Strathaven is a hilly

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

Harare Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its metropolitan ...

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

. Strathaven is an affluent north-west suburb, largely known for its

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...

and shopping amenities and is bounded to the west by the suburb of Sentosa, Monovale to the south and to the east and the north by Avondale and Avondale West. Like much of the northwest, the streets feature tree-lined avenues, which give the area a distinctive,

garden suburb The garden city movement was a 20th century urban planning movement promoting satellite communities surrounding the central city and separated with greenbelts. These Garden Cities would contain proportionate areas of residences, industry, and ...

feel.

History

Strathaven was established in 1902 and named by Thomas Meikle of the prominent Scottish-Zimbabwean, Meikle family, after his hometown of

Strathaven Strathaven (; from gd, Strath Aibhne ) is a historic market town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland and is the largest settlement in Avondale. It is south of Hamilton. The Powmillon Burn runs through the town centre, and joins the Avon Water to the ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. Thomas Meikle was one of the members of the infamous ‘Looting Committee’, created to steal Ndebele cattle, as punishment after the 1893 War of Dispossession or

First Matabele War The First Matabele War was fought between 1893 and 1894 in modern-day Zimbabwe. It pitted the British South Africa Company against the Ndebele (Matabele) Kingdom. Lobengula, king of the Ndebele, had tried to avoid outright war with the company ...

. The majority of the cattle awarded to Meikle was used as capital for the Meikles business ventures which including the Meikles Hotel in Harare, Cape Grace in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

and what was to become Strathaven. More than 350 000 cattle were looted by Meikle and his Looting Committee from the Ndebele people.

Retail

There are several shopping centres and office parks in the area, especially along Suffolk Drive, which connects the suburb with the larger, Avondale. These include such as the Strathaven Shopping Centre, Amor Christian Trade Shopping Centre and the TM Supermarket head offices. Strathaven also has an emerging restaurant scene, with most restaurants and

cafe A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-caf ...

s amid the

antique shop An antique shop (or antiques shop) is a retail store specializing in the selling of antiques. Antiques shops can be located either locally or, with the advent of the Internet, found online. An antiques shop can also be located within an anti ...

s on Suffolk and Browing Drives. There is also an annual Spring festival on the opening weekend of September.

References

{{Authority control Suburbs of Harare Harare