Victoria Downtown

Live here, work here, play here

The downtown core of Victoria is an area that has been in constant flux over the years. With so much urban and retail development it is now at least tacitly divided into “districts” as well as residential areas.

Let’s start with City Central or “Humboldt Valley”

 Humboldt Valley  is Victoria’s new downtown arts and culture district, with new businesses and boutiques as well as upscale condo residences.

As you walk along Government to Blanshard along Humboldt Street you see the name set in the banners proclaiming its boundaries (just shy of Fairfield). Right behind the Empress and Convention Center this historical area has become a menage of sleek architecture,  heritage buildings and new shops making it a most desirable residential neighbourhood and particularly attractive to corporate renters.

New developments like “The Falls”; “The Aria”; “The Belvedere”, and “Astoria”  have given shape to the new district, introducing ground-floor retail space into their residential complexes.

Winchester Galleries, which has outlets in the Belvedere and the Astoria, is working on an installation of six outdoor sculptures in the 700-block of Humboldt. The “sculpture walk” will encourage visitors to stroll the street from one artwork to the next—and one participating Humboldt Valley merchant to the next.

Members of the new Humboldt Valley Merchants Association [as of Aug. 12, 2010].

• 5 Star Whale Watching
• Armeni Jewellers
• Brown’s Social House
• Budget Car and Truck Rental
• Café Mela at the Belvedere
• Church of our Lord
• Executive House Hotel
• Fairmont Empress Hotel and Willow Stream Spa
• HSBC
• Kiva Design
• Macdonald Realty Victoria
• Miniature World
• Clinic 805 (corner of Fairfiled) Plastic Surgeons
• Nootka Traders
• Pescatore’s Fish House and Oyster Bar
• Roger’s Chocolates Soda Shoppe
• Scala Boutique
• Side Street Studio
• Sotheby’s Realty Victoria
• The Sky is the Limit Design
• Union Club of B.C.
• Victoria Marriott Inner Harbour
• Winchester Galleries

The Humboldt Valley was the site of the city’s first Roman Catholic Church incorporated as the chapel in St. Ann’s Academy (1858).

In 1876, the Sisters also started St. Joseph’s Hospital, which grew over time, and eventually became the Victoria General Hospital until it closed in 1983.

By early 1990s, the area had slipped into decay and uncertainty. St. Ann’s Academy was boarded up and deteriorating. The area had a number of vacant sites and parking lots.

Today the Humboldt Valley retains its key heritage buildings, and has a mixture of public/private development, along with public open space. St. Ann’s Academy is now a National Historic site and a setting for special events including weddings.

Turning deterioration into restoration and changing parking lots into urban oasis is a progressive idea. Getting people out of suburban living and back into the city especially downtown is necessary in preserving our downtown but also in making it a safe place after hours. We need to move in this direction if we are to survive the future perils of peak oil prices, traffic snarls and deterioration of downtown city cores.

————————————————  JAMES BAY ————————————–

One of the oldest and distinct areas of the city is James Bay, a peninsula with Beacon Hill Park on the east, the Inner Harbour on the north and comprising the neighbourhood just behind the Parliament buildings, along Kingston Street and Dallas Rd up to Cook Street.

The area is small enough to walk everywhere with lots of quaint neighbourhoods, beautiful architecture and a relaxed pace. James Bay home to a complementary mix of trendy professionals, young families, retirees and those newly relocated to Victoria.

Some say this area is home to the newly wed and nearly dead and indeed you will see a lot of both.

Residents of the James Bay area will find the ocean at their door step and those into running, jogging, cycling or strolling will love the park-like settings and beach areas where they see many others engaged in the same.

Summer months feature the hang gliders at Clover Point. Spring rallies in the flying kites.

The annual marathon held in October has it’s course snaking through the James Bay area.

Over recent decades the place has become gentrified. Old, smallish, war-time houses replaced with modern and larger family style homes.

New developments such as “The Reef” and “Shoal Point” provide upscale living in this quiet community.

 

City of Victoria, with James Bay on the right and Beacon Hill Park in the centre.

James Bay still boasts many charming turn of the century residences that have retained their original Victorian splendour.

 

James Bay Village is the hub of James Bay, with a grocery store, pharmacy, liquor store, hairdresser, coffee shops, banks, and other interesting shops.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everywhere you look there is beauty. Beautiful skies, beautiful sea, mountains, hills and several miles of rocky beach.

James Bay is one of more colourful areas of the city banked by Fisherman’s Wharf and the float home village which offers fresh “catch of the day” , an art gallery, food kiosks, Barb’s fish ‘n chips, kayaks, whale watching, fishing and much more.

The area is considered a “downtown” residential area with easy access to the causeway and Parliament Buildings.

———————————  OLD TOWN/CHINA TOWN ——————————————