The new look brick bar at the Winchester Mansions Hotel, Sea Point.

Sea Point Promenade landmark, Winchester Mansions, is on phase two of an extensive renovation project.

The hotel that started out as an apartment block has “gone glam”, combining classical elegance with a modern feel and maintaining its colonial roots while embracing the modern twists that come from being in such a remarkable location.

Loy Serfontein, owner of LSDA, the design company behind the renovations, together with his team is transforming the “old lady” into a grand hotel. LSDA completed its first design project at Winchester Mansions in 1996, and has a long-standing relationship with the owners, trustees and managing director, Nils Heckscher.

“For many years Winchester Mansions struggled to shake off a time-honoured reputation that it catered for an older, foreign crowd, its Cape Dutch architecture often leaving guests feeling that the space was imperial – a far cry from what it is now revered for.

“It is essential that the hotel’s interiors express our developing brand image, and we will be able to offer our guests a more elegant setting in which to take refuge,” says Heckscher.

From opulent revamps to the grand Harvey Suite to upgrades to its entire public areas and amenities the newly refreshed hotel is now fitted with stylish furniture, modern light fixtures and bronzed mirrors that incorporate the hotel’s signature crest. Many of the pieces used in the refurbishing are locally made, from the chairs and fabrics to the bronzed light fixtures.

The hotel has also completed the upgrade of its new kitchen and work is under way on the refurbishing of its rooms.

The journey of this icon has been a particularly long one for Frances Wainford, whose family has owned the building since the early 1900s. Describing her connection to the hotel as “deeply emotional”, Weinford says: “I feel my parents beside me and I know they agree with what we’ve done.”