Uplands, Victoria (known locally as "the Uplands") is a

neighbourhood A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neighbourh ...

located in the north east part of the District of

Oak Bay Oak Bay is a municipality incorporated in 1906 that is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is one of thirteen member municipalities of the Capital Regional District, and is bordered ...

, a suburb adjacent to

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Gre ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, and situated between the neighbourhoods 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 ...

and North Oak Bay. Uplands is a prominent example of a

garden suburb The garden city movement was a 20th century urban planning movement promoting satellite communities surrounding the central city and separated with greenbelts. These Garden Cities would contain proportionate areas of residences, industry, an ...

designed in the early part of the 20th century. In 1907, the developers of Uplands, John A, Robert and Dawson Turner previously cattle and horse ranchers from Turner Valley Alberta and originally Scotland purchased the area for the sum of $275,000 and hired the leading

landscape architect A landscape architect is a person who is educated in the field of landscape architecture. The practice of landscape architecture includes: site analysis, site inventory, site planning, land planning, planting design, grading, storm water manage ...

John Olmsted as the designer. Olmsted designed famous neighbourhoods and parks in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. The Uplands of today is faithful to Olmsted's vision: an elegant neighbourhood with

estate Estate or The Estate may refer to: Law * Estate (law), a term in common law for a person's property, entitlements and obligations * Estates of the realm, a broad social category in the histories of certain countries. ** The Estates, representativ ...

-sized lots, serpentine streets and the signature green, globed, ornate lamp posts. The houses are built to impress and the sprawling gardens are carefully manicured. For John Olmsted personally, of all his subdivision projects, Uplands was “unquestionably the best adapted to obtain the greatest amount of landscape beauty in connection with suburban development.” Uplands has a seaside setting and has within its boundaries the large

Uplands Park Uplands Park is located within the municipality of Oak Bay, in the Uplands neighborhood, adjacent to the city of Victoria, British Columbia. Uplands Park consists of of woodland trails and undeveloped natural reserve land, and includes Cattl ...

. Uplands Park is not the manicured park of flower beds and walks that might be expected in such a meticulously designed garden suburb. Rather, it is a wild, seaside expanse of jagged rock crags, trees stunted and shaped by the wind, lonely

heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and is characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...

s and dramatic ocean

vista Vista may refer to: Software *Windows Vista, the line of Microsoft Windows client operating systems released in 2006 and 2007 * VistA, (Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture) a medical records system of the United States ...

s. The wildness of Uplands Park contrasts sharply with the manicured lawns and flower beds in front of the mansions that line Beach Drive, the main road through Uplands. In keeping with its seaside location, the

Royal Victoria Yacht Club The Royal Victoria Yacht Club is located along the shores of Cadboro Bay, British Columbia, Cadboro Bay in The Uplands, Greater Victoria, Uplands a neighbourhood of Oak Bay, British Columbia, Oak Bay, adjacent to the city of Victoria, British Co ...

is located within the Uplands, and is the oldest

yacht club A yacht club is a boat club specifically related to yachting. Description Yacht clubs are mostly located by the sea, although there some that have been established at a lake or riverside locations. Yacht or sailing clubs have either a mar ...

in British Columbia.

National Historic Site Designation

On 19 August 2019, the minister responsible for Parks Canada announced that the Government of Canada had designate
Uplands (Oak Bay, BC)
as a National Historic Site. Parks Canada says that Uplands “is an exceptional example of subdivision design and planning”. John C. Olmsted's design is “among the finest works of a renowned landscape architect” which “changed the way suburbs were planned well into the 20th century.” It also notes that a number of the houses in Uplands were designed by Canada's and British Columbia's leading architects. Oak Bay council voted on 13 October 2020 to install at Midland Circle a commemorative plaque to be provided by Parks Canada, in recognition of Uplands as a National Historic Site.

Physical environment

The bedrock under Uplands is

quartz diorite Quartz diorite is an igneous, plutonic ( intrusive) rock, of felsic composition, with phaneritic texture. Feldspar is present as plagioclase (typically oligoclase or andesine) with 10% or less potassium feldspar. Quartz is present at between 5 an ...

gneiss Gneiss (pronounced ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. This rock is formed under p ...

. Soils are well drained sandy loams of the Cadboro and Langford series (Cd-L or Lsl), or poorly drained sandy clay loams of the Tolmie series (Tscl); all have thick dark topsoils. In near-shore areas the soils are more stony and are mapped as Langford-Rough Stony complex(L-Rs).http://sis.agr.gc.ca/cansis/publications/surveys/bc/bc6/index.html Soil Survey of Southeast Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, British Columbia. J.H. Day et al, 1959

References

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External links

The Corporation of the District of Oak BayRoyal Victoria Yacht ClubOak Bay News
Neighbourhoods in Oak Bay, British Columbia {{BritishColumbiaCoast-geo-stub