It owed its origins to Samuel West, an Australian gold digger from Ballarat in Victoria who arrived in Durban in 1871.
In August 1881, West approached the Harbour Board for permission to rent a small plot on the bay side of the Bluff headland. In his letter he stated he wanted to establish a small lock-up building for day-trippers to the headland area to secure their belongings. In addition he intended to supply fresh water, ginger beer and pastries from a canteen which came to be known as the Bluff Retreat.
The Harbour Board approved of his proposal, subject to West submitting a plan of the building. His rental was set at five shillings a month, later raised to 10 shillings a month. The only condition the Harbour Board specified was that he was subject to one week’s notice. In September 1882, West informed the Board that visitors had repeatedly enquired about the sale of liquor at his refreshment station. But in applying for a licence, West came up against bureaucracy. Since the Bluff did not fall under the Durban Town Council, he was required to apply to the Licensing Board of Durban Division which, at the time, had not been constituted.
Liquor licence
Evidently, a licence was subsequently issued as in March 1892, a complaint was lodged against West’s canteen. Apparently one Sunday some drunk types arrived at the canteen and behaved in a disorderly fashion. West was apologetic about the incident which was sympathetically dealt with by the Harbour engineer-in-chief, Cathcart Methven. In his defence, West pointed to his written request for a police presence on Sundays to ensure orderly conduct but that none was provided.
In 1892 Sam West sub-let his site on a five-year lease. However, the Harbour Board made it clear that it did not recognise third party agreements. By then West’s Bluff Retreat was a very popular watering hole. Probably so as to lessen his involvement, in 1896 West applied to have his liquor licence transferred in the name of a Mrs Annie Doran. The 1902 Natal Directory (page 328) gave Sam West’s Durban address as being in Stratford Road. But his name does not feature in subsequent issues of the Directory. Apparently he spent his last years in England.
Following the opening of the Bluff railway in 1898, business prospects for the Bluff Retreat were such that Harry Millar of John Millar & Co wine and spirit merchants enquired on behalf of West whether a 25-year lease could be obtained if they enlarged Bluff Retreat into a double storey hotel. The response of the Minister of Lands and Works, Albert Hime is significant. He said he was opposed to long leases “when large works are in contemplation”. Also, that such a venture should be open to public competition and not allocated on a personal basis. With hindsight, Hime’s response referred to the coming coaling wharfs and land reclamation by the Harbour Board. In 1902, four similar applications to build a hotel in the neighbourhood of Wests were turned down by the Port Advisory Board.
But in August 1903 there was a change in government in Natal. Shrewd businessman and entrepreneur, Joseph Baynes, became Minister of Lands and Works in the new Sutton ministry. As noted in #7 of this series, by August 1903 construction of the Public House Trust inn was underway. Within the first decade of the new century, Wests as the Bluff rail terminus, developed into quite a social node. In 1900 it became an official postal point with a letter box and pigeon holes for mail. In 1905 a telephone line was installed and in 1907 a bookstall was placed at the railway station. But it was not until 1908 that it received its electricity connection.
Sources:
- Natal Mercury, 28 February 1887: Sam West’s origins.
- Natal Directory, 1902-1904.
- Pietermaritzburg Archives:
- NHD 1/2/2 31(A) 10, 12, 18 August 1881.
- NHD 1/2/9 (37A) 16 March 1892; 38B.
- NHD 1/2/11 (12B-F), NHB 3A, 1895-1896.
- MJPW 64, LW 324, 20 January; 7 February 1899.
- MJPW 91, LW 598, 31 January, 13 February 1902.
- NHD 11/1/84 HDE 568, 1905.
- PMG 89, GPO 1210, 1900.
- NHD 11/1/120, HDE 1235, 1907
- NHD 11/1/127, HDE 550, 1908
