A small residential district in SW Edinburgh, Westburn is constrained between the B701 Wester Hailes Road, the Edinburgh Bypass and the Union Canal. The area now comprises a mix of social and private housing. It was developed in the early 1970s as a western extension of the Wester Hailes public housing scheme focused around nine-storey public housing blocks on Westburn Gardens, Park and Grove. A mixed development of 227 semi-detached houses and flats, known as Westburn Village, built by Wester Hailes Community Housing Association between 1992 and 1995 around the site of the former Baberton Quarry. This development was extended to form Morvenside when the seven high-rise blocks on Westburn Gardens were demolished in 1992-94. Adjacent is the 1.2-ha / 3-acre Westburn Community Woodland, with its woodland sculpture.
A considerable number of semi-detached utilitarian four-storey blocks of flats remain in the south of the area. The Wester Hailes Arts for Leisure and Education (WHALE) Arts Centre on Westburn Grove is a community-led arts and social enterprise created in 1992.
