Gordon Head is a seaside neighbourhood in the municipality of Saanich in

Greater Victoria Greater Victoria (also known as the Greater Victoria Region) is located in British Columbia, Canada, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. It is usually defined as the thirteen municipalities of the Capital Regional District (CRD) ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Gordon Head lies north of McKenzie Avenue and east of the Blenkinsop Valley. The

University of Victoria The University of Victoria (UVic or Victoria) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. The university traces its roots to Victoria College, the first post-secondary instit ...

is located partly within Gordon Head along the southeast boundary. Finnerty Road separates Gordon Head from the adjacent neighbourhood of

Cadboro Bay Cadboro Bay is a bay near the southern tip of Vancouver Island and its adjacent neighbourhood in the municipalities of Saanich and Oak Bay in Greater Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Cadboro Bay was the site of Sungayka, a village of the Song ...

. The local area is dominated physically by Mount Douglas (

SENĆOŦEN Saanich (also Sənčáθən, written as in Saanich orthography and pronounced ) is the language of the First Nations Saanich people in the Pacific Northwest region of northwestern North America. Saanich is a Coast Salishan language in the North ...

: PKOLS), a coastline along Haro Strait, and the central plateau.

History

For 4,000 years the

Songhees The Lekwungen or Lekungen nation (lək̓ʷəŋən often called the Songhees or Songish by non-Lekwungens) are an Indigenous North American Coast Salish people who reside on southeastern Vancouver Island, British Columbia in the Greater Victoria a ...

people inhabited the lands between Sooke and the

Saanich Peninsula Saanich Peninsula ( str, W̱SÁNEĆ) is located north of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. It is bounded by Saanich Inlet on the west, Satellite Channel on the north, the small Colburne Passage on the northeast, and Haro Strait on the east. The ...

, which includes Gordon Head. In 1852, with the signing of the

Douglas Treaties The Douglas Treaties, also known as the Vancouver Island Treaties or the Fort Victoria Treaties, were a series of treaties signed between certain indigenous groups on Vancouver Island and the Colony of Vancouver Island. Background With the signin ...

, farmers began settling the hitherto densely forested Gordon Head area. By 1860, 13 men, including Michael Finnerty and John Work, owned all of the land. The region would become famous for its strawberries and later its daffodils. City water service was introduced in 1921, leading to a proliferation of greenhouses and vegetable farming. Agriculture dominated the landscape until about the 1950s, when Gordon Head began gradually developing into a residential neighbourhood. During World War II, a Special Wireless Station was established at Gordon Head in June 1940. It played a significant role in the Royal Canadian Navy's radio intelligence operation against the Japanese. Messages were intercepted here and bearings on enemy transmissions were provided using direction finding techniques. The station closed in 1946; however, the building that housed the station still stands in a remote corner of the University of Victoria, having been moved from its original location. Today, many homes in Gordon Head have secondary suites or are rented out entirely to students at the

Name

The neighbourhood shares its name with the small strip of land that juts out into Haro Strait, east of Margaret Bay, in the community's north-east corner. Gordon Head is named after Admiral John Gordon, who in 1845 commanded in the North Pacific.John Gordon
Dictionary of Canadian Biography. biographi.ca. Retrieved 2021-01-03.

Parks

Gordon Head has 2

ranging in size from the minuscul
Balmacarra Park
to the magnificent 184-hectar
Mount Douglas Park
(PKOLS), the largest park in Saanich. Several parks offer beach access. The half-rocky, half-sandy beach that spans
Arbutus Cove Park
an
Hollydene Park
is Gordon Head's most frequented beach.

Schools

Six schools in the

Greater Victoria School District School District 61 Greater Victoria is a school district in the Canadian province of British Columbia. This includes Victoria, the municipalities of Esquimalt, Oak Bay, View Royal View Royal is a town in Greater Victoria and a member municipa ...

(SD 61) call the community home: Elementary
Hillcrest

Torquay
Middle
Arbutus

Gordon Head
Secondary
Lambrick Park

Mount DouglasMaria Montessori Academy
an
ArtsCalibre Academy
are independent schools located in Gordon Head.

Gordon Head Recreation Centre

is centrally located and features a pool, sauna, steamroom, whirlpool, weightroom, dance and fitness studio, as well as a skateboard/rollerblade park. Recent eco-friendly updates to the centre include UV pool filtration (in addition to the existing chlorine-based system) and solar-powered showers.

Retail locations

* Tuscany Village
University Heights Shopping Centre

Pedestrian shortcuts

Sprinkled across the community are dozens of pedestrian shortcuts. (The adjacent neighbourhoods of Cadboro Bay and Cordova Bay have relatively few shortcuts by comparison.)
map
showing the shortcuts (in dotted red) is available o
OpenStreetMap

References

External links

{{coord, 48, 29, 00, N, 123, 19, 00, W, display=title Neighbourhoods in Saanich, British Columbia