On the Street Where You Live, Vol. 1: Pioneer Pathways of Early Victoria

Sidney Allinson is a Victoria-based communications consultant, Canadian
news correspondent for Britain’s The Army Quarterly and Defence, and
author of The Bantams: The Untold Story of World War I.

Most of us take street names for granted, yet as these two volumes show,
there is a story to be told about every street name. Both books are a
compilation of the author’s weekly column (“On the Street Where You
Live”) in the Times Colonist.

Part historian and part detective, Humphreys uses street names to
illuminate the city’s past. In Pioneer Pathways of Early Victoria, she
reveals how many of the names are linked to individual
people—settlers, eccentrics, innovators, and pioneers—and tells
their life stories and achievements with a wealth of detail. Among those
profiled are John Blanchard, Vancouver Island’s first governor; his
archrival James Douglas, the Hudson’s Bay agent who founded Fort
Victoria; and early lawmakers like the dreaded “Hanging Judge”
Matthew Baillie Begbie. Dozens of lesser-known folk are celebrated, such
as Jane Cheeseman who built the first hotel in Oak Bay, and Isabella
Ross, the first woman to own land in the settlement. The photographs
illustrate how people in Victoria looked, dressed, and lived a century
ago.

Victoria’s Early Roads and Railways describes the local structures
and transportation routes that were built. Both of these books will
encourage visitors and residents alike to look at their surroundings
with more than a passing glance.