184 replies to this topic

[VicHockeyFan]

We got to talking on Facebook about cool, interesting, strange and quirky street names around here.

People really picked some great ones, most I'd heard of, but having them all together in one plcae was neat.

Contributed:

Jennifer Rd ♥
Milton, Chaucer and Byron!
Whiffen Spit
Hoffman
Scott
Rainbow !
Camrose Crescent!
Princess street
Foul Bay
Goldstream Ave
Fairfield
bakery mews
Earl Grey
Savannah Ave.
Coronation Street
McAnally Rd.
Woodhaven Terrace or Mystic Lane.
Fort st

Wychbury
Besbera
Jackson
Hollywood
Quadra
Happy Valley Rd
Dingley Dell
Roslyn Road
Cotoneaster.
MONTEREY
Runnymede
Somass
Boleskine
Humboldt.
Long Gun Place
Faithful Street. It must be horrible coming home to your house if you live on that street...and you're having an affair.
Derby rd!
Moss street!!
Douglas
Burnsiiiiiiiiiiiiide.
Blenkinsop!
Purdy's Burn
The Rise (Victoria)
Abbey Rd. (Saanich)

Oliphant, Quamichan, Blenkinsop, Asquith, Linkleas...
Linden
Lavender, Violet, and Tulip

Bob Law
Beach Drive

[VicHockeyFan]

Empress!
Tillicum lol
Dunelm wynd
Rock bay
Pandora!
BERWICK
Somerset
Mars - I always wanted to be stopped by the police and they would ask where I lived and I could answer, "Up on Mars!!!!"
Fan Tan Alley
Pandora, Johnson, and you can't forget Cook!
lotbinere
Linden
stamboule st and shotbolt st
Christie street of course
Powell
Blenkinsop.
Isbister St
Warren Gardens ( Fairfield)
1 Qu'appelle
Tyeeeee!
Vanalman.
Vanalman, just because one day I drove by that particular exit.. with the V spray painted out.
Rainbow Road
Esquimalt Rd
Belcher ave in oak bay.
Adanac.
High street!
caledonia
Fernwood represeeeeent
Vanalman! It always makes me giggle!
JOHNSON!
Christmas Avenue!
Tolmie
Dingley Dell
Haro rd
Cook St

[Langford Rat]

Years ago, when we were house hunting in East Sooke we viewed a place on Timberdoodle Rd. The house was nice but, somehow I just couldn't see myself living on a street called Timberdoodle.

[Holden West]

This is my favourite. Vancouverites will appreciate it:

http://maps.google.c...81,,1,4.94&z=16

[VicHockeyFan]

^ Yes, classic.

[Kikadee]

I'm with Vanalman. Tell me we don't all read it as "vaynal man," and titter to ourselves; when someone painted over the v, I felt less alone in my frat-boy mentality.

The man after whom the street is named spelled it "Van Alman," and I have to wonder what brilliant mind decided to put it on the sign any differently.

I also like the street called Harbinger, which I cannot pass without adding ".... of doom!"

[VicHockeyFan]

The man after whom the street is named spelled it "Van Alman," and I have to wonder what brilliant mind decided to put it on the sign any differently.

It may be that street names were most commonly one word (plus the suffix Ave., St., Blvd., etc.) back then. So Van Alman St. would seem strange.

That leads me to wonder how The Rise got such a strange name. Are there any other "rises" in the city? And then also Purdy's Burn, which is a much newer street. Out in Saanich there is Strom Ness Pl. and I can't find any place named Strom Ness as two separate words, but does come perhaps from the Norse Straumsnes

Veyaness is named for the Victoria & Sidney Railway that ran along its route. V & S for short. Strange how they came up with the spelling.

[http]

[ snip ] That leads me to wonder how The Rise got such a strange name. Are there any other "rises" in the city? [ snip ]

Try riding your bike to it or on it. It becomes clear.

[VicHockeyFan]

Try riding your bike to it or on it. It becomes clear.

I understand that.

But was it an un-named street, or alley, and people just called it "the rise" until someone said they better actually name it officially?

[VicHockeyFan]

Someone in another thread was asking about James Bay St. names named after Eastern Canada cities and lakes, provinces.

Then it got me thinking, what are we missing around here for street names, cities and provinces?

Missing provinces:

Alberta
Manitoba
Saskatchewan
PEI
Newfoundland

We have a Brunswick, no New
We have Scotia, no Nova
We have a Yukon, no other territories.
We have a Columbia, no British

Missing cities:

Edmonton
Calgary
Ottawa
Winnipeg
Hamilton
Kitchener
London (we have a Londonderry - I know, unrelated)

And for lakes, "Great Slave" would be an awesome name for a street here.

[Nparker]

...And for lakes, "Great Slave" would be an awesome name for a street here.

Perhaps somewhere in the Rock Bay area, near John Street, on the hooker stroll.

[Mike K.]

...and somehow we ended up with a Dallas Road?

What gives?

[VicHockeyFan]

Dallas was a Hudson's Bay Co. guy. http://www.biographi...hp?&id_nbr=5461

How about some worldwide city names, that'd be cool.

A subdivision with classic movie titles would be cool.

[Mike K.]

Westhills in Langford seems to have an aviation theme and a water theme for the road names in the first phases of the project.

Sikorsky Road and Antonov Lane refer to Russian-built aircraft; Dornier Road, Arado Court and Grob Place refer to German aircraft manufacturers; and Alouette Drive refers to a French aircraft manufacturer.

Artesian Court, Waterview Crescent, Clearview Place (ok, maybe not that one) and Langford Lake Road all have to do with H2O.

[AllseeingEye]

In 1972 when I was 12 we moved from Cedar Hill Road - a perfectly fine name for a road - to "Nancy Hanks" near UVic on the border of Saanich and Oak Bay. Do you have any idea of the trauma of being 12 and telling people - especially girls - that you lived on Nancy Hanks?!

For the record the story of that and many of the street names in the area, including Palo Alto, Kisber, Christmas etc., is that supposedly Horner Park was utilized occasionally as a race track near the turn of the 20th century and the streets were named after horses that were either stabled there or ran at the track. I was never able to verify that but....."NANCY HANKS" left a scar that remained for years. My happiest day was when I moved to Vancouver in 1987 to go to UBC and my new address was the very safe sounding 10th Avenue......

[VicHockeyFan]

Sikorsky Road and Antonov Lane refer to Russian-built aircraft;

Sikorsky was a Ukranian immigrant to the US. The company has always been American.

[Baro]

But the man was russian built!

[Mike K.]

Ah, so it was.

[VicHockeyFan]

But the man was russian built!

[Holden West]

Then there's Shakespeare street, named after the Victoria mayor, not the English bard. Although there are a lot of poet streets: Byron, Shelley, Milton, Chaucer etc.