Since 1890

Coffee money built it, and the 1954 sale nearly finished it

The first owner shipped coffee out of the bay and wanted a house on the pattern everyone used then: a street door, a patio, rooms around it, a second patio behind for the kitchen and the staff, and a flat roof to sleep on when the heat made it worth it.

It was sold in 1954 and cut into six flats. Doorways were bricked up, the second patio was roofed over in corrugated iron, and the azotea became a place to dry washing. That is how it stayed for fifty years.

The 2008 restoration took the iron off the second patio, opened the bricked doorways, and left the scars visible where the new brick meets the old. The east room, which had been a garage, became the room it is now.

A room with louvred blinds and a window full of green
street door first patio second patio east room the gaming room reception comedor two patios deep; the dotted line is the walk from reception

The plan

Street door, patio, comedor, patio, east room

The house is one room deep on each side of two courtyards, which is why every room has two outside walls and why none of them is dark.

Reception is immediately inside the street door. The comedor is the arcade between the patios. The east room, at the back, is the gaming room.

House rules

Five things worth knowing

  • The ground floor has no air conditioning and will not be getting any. The walls do the work; see the drawing above.
  • Breakfast is served in the second patio from seven to ten, and you come down for it.
  • Children are welcome anywhere in the house except the east room, at any hour.
  • The street door is locked from midnight and opened by the night porter, who stays up all night.
  • We hold a room on a name and a telephone number. Nothing is paid through this website.