Street/Place Names

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Click on any letter, above, to visit specific section of Street/Place Names



courtesy Royal BC Museum and Archives | H-03518 . . . .
Bowker Avenue and Cadboro Bay Road (1904)



B


Babbacombe
Origin unknown.
This short cul-de-sac once existed immediately north of the Victoria Golf Links east of Beach Drive
information welcomed

Barkley Terrace
Capt Barkley
Named after Captain Charles William Barkley, an early explorer in local waters (c. 1787).
Originally called Patricia Avenue, then Barkley Street

Bartlett Avenue
Named after Alfred T. Bartlett, a pioneer resident of Oak Bay.
information welcomed

Beach Avenue
Origin descriptive.
Former name of Broom Road , renamed in 1921 to avoid confusion with Beach Drive

Beach Drive
Origin descriptive.
So named after consolidating Dallas Road (from city boundary to Victoria Golf Course), Mt Baker Avenue (from golf course to Bowker Creek) and First Street (from Bowker Creek to Camas Lane) in 1921 and Shore Road (through the Uplands subdivision) in 1928

Beachway Avenue
Origin descriptive.
Former name of Cavendish Avenue, renamed in 1921

Beaver Street
Origin uncertain, possibly descriptive, or after HBC's Reverend Herbert Beaver, or after HBC's pioneering steamship SS Beaver
Former name of Beaverbrooke Street

Beaverbrooke Street
Origin uncertain, possibly after British press baron, Lord Beaverbrook — who in real life was Canadian, William Maxwell Aitken, who was granted a peerage in 1917. Beaverbrook was chosen after the name of a small community near his boyhood home in Ontario.
Originally called Beaver Street but changed at request of Victoria Postmaster

Bee Street
Origin unknown.
information welcomed

Beech Road
Early name of Dalhousie Street, before it was called Thistle Street

Bellevue Avenue
Origin probably descriptive, "beautiful view."
Former name of Beresford Place prior to 1921

Bell's Road
Origin descriptive, probably after early settler.
Original name of one-block section of Hampshire Road between Bowker and Cavendish Avenues prior to 1928
information welcomed

Beresford Place
Lord Beresford
Named after Admiral, Lord Charles Beresford, one-time First Lord of the Admiralty in Britain.
Originally called Bellevue Street, renamed in 1921

Bowker Avenue
Named after John Sylvester Bowker, an early Oak Bay pioneer and son-in-law of John Tod.
Called Oak Bay Road on a 1890 map, as it led to Bowker's "Oak Bay Farm"

Bowker Beach
Original name for Willows Beach, the foreshore of John Sylvester Bowker's waterfront property, Oak Bay Farm.

Bowker Place
Named after John Sylvester Bowker, an early Oak Bay pioneer and son-in-law of John Tod.
Street on which John Sylvester Bowker built his home.

Brighton Avenue
Brighton Beach
Origin uncertain, probably after Brighton, England.
So named after consolidating Cowan Avenue (in 1921) and Brighton Place (in 1939)
Click on NAMESAKE to learn namesake of BRIGHTON

Brighton Place
Former name on Brighton Avenue for one block between Oliver and St Patrick Streets prior to 1939

Broom Road
Origin unknown, probably descriptive after the plant.
Originally called Beach Avenue, renamed in 1921 to avoid confusion with Beach Drive

Burdick Avenue
Named after N.T. Burdick, an Oak Bay councillor and reeve for a short term in 1918. Burdick was a partner in Green & Burdick Bros. Real Estate
A municipal gravel pit once existed on Burdick Avenue (c 1922)

Burns Street
Named after Scottish poet Robert Burns.
Former name of Elgin Road, renamed in 1921

Byng Street
Named after Lord Byng of Vimy (WWI).
Originally called Oakland Road, renamed in 1921

Byron Street
Named after Lord George Gordon Byron, English poet.
Byron Street is one of many streets in the area named after English poets including Goldsmith, Milton and Chaucer

Nearby Elgin Road was originally called Burns Street, after Scottish poet Robert Burns


PLACE NAMES

Blueberry Hill (Anderson Hill)
Origin descriptive.
see Anderson Hill

Bowker Beach
Former name of Willows Beach. Named after John Sylvester Bowker, an early Oak Bay pioneer and son-in-law of John Tod.
Bowker Beach was the foreshore of Bowker's extensive waterfront property, Oak Bay Farm
see John Sylvester Bowker

Bowker Creek
Named after John Sylvester Bowker, an early Oak Bay pioneer and son-in-law of John Tod.
Called Tod's Stream prior to John Tod's death in 1882. Officially renamed Bowker Creek in 1934
see John Sylvester Bowker






The History of Oak Bay Website
A CENTENNIAL LEGACY PROJECT