The 2017 edition of the Best of Cape Town Central City guide is here! Produced by New Media Publishing for the Cape Town Central City Improvement District (CCID), it includes over 300 places to visit, shop, eat, play and stay. And featuring on its pages are some of Cape Town’s well-known residents and visitors, who weigh in on what they love about the city’s CBD. Here’s what they had to say.
Legendary satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys enjoys the fact that when you come to the CBD you inevitably “meet people who have just arrived from some place far away”. He says he enjoys small independent theatres such as The Fugard.
Playwright Nicholas Spagnoletti – founder and co-owner of Alexander Bar, Café and Theatre – is, of course, also big on the area’s theatre scene, saying: “I generally prefer the directness of small theatre, where there’s nowhere to hide. But for a spectacle, there’s nowhere better than the Artscape Opera House. And The Fugard is just fantastic – I’ve seen some of the best theatre in the whole world there.”
The Play section in the Best of Cape Town Central City guide will point you the direction of all theatres plus more, as well as other nighttime attractions in the CBD.
Mokena Makeka, founder and architect at Makeka Design Lab (which is part of the CBD’s transformation in a big way), is all about the CBD’s “aspirations to be a world-class city”. His favourite building in town is 1 Thibault Square, and he’d like to see more housing for lower- to middle-income groups.
Brian Oxley, presenter on Magic 828, loves the cosmopolitan atmosphere and “buzz” of the Central City, and its “myriad galleries”.
Leigh Robertson, editor of Conde Nast House & Garden (based in Loop Street), is another art lover and recommends the Iziko South African National Gallery. She is also a fan of The House of Machines because it “serves the best cocktails in town”.
Find out more about the Central City’s art scene in the Visit and Shop sections of the Best of Cape Town Central City guide.
You can view it online here or contact Aziza (aziza@capetownccid.org) for hard copies.
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