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I was born in England but moved to South Africa when I was a little boy. I grew up for the most part in Stellenbosch and was educated there.
After spending a decade or so in Europe working in financial publishing, I met my partner and we made the decision to move to South Africa in 2004. For me this was a wonderful homecoming, at a time when the country was riding high and enjoying our new democracy.
We bought one of the Cape’s oldest Cape Dutch farms from its founding family, which was in need of restoration at that point. This started us off on a project that is still carrying on as such places are actually quite organic and never really ‘finished’. At the time I found that antique furniture was extremely expensive here, whereas the antiques market in the UK was collapsing and everyone seemed to be almost giving away the most wonderful furniture. I went back north and bought a container-load worth of furniture for our house.
The next year we bought a farm in the mountains near Robertson as a retreat for us and needed yet more furniture. Off I went back north again.
There was some furniture left over from that, and our friends had all been so complimentary about what I had done with the houses and the furniture I had chosen that I thought there could be a business opportunity in it. I brought yet more furniture to the Cape, and opened a shop in the Waterkant. I thoroughly enjoyed decorating the space there, but found dealing with staff, particularly while away on buying trips, very difficult. I closed the shop after a few years but continued selling through personal contacts.
In the meantime we had turned our original farm into Hawksmoor House. At the time, we were one of a handful of actual Cape Dutch houses where one could stay in an original farmhouse, decorated and run as if staying with friends in a traditional farm set-up. The business bloomed and grew to such an extent that the entire werf complex is now part of the guesthouse operation, and we effectively found ourselves homeless. Hawksmoor is now leased to the Lion Roars group but we still are very actively involved in ensuring that it retains the atmosphere we worked so hard to create there, as well as being in complete control of the winemaking operation.
The Robertson farm (Die Laaitjie) followed suit, and is still available for rental via its website.
At the time that we moved back to South Africa it was splashed all over the papers that the great Boschendal Estate had been sold and was going to go beyond just farming activities and sell several upmarket smaller farms within its borders. In the years between this happening and our getting Hawksmoor and Die Laaitjie off the ground, that project had sailed into very choppy waters indeed, and the decision was taken to sell some of the original farms that made up Boschendal. We bought De Goede Hoop, which was the very first farm that Cecil John Rhodes bought in the Dwarsrivier valley to begin the business that became Rhodes Fruit Farms, known as and run from Boschendal.
The house at De Goede Hoop was in terrible condition at the time, having been subjected to many utterly unsympathetic renovations in the 20th century, as well as outright neglect in the ten years before we bought it. We restored the house, and are still busy working on some of the outbuildings and the garden. One marvellous piece of luck was that I still had quite a lot of furniture left over from the shop, that hadn’t sold as it was all unfashionable at the time, being roughly from the period 1780 – 1840. The house at De Goede Hoop was built in 1821 so all that furniture went right into it and looks as if it was made for the house.
Another development at this time was the acquisition of a house of our own in France, and so I now spend the Cape winters in France collecting furniture for the antique business. French furniture is a very different style than the English furniture I am used to, and I have head to learn a great deal in the last few years. History created the objects that are left behind for us now, and the difference between the histories of France and England are very clear in the furniture. The furniture that I import is sold either through a network of dealers who like what I buy, or the local auction houses. I must admit that when I am buying I picture which of these people it will be for, and so far I have not been wrong as they have seemed to be very happy with what I have chosen.
I did not train as an interior designer, and as such would never contemplate describing myself as one. To do so would be (in my opinion) an insult to all the people – many of whom are friends – who did toil very hard to develop their talents.
What I am good at is spending time in a space and working out how to make it into the sort of place that I would want to spend time in. That is where I can help anyone who asks me to.