Vel-Vet Mansions, Durban

Perhaps the best part of this apartment building in Durban is the hyphen but that is a bit flippant.

Why Vel-Vet rather than plain Velvet. It probably doesn't matter.

Vel-Vet Mansions is one of a series of buildings in Carlisle Street in the Indian section of Durban built in the early 1940s.

Vel-Vet is decorated with lines, squares, diamonds and triangles with the name on the front of the building between the second and third floors.

Other aprtment blocks in Carlisle Street have similar decoration and also bear their names on their facades but Vel-Vet is the only one with a hyphen.