Hotels of southern Africa

#31 · June 7, 2026, 6:59 am

Quote from Steve on June 7, 2026, 6:59 am
The Marine Hotel, Cape Town

Below is another cover bought from Simon Peetoom (Africa Stamps) at the two day SACS Kenilworth meeting a week ago today. This one is slightly earlier, from September 1936. Clearly, what is most significant about this cover is the Cinderella label that is tied to it by a machine cancellation of 'SEP 15 CAPE TOWN / KAAPSTAD'. Sent Surface mail, it was received in LONDON '5 OCT 1936'

1936. Cover. CAPE TOWN 'SEP 15 1936' to LONDON '5 OCT 1936'.
The postage rate of 1d is correct for a Surface mail letter weighing less than half an ounce.
Marine Hotel label tied to the cover by CAPE TOWN / KAAPSTAD machine cancellation.

The importance of stamps and labels being 'tied' to the cover by the cancellation is that it offers proof that this is genuine period use of a Cinderella, as the label above most unequivocally is. This label has not been added later by collectors or dealers wanting to embellish the cover with greater interest. (This would be a dull cover if not for the label.) Usually this sort of enhancement is done by dealers who want to 'improve' the cover in order to charge more for it. I know of one dealer who does this, most usually by adding Christmas labels to covers posted in December. He calls this act of fakery 'historic embellishment' and feels little or no guilt for doing so. Let the buyer beware, he believes.

The Marine Hotel in Sea Point, Cape Town, was, according to the indispensable 1956 'Union Castle Year Book and Guide to Southern Africa'. "a grand, Edwardian-era establishment that dominated the Beach Road promenade during the late 19th and early 20th centuries". Alongside the neighboring Queens Hotel, it was a social hub on Cape Town's northern Cape beachfront. Tea gardens, bars, restaurants, ice=cream parlours and a bustling dancehall scene gave Sea Point all in terms of sea, sun and late night entertainment.

Located on the lively Beach Road Promenade, the Marine Hotel operated as a glamorous resort-style accommodation popular with holidaymakers and locals. It sat alongside other notable social spots like the Adelphi, Arthur's Seat, Bordeaux, Clarensville, Elizabeth, Esplanade, King's, Marseille, Millroy, Mimosas, Ocean View, Queens and Seacliffe Hotels. In the 1930s and 40s a shift to high-rise apartments (flats in SA!) saw developers to convert and replace the grand and gracious Victorian / Edwardian homes and hotels of Beach Road with modern buildings that attempted to emulate Rio de Janeiro. The Marine Hotel was torn down in the 1960s. Today, the site and its surrounding area comprise many run-down high-density residential apartment blocks that await future redevlopment.

The Marine Hotel, Cape Town

Below is another cover bought from Simon Peetoom (Africa Stamps) at the two day SACS Kenilworth meeting a week ago today. This one is slightly earlier, from September 1936. Clearly, what is most significant about this cover is the Cinderella label that is tied to it by a machine cancellation of 'SEP 15 CAPE TOWN / KAAPSTAD'. Sent Surface mail, it was received in LONDON '5 OCT 1936'

1936. Cover. CAPE TOWN 'SEP 15 1936' to LONDON '5 OCT 1936'.
The postage rate of 1d is correct for a Surface mail letter weighing less than half an ounce.
Marine Hotel label tied to the cover by CAPE TOWN / KAAPSTAD machine cancellation.

The importance of stamps and labels being 'tied' to the cover by the cancellation is that it offers proof that this is genuine period use of a Cinderella, as the label above most unequivocally is. This label has not been added later by collectors or dealers wanting to embellish the cover with greater interest. (This would be a dull cover if not for the label.) Usually this sort of enhancement is done by dealers who want to 'improve' the cover in order to charge more for it. I know of one dealer who does this, most usually by adding Christmas labels to covers posted in December. He calls this act of fakery 'historic embellishment' and feels little or no guilt for doing so. Let the buyer beware, he believes.

The Marine Hotel in Sea Point, Cape Town, was, according to the indispensable 1956 'Union Castle Year Book and Guide to Southern Africa'. "a grand, Edwardian-era establishment that dominated the Beach Road promenade during the late 19th and early 20th centuries". Alongside the neighboring Queens Hotel, it was a social hub on Cape Town's northern Cape beachfront. Tea gardens, bars, restaurants, ice=cream parlours and a bustling dancehall scene gave Sea Point all in terms of sea, sun and late night entertainment.

Located on the lively Beach Road Promenade, the Marine Hotel operated as a glamorous resort-style accommodation popular with holidaymakers and locals. It sat alongside other notable social spots like the Adelphi, Arthur's Seat, Bordeaux, Clarensville, Elizabeth, Esplanade, King's, Marseille, Millroy, Mimosas, Ocean View, Queens and Seacliffe Hotels. In the 1930s and 40s a shift to high-rise apartments (flats in SA!) saw developers to convert and replace the grand and gracious Victorian / Edwardian homes and hotels of Beach Road with modern buildings that attempted to emulate Rio de Janeiro. The Marine Hotel was torn down in the 1960s. Today, the site and its surrounding area comprise many run-down high-density residential apartment blocks that await future redevlopment.

#32 · June 9, 2026, 5:36 pm

New Park Hotel, Bethlehem, OFS.

Unlike the preceding Marine Hotel, Sea Point, cover, the one below does not show a label / Cinderella. It is a printed envelope.

1950. Advertising Cover. Airmail. BETHELEM '9 III 50' to ATTLEBOROUGH, GB. (Undated).
Six 1941 Union reduced-size 1½d definitives (not Bantams) make up an Airmail rate of 9d.
Cancelled with a BETHLEHEM bilingual slogan machine canceller 'SAVE MEAL AND BREAD'.
Transited via JOHANNESBURG '10 MAR 50'.

There is not much easily found information on this hotel other than a comment that "it dates back to the 1920s". This was a time when the rural areas of the OFS were getting back on their feet again after the devastation of the South African War (1899 - 1902).