CAPE TOWN – After standing watch over Muizenberg for more than 90 years, the town’s historic post office is entering a new chapter as it becomes a collaborative workspace by Workshop17, demonstrating how heritage buildings can remain powerful engines of community and economic life.
the landmark building, constructed in the 1930s to serve the burgeoning suburb, was designed then by Public Works Department architect WBT Newham, who was affectionately known as “Potty Newham” for his intense passion for integrating local ceramics into public buildings.
Architectural heritage preserved
Newham understood that infrastructure shapes community identity, insisting the post office function efficiently while speaking to all who used it.
He created a sea-facing structure featuring Herbert Baker-style elements with hammer-dressed sandstone, arched windows, and Cape-vernacular-meets-Art-Deco proportions.
The building’s crown jewels are two ceramic murals on the Main Road façade, are crafted by Isa Cameron at the Ceramic Studio in Olifantsfontein.
These blue-and-white glazed panels feature tall ships sailing over stylised Art Deco waves, to honour the Delft and Dutch heritage of the Cape and celebrate Muizenberg’s maritime communication history.
Modern transformation
Today, architect and design team Hoven Designs work with property owners Flip Floppers and building contractors W30, to carefully repurpose the historic space.
The transformation preserves original features including pigeonholed mailboxes, the old mail sorting table, Art Deco fittings and parquet flooring.
Independent heritage practitioner James J Hallinan praised the innovative project: “This is a textbook example of how a redundant and even derelict heritage resource can be repurposed while preserving its intrinsic heritage qualities. It is further proposed that this will not only bring new life to this historical structure but infuse a highly interactive revenue generating element into this Heritage Protected Overlay Zone and thus, support the general economic empowerment and renewal of historical Muizenberg, more widely.”
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