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Many people come to Victoria to have high tea at the Empress Hotel (below), but at $40 a head I would much rather save my money and spend some time walking through the city's historic Chinatown and Market Square area. Although on a recent trip with my family I ended up having to spend $40 to replace the CDs stolen from my wife's car, I was able to capture some of the highlights of this walk through one of Victoria's oldest - and funkiest - districts.
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Old Town The buildings in the Chinatown and Market Square area were built in the 1880s and 1890s when Victoria experienced its first major economic boom, and form what is now referred to as "old town." Victoria was the hub where lumber, coal, sealskins, and salmon from the rest of Vancouver Island were shipped to world markets, and as a commercial centre the city was home to shipyards, chandleries, foundries, opium manufacturing houses, and a large sealing fleet that generated three million dollars between 1881 and 1891, when seal hunting ended. With its hotels, saloons, and shops, old town was the area where sailors, miners, and merchants stayed and played.
Fan Tan Alley Behind the storefronts of Chinatown are two historic alleys: one a labyrinthine group of buildings and dwellings known as Dragon Alley, and the other a long corridor of old shops known as Fan Tan Alley. Although Dragon Alley once provided housing for Chinese merchant families and tenement dwellings for single workers, there really isn't much of interest here today except for a plaque showing the original maze of alleyways (2) and some old weathered walls (3). For better or for worse, the brothel that was once here closed a long time ago.
On the other hand, Fan Tan Alley still features a collection of interesting shops in the original store fronts, and if you make your way into Chinatown through the Gates of Harmonious Interest (1) and down Fisgard Street to the Fantan Cafe (5), you have found the entrance to this historic alley. The Don Mee Szechuan Restaurant (4) is a bit further along on the other side of the street. Walking into Fan Tan Alley, you might have an opportunity to glimpse into the kitchen of the Fantan Cafe, where I caught this gentleman up to his elbow in ground pork (6). Looking down the alley (7) you can see signs for the various novelty and import shops (8-10), including a record shop with an incredible selection of psychedelic-era posters for sale, and Dragon Song Music (11), where you can pick up anything from bongos to balalaikas, and steel drums to sitars.
Market Square Leaving Fan Tan Alley (12) brings you to Pandora Avenue, one of the four streets that make up the old Market Square area. Almost directly across the street is Old Town Strings (13), the place to go if you are interested in more conventional traditional music, and are looking for a good selection of new and vintage guitars, banjos, mandolins, or violins. Just down from Old Town Strings, and accessible from either Pandora Avenue or from the courtyard of Market Square (16), is a beautiful furniture shop called New England Square (14-15), which specializes in reproduction and antique furniture from the 1700s and 1800s. Proprietors Michael and Shirley McBride have an eye for quality, and even if Colonial or Shaker do not fit your personal style (or are beyond your budget), the store is a welcome reminder that good craftsmanship does not have to be a thing of the past.
If you walk through Market Square and exit onto Johnson Street, there are some fine old buildings to see that now house various funky boutiques (17). Walking westward will bring you to Store Street for more shopping, and if you walk northward from here, back to Pandora Avenue, you might consider stopping for a beer at Swans Suite Hotel & Brewpub (18). Inside the restaurant, which offers a variety of lagers and ales brewed exclusively for Swans, there is an excellent collection of historic and contemporary Northwest Coast native art, including a Chilkat blanket (19) woven in the late-1800s at Klukwan, Alaska, and a stunning Tlingit-style panel carved by John Livingston (20).
Royal British Columbia Museum (RBCM) Well worth a visit, the RBCM has an excellent collection of historic artifacts, including this original Edison wax cylinder player (21), that are presented creatively enough to keep most people's attention for a good couple of hours. Although I never quite get the sense of actually being there from historic recreations, the RBCM has a fantastic group of galleries that branch off from a rebuilt "main street" from the late 1800s (22), including an apothecary (23), an old music room (24), and a theatre where you can sit down and watch an old silent film (25-26).
Dave Harris Victoria, like most tourism-oriented cities, has its share of buskers, and it is always a good thing to stop, listen, and toss a few coins in support of live music. In the evenings you might be lucky enough to catch Dave Harris (27), a bonafide one-man-band and serious blues enthusiast. With a good half-dozen self-produced CDs under his belt, Dave's own brand of folk blues had my two year-old dancing until he fell flat on his face. I've never seen anyone blow harp and play violin in harmony at the same time.
GB
