Victoria West, Greater Victoria

Victoria West, commonly called Vic West, is an historic neighbourhood of the city of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, located just west of downtown across Victoria Harbour, bordering on the Township of Esquimalt.

When the Hudson's Bay Company arrived in Victoria in 1842 to establish Fort Victoria, the neighbourhood now known as Victoria West was the site of a village of the Songhees, the aboriginal people of the Victoria area. The Songhees called the Gorge waterway Camossung, named for a girl who turned to stone at the Gorge tidal rapids. Songhees longhouses once extended from Songhees Point to beyond the present day Johnson Street Bridge. The Songhees people were relocated in 1911 to permit industrial development of Victoria West.

Much of the residential and early commercial development of Victoria West occurred in the 1890s up until 1913. Residential development was facilitated by the arrival of streetcar service in 1890. While a few expensive homes were located in the neighbourhood, particularly in the area of the Gorge waterway, much of the development in the area was for working-class families. The Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway line passes through Victoria West, and the roundhouse was located in the neighbourhood. In addition, at one time there were as many as seven shipbuilding companies in the area.

The largest and grandest of the homes built along the Vic West shore of the Gorge was Burleith, the residence built in 1892 by James Dunsmuir, son of Robert Dunsmuir and set among 20 acres (8.1 ha) of lawns and gardens. While Burleith has been demolished, Roslyn, another smaller grand home remains on Catherine Street. Built in 1890 in the Queen Anne style for Andrew Gray, manager of the Albion Iron Works, Roslyn made an appearance in the movies when actor Bruce Dern leapt from an upstairs balcony.

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