Glorious Victorians

By Fnu Lnu
James Bay author and researcher Nick Russell has produced a new book which features Victoria with more than 300 full-colour pictures.

Glorious Victorians: 150 Years/150 Houses has the sub-title, Celebrating Residential Architecture in British Columbia's Capital.

Curiously, Russell doesn't include his own heritage home on Toronto Street.

"Our house is unique in Victoria, a wood-frame bungalow in the Second Empire style," he told the JB Beacon, "but it was raised for a basement, so it's lost some of its original integrity. Although it's designated, and we've won several heritage awards for our restoration, it still doesn't measure up to the standard I wanted for the book, GLORIOUS Victorians."

However, the book features and describes some 40 houses in James Bay. Russell also speaks warmly of the importance of streetscapes, notably South Turner, Avalon, Lewis, and Medana. But he's concerned that few streetscapes are actually protected; a developer can knock down a pretty old house in the middle of an attractive street and compromise the whole street.

"Sure, everyone's home is her castle," he says. "But don't we also have a responsibility to our neighbours? And if we compromise a charming streetscape, one that visitors love to walk down, don't we also compromise tourism, Victoria's lifeblood?"

Glorious Victorians has a section on what Russell calls "The Carr Compound," the cluster of houses which the Carr sisters developed on their father's estate, focussed on the Richard Carr House. They are, of course, 207 Government, 642 and 646 Simcoe, 231 St Andrews, and 218and 220 St Andrews.

The book shows how Victoria's booms and busts have influenced architecture, and how styles evolved from the first log cabins, through many imported architectural styles, to the home-grown architecture of such award-winning designers as John Di Castri. Did you know there are still two log cabins in James Bay?

Russell looks briefly at the many fine homes that have been lost over the years, and then looks forward to the future. "What are we leaving for the next generation?" he wonders. "There are virtually no empty building lots left on the James Bay peninsula, and most of the community is zoned duplex. That means that anyone who wants to build a new house, or any developer, is virtually encouraged to demolish an old house first. That makes every home that isn't actually designated heritage vulnerable."

Russell suggests there are many ways of judging a building to see if it is "glorious." "It's not just about it's being big or old. It's also about the design, the style, the architect, the site, the history of the house," he said.

He ends the book by nominating some recent buildings that our grand-children may value as "future heritage."

Glorious Victorians will be available at all good bookstores in time for Christmas, at $34.95.