Description of Historic Place

1316-18 Wharf Street is a nineteenth-century vernacular stone commercial warehouse located within Victoria's Inner Harbour Precinct. It sits on a sloping bank between Wharf Street and the Inner Harbour waterway; it has one storey at street level and two storeys facing the water.

Heritage Value

1316-18 Wharf Street is valued as an important part of Victoria's early commercial waterfront. It provides insight into the continuum of commercial use of the Inner Harbour, and contributes significantly to the historic commercial streetscape comprised of other early warehouses and commercial buildings nearby. As one of the first buildings constructed on the waterfront side of Wharf Street, this nineteenth-century warehouse illustrates the early harbour-based commerce which dictated the development of the land along the shore, and fueled the growth of the city.
Architecturally, 1316-18 Wharf Street is a very good example of a utilitarian, vernacular style stone commercial warehouse dating to circa 1860. As one of the few commercial buildings of this type in Victoria, its heritage value lies in its stone construction, its waterfront situation, and in particular its waterfront facade, which contributes to the diversity of the city's historic shoreline as viewed from the Inner Harbour waterway.

Source: City of Victoria Planning & Development Department

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of 1316-1318 Wharf Street include:
- the character of the nineteenth century vernacular architecture of the building, as seen in such elements as the western roofline and building materials.
- the unobstructed views between the building and the water.
- the relationship between the building and the waterfront.
- the appearance of the building as a free-standing structure, as seen from the water and the street.
- the modest scale of the building, with one storey at street level, and two storeys facing the water.
- the historic fenestration pattern on the waterfront facade.
- the commercial use of the building.
- the character of the nineteenth-century stonework, as seen in such elements as the random rubble bearing walls, carefully dressed quoins, and granite lintels.
- the contiguous relationship between this building and the building at 1314 Wharf Street.