The Royal Hotel Durban has stood at the centre of Durban and its history for more than 150 years. It has grown with the City and stands proud of its tradition of exceptional service and hospitality.
On 12 December 1845 Durban’s first hotel announced itself open to the public. The story of McDonald’s Commercial Hotel, subsequently renamed the Masonic and finally the Royal, begins during the late 1830’s with the arrival at Port Natal of a Scottish sea captain, Hugh McDonald.
Hugh McDonald was in Port Natal during the 1842 siege of Captain Smith’s British garrison by Boer soldiers led by Commandant Andries Pretorius. Despite the precarious situation of the small settlement at the Port, Hugh must have had faith in its future, for in November 1842, he persuaded another brother, Charles, to settle there. It was Charles McDonald who in January 1843, bought the Market Square property on which part of the Royal Hotel today stands, for the sum of £40. He erected a wattle-and-daub thatch-roofed trading store and began selling such essential items as sugar, tea, tobacco, wine and brandy, conveniently supplied by the Pilot. It is possible that he also offered rudimentary accommodation to travelers.