A walk on the heritage side!

By Rita and Ted Button

One crispy sunny Friday afternoon, Ted and I checked out the James Bay Heritage Walking Tour #1, put together by the Victoria Heritage Foundation. Using the handy paper brochure, we followed the route - except not quite in the order identified. We began and ended our walk at the Five Corners intersection of James Bay Village, mostly because we wanted a coffee at the end of the walk.

We thoroughly enjoyed the route which took approximately an hour and drew our attention to houses we had passed many times, but, lacking knowledge, had been unable to see with any kind of appreciation. The brochure made us appreciate points of interest for certain houses, explaining what makes each unique. It's an outdoor architectural gallery! We enjoyed taking a more informed look at the houses provided by the brochure - just enough to entice us into a library or a book store where This Old House Volume 2 is available for added information. Some elements such as the fish fence on Government Street are beautiful, although not heritage. The sculpture in one of the yards let us know an artist lived inside. The curved glass in some of the heritage houses was also spectacular. And we loved the colours of many of the houses!

It was totally wheelchair accessible since many of the curbs had been upgraded from heritage status to contemporary status - very flat and practically seamless. Only two curbs presented a bit of a problem -the northwest corner of Simcoe and Government as well as the north corner of Young Street at the top of the hill. One heaved concrete block near 610 Avalon Road reminded us of the need to be careful -but those three were the only obstacles we found in our pleasant stroll around James Bay.

Both of us enjoyed the walk, in large part because of the added information provided by the Victoria Heritage Foundation whose James Bay Heritage Walking Tour #1 brochure added detail and understanding to the nature of the houses, along with the route we should take. If you'd like one of these helpful brochures, stop by any of the following places:

Tourist Information Centre on the Inner Harbour

Victoria City Hall on Douglas Street

Friends of the Library Kiosk in the alcove at the Public Library on Broughton

The plexiglass brochure rack at 609 Toronto Street.

Happy Walking!