…Government Street

Government Street is another main street in Victoria that runs from Dallas Road (see “D is for…Dallas Road”) to Hillside here it merges with Douglas (Douglas is, essentially, the Trans Canada Highway and runs up island through some very beautiful countryside and various cities/communities). As far as I can tell, Government Street has been around since the very early days of Victoria, and you can still see many of the original buildings proudly preserved as a part of Victoria’s heritage.

Some interesting notes about Government Street in James Bay and downtown Victoria

• Government Street in James Bay used to be Carr Street (see my E is for Emily Carr House post) and Birdcage Walk (I’ll talk more about the “birdcages” in my post on the Legislature).
• Lined with local, touristy, and national chain shops (as well as a mall), Government Street is tourist-central during the “Season”.  Really.  Wall to wall people wandering all summer long.
• Related to the point above, there has been talk recently about making part of Government Street a pedestrian mall. Since people (meaning tourists) walk down it and across it without looking to see if any cars are actually driving on the street on a fairly regular basis, this would seem to make sense.
• Government Street is where the annual Santa Clause parade takes place. It is also shut down (or parts of it anyway) for various celebrations during the year, such as Canada Day (http://victoriacanadaday.ca/) and Victoria Day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Day) , as well as for the TC 10K (http://www.tc10k.ca/) run and the GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon (http://www.runvictoriamarathon.com/) . Don’t come on those days if you don’t like crowds!

Many of the landmarks I will be (and have already been) featuring for this Challenge are on Government Street. Like, the Emily Carr House (https://www.emilycarr.com/) , the Royal BC Museum (http://royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/) , the BC Legislature (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Columbia_Parliament_Buildings) , the Empress Hotel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Empress_%28hotel%29) , and the Inner Harbour (http://www.victoriaharbour.org/victoriasharbour.php).

Well, that’s it for my post for today. I did not walk the length of Government Street to take pictures, but I am sure Google can take you on a tour!

Some Pics

The end of Government Street at Dallas Road

Enjoy a carriage ride along Government Street…if you dare!

Interesting Websites

• Government Street at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Street_%28Victoria,_British_Columbia%29
• Government Street Shopping: http://www.victoriabc.ca/victoria/government_street.htm
• Heritage Buildings on Government Street: http://victoriahistory.ca/property.php?fun=search&sname=Government%20Street&order=Street&page=0&limit=50
• Government Street at the Chinatown Library: http://chinatown.library.uvic.ca/government_street