The Avenues, Harare

The Avenues is a mixed purpose suburb in Harare, Zimbabwe. It consists of blocks of apartments, businesses and diplomatic missions. The suburb is laid out in the form of a rectangular grid, about 1 km to the north of the central business district. on the other side of the Harare Gardens.The area is traversed by all the major thoroughfares to the northern suburbs. These include Prince Edward St(western boundary), Leopald Takawira Ave, Sam Nujoma St(2nd st), 4th Street, 7th Street(Borrowdale Rd). The streets run north to south and the mostly beautiful tree lined avenues run east to west. These divide the suburb into rectangular grids. Main avenues include J. Tongogara Ave(Northern boundary), J. Chinamano Ave,Chitepo Avenue, Central Ave and the busy Samora Machel Avenue. Neighboring suburbs include Milton Park and Belgravia,Alexandra Park to the north, Belvedere to the west, Eastlea and Newlands to the East and the CBD to the south.

The Avenues is mostly occupied by Black-Africans, but there are people of all races living there. The suburb has many facilities: Shopping Centres e.g. Montague, Fife Ave; Schools e.g.Dominican Convent, David Livingstone Primary and Colleges e.g. Speciss College, Trust College, Ilsa College, some of the nations best private hospitals e.g. Avenues and Westend Clinics and not to mention proximity to sporting facilities like the Harare Sports Club(where international test cricket matches are played) and the Royal Golf Club.

Avenues is a prime choice of residence for many young professional due to its proximity to the CBD, its facilities and good transport links. Most residential units are apartment blocks or flats ranging from bedsitters to family sized apartments, garden flats, town houses to luxury penthouses. Some single unit houses set on sizable gardens still exist, but most have been turned into commercial premises or restaurants. This gives the suburb a somewhat built-up feel. This is broken up somewhat by the presence of parks; The Harare Gardens and Greenwood Park also by the wide tree lined avenues which colour the landscape lilac/purple every Sept/Oct when in full bloom. Also the Avenues has a sprinkling of restaurants, guest houses, lodges as well as Hotels e.g. Bronte and Holiday Inn. Also there is a good collection of pubs, clubs which are quite popular some trendy. On the other hand, the Avenues also has a seedy reputation for being a "Red Light District" esp along J.Chinamano, Fife Avenues.