Every neighbourhood in Victoria
The City of Victoria divides itself into 12 neighbourhoods across 19.5 square kilometres: small enough that most of them are a walk from the next one, and small enough that the municipal boundary matters more than the neighbourhood boundary does. This is a guide to the city one neighbourhood at a time, filterable by quarter below.
Where to start looking in Victoria
Most people arrive with one constraint rather than a map. Each line below names one, one place to begin, and the figure behind it, which comes from the guide the line points at.
- The lowest price of entry. North Park, at a median residential assessment of $466,500 on the 2026 roll against $1,433,000 in Rockland. It has 85 single-detached houses in the whole neighbourhood, so what you are buying is an apartment.
- The cheapest rent. Burnside Gorge, at a median rent paid of $1,190 in 2021. It also has the city's highest share of tenants spending 30% or more of income on shelter, at 40%.
- To commute without a car. Downtown, where 41% of employed residents walk to work.
- A detached house and a yard. Oaklands has 990 single-detached houses out of 3,310 dwellings, and no building over four storeys.
- To be on the harbour. Victoria West, where 1,875 dwellings sit in buildings of five storeys or more, almost all of them Songhees.
- The oldest housing stock. Gonzales, 66% of it built in 1960 or earlier. The oldest neighbourhood is James Bay, but half its dwellings went up between 1961 and 1980.
Browse dedicated guides for Harbour, North, Central, South.
12 communities across the city
Every neighbourhood the City draws a boundary around, from the 1850s townsite on the harbour to the last of the post-war grids in the north. Filter by quarter, then page through the rest.
Burnside Gorge
The city's industrial back-of-house turned rental district. Rock Bay, the Gorge waterway and the Selkirk trestle, with the third lowest median assessment in Victoria and the most redevelopment still ahead of it.
Downtown
The Inner Harbour, Old Town, Chinatown and Harris Green: 5,700 homes above the shops, and the only part of Victoria where a car is genuinely optional.
Fairfield
Edwardian houses, Cook Street Village and Beacon Hill Park, running from the edge of downtown to the Dallas Road cliffs.
Fernwood
The Belfry Theatre, the Fernwood Inn and a square of 1900s houses around them. The neighbourhood that bought its own commercial block rather than watch it be sold.
Gonzales
The highest household incomes in the city: large lots above Ross Bay with a beach at the bottom of the hill and Oak Bay over the fence.
Hillside-Quadra
Quadra Street, the Hillside mall and Summit Park's Garry oaks. The middle of the city, and its most straightforwardly affordable house stock.
James Bay
The oldest residential neighbourhood on the West Coast north of San Francisco. The Legislature, Fisherman's Wharf, the Ogden Point breakwater and 13,000 people on a peninsula.
Jubilee
The hospital neighbourhood: Royal Jubilee, the west end of Oak Bay Avenue, and a grid of pre-war bungalows between them.
North Park
The smallest neighbourhood in the city and the least expensive. Royal Athletic Park, the Save-On-Foods arena, and Quadra Village at the top of it.
Oaklands
Hillside, Haultain Corner and 990 detached houses with nothing above four storeys, on Victoria's last big grid of family houses.
Rockland
Craigdarroch Castle, Government House and the consulates. The estate district, long since subdivided into apartments but still reading as one.
Victoria West
Across the blue bridge: Songhees towers on the harbour, Railyards townhouses on the Gorge, and a village core wedged between them.
Photographs: The boardwalk near the Burnside Gorge by Doktor Ellis, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons · CIBC Building, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada by Michal Klajban, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons · Two houses on a Fairfield street by Brian Burger from Victoria, Canada, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons · Victoria High School by Architectsea, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons · Sunset over Gonzales Bay by AdrienneRockwell, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons · Peacock Hill Park trail by John Newcomb, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons · The Legislative Annex, James Bay by Brian Burger from Victoria, Canada, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons · Mount Doug from Jubilee Roof by Kiwibirdman, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons · The Victoria Public Market, North Park by Jen Arrr, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons · Oak tree mosaic at the Oaklands park entrance by VicKassie21, CC0, Wikimedia Commons · Craigdarroch Castle by Steven Pavlov, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons · Esquimalt Road and Tyee Road junction, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada by sergfokin, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
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Showing 1–12 of 12 communities
The four quarters at a glance
Nineteen and a half square kilometres is small. You can cross the whole city on a bicycle in half an hour, but the housing stock, the median assessment and the share of renters swing further between these neighbourhoods than the distances suggest.
| Quarter | Neighbourhoods | Character |
|---|---|---|
| Harbour | Downtown, James Bay, Victoria West | The three that face the water: Downtown and its Old Town, James Bay on the peninsula below the Legislature, and Victoria West across the blue bridge. |
| North | Burnside Gorge, Hillside-Quadra, Oaklands | North of Bay Street: Burnside Gorge's rental blocks and light industry, Hillside-Quadra's middle-of-the-city house stock, and Oaklands' family grid. |
| Central | Fernwood, Jubilee, North Park | The inland belt between downtown and Oak Bay: North Park, Fernwood and Jubilee, three walkable villages with almost no through traffic. |
| South | Fairfield, Gonzales, Rockland | The Juan de Fuca shore and the hill above it: Fairfield's Edwardians, Gonzales' big lots over Ross Bay, and Rockland's estate district. |
The neighbourhoods are official; the quarters are ours. The City of Victoria publishes the twelve neighbourhood boundaries and nothing above them: there is no local equivalent of Calgary's quadrants or Vancouver's West and East Sides. The grouping into Harbour, North, Central and South is an editorial convenience for browsing, not a name anyone in Victoria uses. Note too that the City's boundary file treats Harris Green as part of Downtown, which is why there are twelve rather than the thirteen the neighbourhood associations count.