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Lək̓ʷəŋən history, says Cherise 
Greenfield Gaunt, general manager 
of Songhees Tours, an Indigenous-
owned and operated company that 
conducts cultural walking and canoe 
tours within Victoria’s Inner Harbour.
“Through the canoe and walking 
tours, we focus on the understanding 
of what it means to be a guest 
on Lək̓ʷəŋən territory,” she says. 
“This includes teachings about 
Lekwungen history, land-based 
knowledge, and the impacts of 
colonization — and share moments 
of connection, humor, and hope.”
Colorful Colonial History
After the first European settlers 
arrived in the mid 1800s, they were 
soon followed by immigrants of 
Chinese ancestry who came to Victoria 
during the 1858 Fraser River Gold Rush 
to establish Canada’s first Chinatown. 
The 1858 gold rush also brought an 
influx of freed Black settlers from 
California, at the invitation of the then 
British colony’s governor of the day, 
James Douglas, often called the Father 
of British Columbia.
Subsequent waves of early 
newcomers came from other 
distant lands. A statue on the David 
Foster Harbour Walkway, about 
a one-minute walk west of the 
temporary Clipper terminal at the 
Steamship Building on Victoria’s 
Inner Harbour, commemorates the 
first Lebanese arrivals to the city in 
the 1880s. Immigrants also came 
from Japan, India, Latin America, 
the Middle East and Africa — as well 
as from all over Europe.
As a result, Victoria in 2026 is 
much more cosmopolitan than its 
longstanding reputation as “a bit 
of Olde England” would suggest. 
Nevertheless, about 70 percent of 
Greater Victorians still trace their 
ancestry back to Britain. People of 
Chinese and Indigenous ancestry 
each make up about five percent of 
the population, according to 2021 
Canadian Census data.
“Victoria definitely, is still probably 
the most English city on the coast,” 
Hallsor says. “But we also are a lot 
more ethnically diverse than we used 
to be 30 years ago.”
Signs of Olde England  
and Spain
Visitors to Victoria can encounter 
plenty of signs of its British heritage 
and multiculturalism on foot within 
a mile of the Clipper terminal. 
Downtown is quite flat and walkable 
and conducive to cycling.
Dozens of examples of public art 
are within a 15-minute walk of the 
Steamship Terminal.
Just three minutes away to 
the west, on the opposite side of 
Belmont Street, is Quadra Park. It 
features a bust of Juan Francisco de 
la Bogeda y Quadra, a Peruvian sea 
captain who sailed nearby waters for 
Spain in the 1790s.
Quadra circumnavigated 
Vancouver Island around the same 
time as British explorer George 
Vancouver did. For a few years, the 
island was named to honor both 
men. But as the Spanish presence 
in the region diminished, Quadra’s 
name was dropped. That explains 
why Vancouver has the golden 
statue atop the Parliament buildings 
while Quadra just gets a bust.
City Fit for a Queen
In front of the Parliament 
Buildings, where B.C.’s provincial 
legislature convenes, is a statue 
of Queen Victoria, who reigned 
from 1837 to 1901. The Parliament 
Buildings have long reigned as 
Victoria’s most iconic symbol, and 
are one of signature works of the 
city’s most revered and colorful 
architect, Francis Rattenbury.
“We were named in her honor, 
and we were an important strategic 
location for the British Empire and 
for the Royal Navy on the Pacific 
coast,” says DVBA president Bruce 
Hallsor, who is also a member of the 
Monarchist League of Canada.
The Pacific Fleet of the Royal 
Canadian Navy is still stationed at 
Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt 
six kilometres west of downtown 
Victoria.
Queen Victoria herself never 
visited her namesake city. But her 
great-great granddaughter Elizabeth 
II visited Victoria several times. The 
first member of the Royal Family 
to call on Victoria was Edward 
the Prince of Wales, who laid the 
foundation stone for Victoria’s 
statue in 1919. After becoming 
King Edward VIII, he famously, 
and scandalously, abdicated the 
throne after less than in a year in 
December 1936.
Decades later, in 2019, another 
prominent royal, Prince Harry, his 
wife Meghan Markle and their infant 
son Archie spent six weeks at a 
country estate outside of Victoria 
shortly before Harry’s high-profile 
split with the Royal Family.
“The monarchy has been an 
important part of Victoria’s history 
and Canada’s history,” Hallsor says. 
“It’s helped to keep us as a distinct 
nation in North America.” 
A likeness of Peruvian explorer Juan Francisco 
de la Bogeda y Quadra adorns Quadra Park on 
Belleville Street. (Keith Norbury)
Statue of the city’s namesake, Queen Victoria, 
occupies a prominent location in front of the 
Parliament Buildings. (Destination Greater Victoria)

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