This beautiful city centre penthouse has a private roof terrace with rooftop Hot Tub, bbq and swinging day bed
We're up-cycling Johannesburg’s city center by redesigning disused spaces, one luxury renovation at a time. The perfect upgraded space for your time in Joburg. It's within easy reach of the airport and Maboneng, with high speed internet and rooftop pool access. The perfect base to explore Joburgs Urban Revival.
Don’t miss out!
The space
I'm glad you like the look of my place, to the extent that you are reading my listing. Please note that it is not suitable for gatherings or events - e.g. birthday parties, bachelorettes, etc.
This apartment is part of the 'African Penthouses' portfolio of apartments, 4 of which are available, in this building. Each has its own character and is a reflection of the different architects/designers that renovated them.
We have recently invested in a backup power system so the main lights, wifi and tv will remain operational during loadshedding/power cuts.
If the apartment is not available for all the dates that you require, or you are looking to spend a little less, you can see the other apartments in the building (including other penthouses) in my profile
Many people also book a combination of this and other apartments in the building, to enable longer stays, if no individual apartment is an available for the whole duration of their planned stay.
This is a 50 sqm apartment, spread over 3 floors including a private roof terrace. Though it can take four people, 50 sqm is a bit tight for four adults. If your group is four adults, I’d suggest you look at one of our larger apartments.
It is one of 4 apartments that we make available, in the same building, 3 of which are penthouses. Each has its own character and is a reflection of the different architects/designers that renovated them.
You can look through all 4 apartments in my profile.
This apartment is beautiful and stylish but the real value is the local knowledge and recommendations provided by the hosts. Joburg has so many beautiful places to explore and people to meet and, like any big city, places you don’t want to stumble into blindly. Stay safe while experiencing the best of Joburg by following our up to date recommendations of places to go (and to steer clear of) whilst you’re in town.
Our aim is to help you ‘cultivate an experience’ of authentic Joburg by connecting you with some of the right drivers, tour guides, restaurants, experiences etc. to support your planning and make the most of your time in town, with our apartment as your home base.
This stunning apartment is spread over the 9th, 10th and 11th floor of the heritage (listed), former Barclays Bank HQ, building on the oldest street in Johannesburg.
If you’re coming all the way to Johannesburg looking for a Dubai type experience, then this isn’t the place for you. I’d suggest you look at areas like Sandton or Rosebank, in the Northern suburbs, instead.
Providing a different (some say more authentic) Johannesburg experience to the Northern suburbs, it is less than 10min Uber ride to Maboneng, Braamfontein, Newtown, Joziburg lane and 1Fox street, making it perfectly located to experience the city's urban revival and access the coolest parts of Jo'burg, whilst not having to put up with the noise that goes with actually staying in these 'lively' areas.
Many don't realise that Johannesburg is also a pan-African cultural centre. The location of this apartment gives much easier access to those aspects of our city, including the sights and sounds that come with being in a developing African city. If you are looking for the pristine Porsche/Rolex/Jimmy Choo experience of Johannesburg, again you're likely to be happier in areas such as Sandton.
The apartment is less than 10 minutes walk to the closest Citysightseeing open-top hop-on-hop-off tour bus stop, about 25 minutes drive from Johannesburg airport and 10 minutes away from the Gautrain station, giving direct access to Rosebank, Sandton, Pretoria and the airport.
The layout of the apartment was designed so that the main living spaces would all benefited from easy access to the outdoor space and the amazing city views.
On the entrance floor of the apartment there is a Master bedroom which incorporates a bath and en-suite and WC ; a second bedroom which has an extra length queen bed; and another shower room with WC.
The middle floor of the apartment has an open plan living area (with a fabulous woodburning stove), dining area (with a 6-seater dining table) and gourmet kitchen with granite counters, bespoke handmade cabinetry and stainless stove. All of which creates an amazing homely room to hang out in. This room also has air conditioning.
All of the downstairs bedrooms have triple-glazed windows to keep the city sounds out and the warmth in, during the short South African winters. Each of the bedrooms also has a ceiling fan.
Exit the back door and an iron spiral staircase (shared with the apartment next door) leads up to the private roof deck (exclusively for this apartment) which serves as our garden. There is no lawn but it has a Jacuzzi, bbq/braai, a dining table and swinging day bed.
The apartment also has a solar powered hot water system
3 things guests like about my place...
It's 5 minutes away from the party capital of Maboneng, but far enough away to be quiet at night.
Chilling out on the amazing roof terrace.
The open plan main floor, with back up power that can make you forget about loadshedding, the amazing kitchen and roaring fireplace
3 things they don't like...
It's not in a posher suburb like Sandton.
The Jacuzzi takes a long time to heat up.
The spiral staircase that leads to the roof is quite narrow.
Guest access
Guests will have the whole apartment plus access to the communal (shared) penthouse pool.
Other things to note
Well monitored shared building with long-term residents.
Guest-only policy (no outside visitors).
Rooftop hot-tub for private, quiet use.
It is one of the oldest buildings in town, there are often film shoots happening either in the building, or on the surrounding streets, at the weekend (the area looks like NY or London, but is cheaper and has better light). They're sometimes a bit of a pain as you may have to wait for a break in shooting, to get past.
There is quite a distance between the solar hot water tank, on the roof, and the bathrooms, so you need to run the taps for a couple of minutes to get the hot water.
The entrance to the parking is quite tight, so please don't come with a van. It won't fit! The largest vehicles I’ve seen in the basement parking are a Mercedes’ vaneo and Toyota Landcruiser. Both had to fold in their wing mirrors to enter the parking. .
The air conditioning is in the main living/kitchen area. Bedrooms have fans.
We have invested in a backup power system for the main interior lights, WiFi and tv in this apartment, that will keep them operational during the all to frequent power outages that occur in South Africa
The pool is a communal pool, for all the building’s residents
There rest of the building is not covered by the back up power, so expect things like the lifts to be impacted if loadshedding is implemented by the power authority.
From cold, the hot-tub/jacuzzi takes 4-5 hours to heat up. For safety reasons, we cannot leave it running when nobody is in the apartment. Thus 1-night bookings are not recommended, if the hit-tub/jacuzzi is your main attraction.
At 90sqm, this apartment is cosy, so four adults would likely be better suited to one of our larger penthouses.
