{"id":742772,"date":"2026-08-19T08:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T08:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/742772\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T08:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T08:46:10","slug":"a-richly-layered-victorian-house-where-the-romance-of-the-past-meets-a-contemporary-eye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/742772\/","title":{"rendered":"A richly layered Victorian house where the romance of the past meets a contemporary eye"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hubert Zandberg, the London<\/a>-based South African designer, likes to give his clients an alter ego \u2013 invariably someone fabulous, with big design energy. \u2018For this project, I imagined a grand dame who\u2019d travelled the world, was a voracious collector and had finally \u2013 in pursuit of endless summer \u2013 decided to settle in Cape Town,\u2019 he says of a late-Victorian property in the coastal enclave of Green Point. It soon transpires that the exuberant persona is a stand-in for the tastemaker himself, and the layered live-work space is a celebration of his homeland\u2019s vibrant art<\/a> and design heritage.<\/p>\n

Hubert left post-apartheid South Africa after completing legal studies to pursue a more creative career in London. \u2018Moving to Europe<\/a> was a dream I\u2019d had since I was a child,\u2019 he explains. \u2018It was a cultural awakening and I met so many inspiring people.\u2019 Among them was the decorator David Champion, alongside whom Hubert worked for several years before striking out on his own.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The 1950s steel table and chairs are Mathieu Mategot\u2019s \u2018Antheor\u2019 dining set, and the 1940s wall lantern was sourced from Christopher Butterworth.<\/p>\n

Elsa Young<\/p>\n

Over the years, he has lived and worked in a variety of places \u2013 Berlin, Paris<\/a>, Tuscany, Ibiza<\/a> \u2013 and it was only during the pandemic that a pull on the heartstrings led him to purchase a pied-\u00e0-terre in Cape Town. Since then, he has immersed himself in the local creative landscape and established his eponymous studio\u2019s South African outpost, Acasia Design. \u2018When a property on this street came on the market, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to create something I had been dreaming of,\u2019 he says about Antrim House, his new design gallery and atelier, which doubles up as a community space for supper clubs and cultural programmes. With two guest houses attached, it is also the perfect spot for his extended family and friends to stay when visiting.<\/p>\n

Being his own client allowed this proponent of more-is-more style to manifest what he calls \u2018a maximalist African fever dream\u2019. But before the glamour came an \u2018energetic detox\u2019. First, Hubert had to rid the rundown listed house of ill-advised modifications. For example, the rotting external fenestrations were replaced by a more period-appropriate design. And layers of paint<\/a> were stripped back to reveal the original metal ceilings and wall panels with delicate surface decoration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hubert Zandberg, the London-based South African designer, likes to give his clients an alter ego \u2013 invariably someone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":742773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,20782,96,176347,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-742772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-designers-houses","tag-entertainment","tag-hg101","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=742772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/742773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}