Oak Bay Street Names and Place Names

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-07730 . . . .

Roslyn Street (c1920s)

Radcliffe Lane

Origin unknown.

Originally called Island View Lane but changed to Bold Point Lane ¹ in 1928


	¹ McMicking Point was originally called Bold Point

Information welcomed

Rattenbury Place

Named after Oak Bay resident, F.M. Rattenbury, preeminent architect (Parliament Buildings/Empress Hotel) and Oak Bay councillor and reeve (1913).

see Rattenbury's Beach, Francis Mawson Rattenbury

Redwood Avenue

Origin unknown.

Named by the Hudson's Bay Company

Renfrew Road

Origin unknown, possibly after Renfrew, England, or Renfrew, Scotland.

Named by the Hudson's Bay Company

Repulse Street

Probably named after HMS Repulse, a Renown-class battlecruiser in the Royal Navy that served in both World Wars.


	Nearby Marne Street makes reference to the famous Battles of the Marne of World War I.

Ripon Road

Origin uncertain, possibly after Ripon, England, or after Captain Ripon of the C.P.R. Coast Steamship service.

Originally called York Road but renamed in 1928

Robert Street

Origin unknown.

Former name of Allenby Street, west of Henderson Road, but renamed in 1928

Information welcomed

Rosario Street

Named after Rosario Strait, after Gran Canal de Nuestra Señora del Rosario la Marinera, the original Spanish name for the Strait of Georgia.

Originally called Walter Street, then Haro Street until renamed Rosario Street c1928

Click on THE TALK ON THE STREET to enjoy the recollections of Stewart Rae

Rosario Strait and Haro Strait both run through the Gulf Islands and connect the Strait of Juan de Fuca with the Strait of Georgia. Haro Strait runs north of the San Juan Islands, and Rosario Strait runs to the south. The Oregon Treaty of 1846 established the international boundary between Canada and the United States at the 49th parallel west of the Rockies to the sea. But what was not clearly established at the time was the international boundary through the Gulf Islands, and this turned into an international dispute in 1859 known as the Pig War. After one dead pig and many years of military confrontations between the British and the Americans, the dispute was finally arbitrated by Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany in 1872 in favour of the more-northerly Haro Strait, thereby giving the United States possession of the San Juan Islands. Why Oak Bay decided to change the street name from Haro (the International strait) to Rosario (the American strait) is uncertain, possibly because it was felt that Haro namesake, Spanish navigator Gonzalez Lopez de Haro, had already received enough local recognittion with Gonzales Point, Gonzales Hill and Lopez Island.

Roslyn Road

Origin unknown.

Oak Bay Archives | 1994-001-027