Description of Historic Place

The Victoria Gas Company is a small brick industrial building located in the Rock Bay complex near Victoria's Old Town District. It is characterized by its pitched-gable roof, detailed brickwork, and for having one and one-half storeys at street level, and two storeys at its rear facade.

Heritage Value

The Victoria Gas Company is of value to the heritage of the City of Victoria because it illustrates the infrastructure needs of the developing city as it grew from a Hudson's Bay Company fort to a booming modern supply town in the late nineteenth century. This circa 1888 building was the office-warehouse of the first company to supply Victoria with coal gas, a modern source of heat and light at that time. One of the few remaining industrial buildings of this era located within the commercial downtown, its location along the shoreline of the Upper Harbour and its juxtaposition with the 1860 Victoria Gas Company Works to the east and the 1892 National Tramway and Light Company to the northwest are integral to its historic character. The Victoria Gas Company is a valued component of this collection of industrial buildings known as the Rock Bay complex, which set the scene for subsequent industrial use along the Upper Harbour shoreline.

Architecturally, the Victoria Gas Company building is valued as a good example of late nineteenth century industrial architecture. Its utilitarian form, accentuated by decorative brickwork, is evocative of the preferred vernacular industrial idiom at the time of its construction, and reflects the importance of industry and public works within the growing City.

Source: City of Victoria Planning and Development Dept.

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Victoria Gas Company include:
- Its location in the Upper Harbour area, on the shoreline of Rock Bay.
- Its position within the Rock Bay complex, and its contiguous relationships to the Victoria Gas Company Works and the National Electric Tramway and Light Company buildings nearby.
- Its pitched-gable roof form, and unique massing characterized by having one and one-half storeys at street level, and two storeys at the rear.
- Its four brick exterior walls, accentuated by corbelling and pilaster detailing.
- The integrity of the circa 1888 building envelope, and the construction methods and materials used to carry out its original design.
- Slightly arched window openings on all four facades.
- Interior elements which support the heritage character of its original design and use as an industrial building.
- The patina of its history of industrial use.