Mad About The House by Kate Watson-Smyth

Mad About The House by Kate Watson-Smyth

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Mad About The House by Kate Watson-Smyth
Mad About The House by Kate Watson-Smyth
Design Postcard from Mexico City

Design Postcard from Mexico City

Join me at the famous Café La Habana, where Fidel Castro and Che Guevara are said to have plotted the Cuban Revolution over coffee and chilaquiles.

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Kate Watson-Smyth
Apr 07, 2025
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Mad About The House by Kate Watson-Smyth
Mad About The House by Kate Watson-Smyth
Design Postcard from Mexico City
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Design Postcards are free to read, but paid subscribers have access to so much more – coming up this month, three houses in Mexico City, an interview with Beata Heuman, my live Drop-in Design Clinic, where you can ask me your own decorating dilemmas, as well as the whole archive full of design ideas, how-tos and inspiration for all homes, budgets and tastes.

Free subscribers: check your inboxes for an amazing special offer sent on Sunday 6 April.

Opened in 1852, this café was not just for revolutionaries – Gabriel Garcia Marquez (have you watched the brilliant 100 Years of Solitude on Netflix yet?) is said to have written part of his most famous novel here while Octavio Paz (poet and diplomat) and Roberto Bolaño (Chilean novelist) all hung out here. Bolaño immortalised La Habana under the name Café Quito in his 1998 novel The Savage Detectives, and Patti Smith later performed there in his honour. Such is its fame in the city that apparently Mexican politicians come here when they want …

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