The Luyt family in Hermanus had a strong entrepreneurial spirit. Their investments were successful, more often than not. The Marine and Riviera hotels were a longstanding success. P J Luyt had brought his energy and managerial talents to many other organisations in the town, for instance, the Wildflower Society (forerunner of the Hermanus Botanical Society) and the Golf Club. As regards the latter, he had even persuaded one of Queen Victoria’s grandsons, the Earl of Connaught, to open it in 1923.

But, from their point of view, the Birkenhead Hotel would not count as a success. There were several reasons for this. The first problem was timing. The hotel was custom-built in the early 1950s. Looking back, we can see that the era of large numbers of extended hotel holidays in Hermanus was coming to an end. The fashion for this kind of holiday had been good to Hermanus, had been the basis of success for the Marine, Royal, Riviera, Windsor and other hotels and had established the economic base on which the town was built.

But now holidaymakers were looking for more flexibility and preferred to utilise hotels for accommodation only and look for meals and entertainment wherever they wished in the town. Writing in 1989, Jose Berman identified other challenges in the hotel industry in the 1950s and 1960s:

(Hotels) were under increasing pressure to provide better facilities- first private bathrooms, then showers as well, then suites. It was necessary to plough back profits into the business to cope with alterations and additions. There was also the problem of the short season. Even prestigious hotels such as the Riviera had, at most, a four-month season…Then there was the fire hazard which was high at Hermanus…Many of those who had originally come to the hotels, bought holiday houses or built them…Demand was created for apartments, both by sectional title and by timeshare…

However, the Luyts were friendly with the von Blommestein family, whose home was on a headland slightly to the west of Voëlklip Beach. It had a striking sea view. Voëlklip itself was growing, and more holiday homeowners had built cottages. It seemed a perfect place to put a holiday hotel – and the von Blommesteins wished to move into town.

So Henry Luyt (brother of the legendary P John Luyt) and one of Henry’s sons, J R de Jongh Luyt, acquired the von Blommestein property in 1951. Henry had made a great success of the Riviera Hotel and had subsequently bought and renovated the Esplanade Hotel. He was managing it profitably with his son John.

Alexis Luyt had acquired the Windsor Hotel, which was also doing well. Alexis was a notable fisherman and wrote a weekly column on fishing in the local newspaper for many years.

Admittedly, Joey Luyt and her daughters had sold the Marine Hotel in 1947, rented out their home, Schoongezicht, and lived in Cape Town. In 1951 the Marine was very capably managed by Eric Colbeck, although a large corporation then owned it.

The new hotel’s name referred to the tragic sinking of the British troopship, The Birkenhead, off Danger Point in 1852. This sensational event, where hundreds perished, was well-known throughout South Africa, and many buildings carried the name.

Construction of the all-new Birkenhead Hotel took place in 1951 and 1952. There was a slightly unusual circumstance in that the liquor licence was approved before the hotel was ready to open. The licence was in the name of John Luyt (the son), and the law dictated that he open a ‘bottle store’ immediately. So, he had to manage a temporary ‘bottle store’ until the building was ready.

The Birkenhead Hotel opened on 24 October 1952 and was promoted as the last word in modernity. The Times of Hermanus marked the opening with a lengthy description of the modern features of the hotel.

In the article’s first sentence, attention is drawn to the glass doors and the light entering the lobby from picture windows. In the kitchen, the central stove is ‘a a modern Green’s Heatflow, using anthracite’. The ‘Bar Lounge’ is built like a crow’s nest on the cliff overlooking the sea.

The Luyts spent £90 000 on building and furnishing their new hotel, and it proved to be an unsustainable operation financially. They were seriously over-capitalised. By 1955 the company created for the project had to be liquidated. The Paarl Board of Executors auctioned the hotel with an asking price of £90 000. The best offer received was only £30 000.

In early 1956 the hotel was sold privately to the de Kock brothers, whose family had regularly stayed in the Birkenhead while on holiday from Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia).

The new owners appointed ( Mr) Jack Carstens and (Mrs) ‘Charlie’ Carstens as the hotel managers. This choice was inspired. The Carstens built up a reputation for their catering. For years, a large tourist bus transporting mainly British tourists would arrive every Wednesday, specifically for lunch at the Birkenhead. Sunday lunches and all lunches during holidays usually offered three sittings to accommodate the demand.

In 1958, the hotel began to attract a different type of visitor. The traditional Hermanus Spring Wildflower Show began to develop as an annual event under Mrs Carstens. An article in the Hermanus News in 1959 commented:

These flowers have been selected all along the coastal area…the whole collection, comprising over 200 varieties, is charmingly arranged…On Sunday alone, over 500 people signed the Visitors Book…

Many more spring shows were hosted at the Birkenhead, alternating with the Bay View and Marine hotels. This arrangement continued until the Hermanus Botanical Society built its premises in the Fernkloof Nature Reserve, and the ‘Flower Show’ was held there. This tradition continues until today.

In 1968, fire caught up with the hotel. Luckily the blaze was confined to one wing, which was rapidly restored. It appears that the rubble from walls that had to be torn down because of the fire was used to fill the picnic area adjacent to the mouth of the Klein River, east of Grotto Beach.

In December 1968, the hotel was sold to Eric le Roux and Andrew Norman. It remained popular throughout the 1970s, and many people now retired to Hermanus had their first introduction to the town during a holiday at the Birkenhead. The hotel was also a meeting place for the teenagers of the time who monopolised the verandah on the ocean side of the building over weekends.

Trading continued into the 1970s until a group of investors in the popular new share block and timeshare systems bought the property. They intended to convert the hotel into a holiday sectional title scheme. However, by the time they had demolished the fine old hotel, the market for such projects had fallen, and the development never took place. The site was vacant for some years before two private houses were built there in the 1990s. In turn, the houses were re-incorporated into the present boutique accommodation named the Birkenhead House Hotel.