The Taj Cape Town has very striking wrought iron work on the Reserve Bank building. The grills, that protect the window, were thought at first glance to be made out of 100% wrought iron. But, upon further investigation, we discovered that the urn-shaped top of each grill was in fact bronze. It was just covered in years and years of dirt.

Before cleaning ...

After a good polishing.

* To clean each urn-like shape, restoring it to its former glory, took a little over four hours per piece.

With the Taj Cape Town’s unique city centre location we’ve started to develop a fascination with the surrounding area’s history. There is so much that has taken place right on our doorstep and a lot of it remains a secret, still unknown by the vast majority of locals and visitors. This simply will not do!

We plan on sharing the interesting Cape Town historical facts we unearth – or we have shared with us – with you.

Let’s start with the very relevant and very busy Adderley Street and how it got its name.

Adderley Street was originally called Heerengracht. But, in 1850, in honour of Charles B Adderley, it was named Adderley Street.

This street name was bestowed as thanks to Charles B Adderley for halting plans to turn the Cape into another convict colony.

The story goes that Adderley – at the behest of the colonialists who’d settled in the fairest Cape – refused to allow a ship to dock and unload its convict cargo. The ship – being unable to dock in port – was forced to sail on.