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 | F-07457 . .. .

Newport Avenue (c 1910)
Note the tall wood fence around Oak Bay Park (Windsor Park)

	N
	Neil Street
	Origin unknown.
	Originally there were two sections separated by the Willows fairgrounds. The west section was a continuation of Neil Street in Saanich. The east section was an extension of Thompson Avenue west of Cadboro Bay Road. This one-block extension was renamed West Thompson Avenue in 1939. With the subdivision of the fairgrounds in 1953, Neil Street was pushed through and incorporated West Thompson Avenue
	Information welcomed
	Newport Avenue
	Origin unknown, possibly after Newport, England.
	courtesy Oak Bay Archives | 1994-001-061 Newport Avenue 1911 Click on image to view enlargement
	In 1891 the Oak Bay Land and Improvement Co. Ltd. proposed a grandiose scheme that included a grand hotel and a seaport at Oak Bay Beach to reduce travel time to Vancouver. The seaport never materialized, but Mt. Baker hotel was built. Perhaps Newport Avenue, built to service this new development, was optimistically named after this unrealized seaport
	Newton Street
	Origin unknown.
	Originally called Charlton Street but renamed in 1928 in deference to Newton Street in Saanich. With the subdivision of Willows Fairgrounds in 1953 this street was extended east to Eastdowne Road
	Information welcomed
	Norfolk Road
	Named after Norfolk, England.
	The Norfolk Road streetname is unique in Oak Bay on two counts. First, it is the only streetname to be assigned to two different Oak Bay streets concurrently and, second, it is the only streetname to be re-assigned to a new Oak Bay location
In Oak Bay's early years there were duplicate sets of numbered streets, like Third Street, but for the sake of discussion let's call these street numbers, not street names. Also, there once were two concurrent Deals, but one was Deal Street (south Oak Bay) and the other was Deal Road (the Uplands).
	see two following entries on Norfolk Road
	Norfolk Road (Uplands)
	Norfolk Road was originally a short street that radiated off Midland Circle to connect with Lincoln Road. When large, unsold lots were subdivided in the 1930s to create more marketable medium-size lots, Lincoln Road disappeared and two new streets were built to service these new lots: Exeter Road and an entirely new Norfolk Road. The original Norfolk Road became the southern section of Ripon Road
	Norfolk Road (Willows)
	Norfolk Road was a short access road off Cadboro Bay Road that led into Willows Fairgrounds in the 1920s. It was renamed Norwich Road in the 1930s and ultimately disappeared in the early 1950s with the creation of Woodhouse Road when the fairgrounds were subdivided
	Norwich Road
	Norwich Road was a short access road off Cadboro Bay Road that led into the Willows fairgrounds until it disappeared in the early 1950s with the creation of Woodhouse Road
Norwich Road was called Norfolk Road until the early 1930s.
	Nottingham Road
	Named after Nottingham, England.
	Originally called Somerset Road

PLACE NAMES

	Naze, The
	see The Naze
	Nottingham Woods
	"In the 1940s the area bordered by Nottingham Road, Lansdowne Road, Dewdney Avenue and Musgrave Street was known as "Nottingham Woods."  There was a small dairy farm on the site. Parallel to Dewdney was a row of large Chesnut trees. In the spring, when the chestnuts were green and spiky, we would pick them, sometimes throwing them at the cows which would cause them to stampede. In the middle of the property was an old overgrown orchard of what we called "Cherry Plum " trees. They were larger than cherries but smaller than plums and were mostly yellow with a bit of red on the skin. They were DELICIOUS! We could climb the trees easily and find a comfortable perch to gorge ourselves on the fruit. At some point in the late '50s the area was subdivided and Dorset, Devon, and Dover Roads were built." — Terry Murphy, OBHS class of 1958

The History of Oak Bay Website
A CENTENNIAL LEGACY PROJECT