Because the Kimberley Hotel is across the road from The Book Lounge, it is to this murky hole that one retreats for a house red - R69 a bottle - and to thumb through a newly acquired biography or recover from another smug book launch. I love the place, but I don't like the cheap name. It sounds like a teenage pop singer and seems at odds with the building's history. It's true that Cape Town's oldest pub, the Perseverance Tavern, is a stone's throw away, up Buitenkant Street, but this is the more interesting watering hole.The hotel was built in 1895, and it is said the bar's decor hasn't changed for more than a century. That's not quite true. The tiled walls, dark wood and late 19th-century diamond and gold mining bric-a-brac give it a certain vintage charm, as do the acid-etched frosted windows and mirrors behind the bottles. Not sure, though, about the slot machines.One early hotel guest was William Foster, who later led the notorious Foster gang. He consummated his marriage to Peggy Korenico here in March 1913. At the time he was an awaiting-trial prisoner, facing charges of robbing a jewellery store. It seemed kind of the authorities to escort him down to the Kimberley from Roeland Street prison in order to squire the missus. A gentler age, perhaps.These days, the hotel is a backpackers' lodge so, in addition to hard-core regulars, the bar fills with younger travellers - especially during happy hour, when drinks are cheap and the rand-dollar exchange rate seems more ludicrous than ever. The bar shuts at 2am, in time for the more committed to hit the clubs.A warning, though: the bar is the hotel's smoking area. The fugginess gets extreme. There are tables on the pavement. But in this weather, not a good idea.The Kimberley Hotel, 48 Roeland Street, 021-461-2160. This is the first in a weekly series on Cape Town bars..