Sidewalk Sleuthing
You might not know it, but the sidewalks we walk on tell a story. A story of who we were and who we are; about what was important and no longer is; and what we value now that we didn’t even think about in the past. Everyday we are walking on these stories, we are just usually too busy thinking about what’s going on with work that day or worse, having our eyes glued to our phones as we walk. It is rare that we pause to look at what is right by our feet and what it might tell us. Even I sometimes forget about it and then something on the ground catches my eye, maybe an old maintenance hole inscription or a different texture on the sidewalk.
This post is on some of my favourite pieces of sidewalk archaeology and whimsy that you can find along downtown Victoria streets. Some of them are there because of the way things were and others because of how we have changed. Some are just little reminders of projects long forgotten. If you have a favourite little piece of local history that you walk on each day, let us know about it in the comments so that I can go and have a look.
Sidewalk Skylights
Likely the one that is most recognized on this list are the sidewalk skylights that you can find all over downtown Victoria. A lot of local merchants and buildings used to have storage space under the sidewalks and those little pieces of glass allowed sunlight through them to the space below. These glass tiles have become so popular a feature that some projects have added fake ones, like those outside the Hudson Building on Fisgard Street. The one in this photo is on Broad Street where the sidewalks are being renovated as we speak.
Old Metal Sidewalk Guards
In an effort to protect sidewalks from being constantly eroded by the smash of heavy dollies, carriage wheels and merchandise being unloaded, some sidewalks used to have metal guards along their edge. You can catch sight of these in a lot of places in Old Town. I just recently noticed the one embedded in the sidewalk outside the old Victoria Plaza Hotel that would have been along the old alignment of Pandora Avenue. This space is planned to be redeveloped into a new public square, maybe there is some opportunity to highlight the little hidden piece of the old sidewalk hiding in plain sight.
Sidewalk Guard along Waddington Alley
Hidden Sidewalk Guard on Pandora Avenue
What Was There?
Sometimes we leave behind marks that outline where something was. Such is the case of the strange circular markings in Bastion Square where Illarion Gallant’s Commerce Canoe used to stand. I personally miss the feeling the sculpture brought to Bastion Square and think it was a mistake to move it, but there were a lot of mistakes made when it came to the new Johnson Street Bridge.
Another similar seeming mark on Yates Street indicates where a piece of art should have been. If you have read my now very old blog post on Broad Street, you will know that we only got about 60% of the improvement to Broad Street that was supposed to go in. One of the big cuts was public art pylons at key points along the three blocks. The most noticeable in its absence is the one here. I will touch on Broad Street more in a moment.
Former home of Commerce Canoe.
Where art that never was, was supposed to be on Broad Street.
Big Projects of The Past
The never-used bollard holder on Broad Street
It is hard to imagine that twenty years ago, many of our still very car-centric streets were even more car-centric. Since I have lived in Victoria the biggest changes to streets downtown before the bike lanes were the improvements to Douglas Street, Yates Street and Broad Street. Today many Victorians have only known those streets in their current form.
At the corner of Yates and Douglas you can see parts of the old granite sidewalk curbs of Douglas Street that have been turned into art.
Broad Street, as I stated above, got only part of what was supposed to go in, but it did become a much more friendly space for pedestrians and a space that you can feel very comfortable moving back and forth across. It was supposed to be even more friendly and frequently closed to cars completely. You can still some of the bollard holders that were supposed to used for special events. As far as I am aware they have never been used.
A further interesting side note to Broad Street are the very unusual street name plaques which contain portions of a poem written in morse code. The poem was meant to be written along the street but was considered too lascivious for our tender Victorian eyes and hidden away. You can read the poem here.
Old pieces of the sidewalk curb on Douglas Street
A naughty poem in morse code on Broad Street
Old Roads and New Paths
The way we move around the city changes all the time and that means covering over roads. There are also places where old roads are kept just to remind us of how we used to do things. Perhaps the most well known of these is Waddington Alley that is paved in wooden blocks. These were a substitute to the usual cobblestone you might have seen in cities less surrounded by trees. I have not ever been able to verify the urban legend that they used to pop out during extremely heavy rains due to expansion.
At one time Bastion Square was not the beautiful people place it is today, but instead an extension of View Street down to Wharf. When the square was put in quite a lot the ground height had to be raised to deal with this. You can see where some drains and even on one side some windows had to be partially covered to accommodate this new surface.
A recent hidden clue at the corner of Blanshard and Pandora shows our changing way of organising our streets. For a pedestrian, one of the more dangerous types of corner implementation is the right turn slip lane with a traffic island. There was one for many years here but with the addition of the bike lanes the slip lane had to go. You can still see where it was however. I hope they keep that little reminder of now “old-fashioned” traffic implementations.
Waddington Alley wooden block cobblestone
The ghost of a sliplane
Partially covered building vent.
Maintenance Covers
Maintenance covers are a pretty utilitarian piece of infrastructure, but because they are made to last a long time and they are not the cheapest thing to replace, you can find pretty old ones around the city. Perhaps my favourites are the ones that say “BCER”. You may not know it, but these are electric grid maintenance covers. Some of the newer ones will say BC Hydro. One of the initial entities that made up our current BC Hydro was the BC Electric Railway which operated the streetcar system in Victoria. I will admit it makes a little sad to see this still very clear reminder that we had an electric transit system in Victoria 100 years ago and don’t now. They are everywhere and once you see them, you won’t stop seeing them.
Changing History
I wrote a long piece on the bricks of Government Street about 6 years ago. You can read the whole piece here. As I walked the route again recently in thinking about this piece, I recognised how much my thought on it had changed over the last many years and I suspect that we won’t be adding too many more plaques to the route celebrating the addition of the fort. Still the bricks remain there and so do the many plaques for now. I know that as part of the beginning of the work on Government Street the first portion to be completed will be the Lekwungen Plaza right at Humboldt which is really a small start in decolonising the space which might be nearly impossible given the history along Government Street.
Definitely aren’t going to adding any more plaques like this one.
I would love to know if you have any little sidewalk secrets that make you smile when you walk past, please let me know in the comments!