Westville, KwaZulu-Natal

It was laid out on the farm Westville (named in honour of Martin West, the first British lieutenant-governor of Natal)[2] and formed in 1847. It developed from a settlement of German immigrants who arrived in 1848, and was proclaimed a borough in 1956. before being incorporated into eThekwini as part of the post-apartheid reorganization of South Africa's municipalities.

Schools situated in Westville include Westville Boys' High School, Westville Girls' High School, Atholl Heights Primary School, Berea West Junior Primary School, Berea West Senior Primary School, Pitlochry Primary School, Westville Senior Primary and the Deutsche Schule Durban. Higher education centres include a 2-square-kilometre campus of University of KwaZulu-Natal (formerly the University of Durban-Westville) and Varsity College (Westville campus).

Specialist schools such as The International Hotel School, based at the Westville Hotel and The Fusion Cooking School can also be found in Westville.

There are several churches in Westville, including the Westville Catholic Church, Our Lady of Lourdes, situated in the town centre, the Methodist Church, the Westville Baptist Church,[3] St Elizabeth's Anglican Church and OneCity Church,[4] who meet at the Westville Country Club. The major mosque in Westville is Habibia Soofie Masjid, located opposite Westville Boys High School. It is a Soofie mosque.[5]

Westville Prison is one of the largest prisons in the country and the only prison located in the Durban area.

Westville has three notable shopping centres:

• Westwood Mall, situated close to the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville campus
• Westville Mall
• The Pavilion Mall, the largest shopping centre in Westville and the second largest in the Durban area, after Gateway Theatre of Shopping

Westville boasts multiple business parks such as West Way Office Park, Surrey and Essex Gardens which is home to small businesses and huge corporations alike, most notably the regional head office for Woolworths and the headquarters for video game retailers Game 4U. [6][7]

Tourist attractions include Westville Palmiet Nature Reserve which has 15 km of guided and self-guided trails. Further afield tourists can experience the evergreen Western Inland Route and Natal's regional attractions, including The Drakensberg (Barrier of Spears) Battlefields Tours, Game Reserves and Zululand are within a 2–3-hour drive. A large Anglo-German Historical Route exists with numerous churches, museums and grave sites depicting the early settlement struggles of the early Colonial Days.