grade II Provincial Heritage Site and a National Monument, one of the last intact Georgian townhouses on Bree.

Neighbourgood’s role? To give this historic landmark a new lease on life as a modern workspace, all while keeping its centuries-old details intact. It’s not every day you get to answer emails under the same roof where 18th-century Cape society once gathered. Nice!

Neighbourgood Cape Quarter: from docklands to design district

De Waterkant wasn’t always boutique shops and rainbow-hued houses. In the 1700s, this was gritty docklands - the warehouses, workshops, and light industry keeping the Cape’s shipping lanes alive. The name literally means “the water’s edge”, alluding to the spot where the shoreline used to be. 

By the 2000s, the area had transformed into one of Cape Town’s most stylish lifestyle precincts, with developers preserving heritage facades while adding retail, dining, and apartments. Today, Neighbourgood Cape Quarter fits right in: its workspace and living spaces are both located within the Cape Quarter Lifestyle Centre, offering a community hub that blends old-world charm with modern convenience and buzz.

The result is a vibrant node where history hums along the cobblestones, and today’s city dwellers gather for everything from after-work drinks to creative collaborations.

Neighbourgood Gables: a Franschhoek classic

Travel inland to the Franschhoek Valley and you’ll find Neighbourgood Gables, a picture-perfect slice of Cape Dutch architecture. Whitewashed walls, thatched roof, elegant gables… yes please!

This heritage goes back to 1688, when French Huguenots settled the valley and began cultivating vineyards. The building itself operated for years as the Gable Manor Guest House, before joining the Neighbourgood family.

Now, it continues that tradition of hospitality, welcoming guests into a space that honours its history while offering the comforts of modern living. Think of it as a love letter to Franschhoek’s heritage, written in swirly, gabled architecture.

Why we care about history

Every Neighbourgood property tells a story - and when you live or work in one of them, you’re part of that story. We don’t see heritage as a museum piece. We prefer to think of it as  the foundation for building communities that are meaningful, rooted, and alive. That’s why we embrace adaptive reuse, carefully restoring existing buildings and giving them new purpose, so that history continues to shape how people connect, live, and work today. 

So the next time you step into one of our spaces, take a look around. The past is still here - it’s just sharing the WiFi 😏