burnt embers

This is a black and white follow-up to my recent post Gonzales Bay which features the Gonzales beach with cloud formations. These photos are all (but one) taken within 15 minutes as I walked home from the store. One is actually in the corner of Ross Bay which is technically in the Fairfield neighbourhood, the others are either from the beach in Gonzales Bay, or along Crescent Road which overlooks Gonzales Bay. The last one is taken last August and is in the far east corner of the bay on Harling Point.

Gonzales Bay straddles the boundary between the municipalities of Victoria and Oak Bay. It was called Foul Bay until the 1920’s and was at one time ringed with small beach houses. In the past 10 years the last of these, with one or two exceptions, have been demolished and replaced with very large houses that mostly hold a single older couple, often for only part of the year. It was named after a Spanish explorer on the ship Princesa Real who helped survey these waters in 1790. His name was Gonzalo Lopez de Haro and his name is also found on Haro Strait which divides BC from Washington State near San Juan Island. However, the name for the bay may have been derived second-hand from either nearby Gonzales Hill, or from Gonzales House, built and owned by early Victoria land surveyor J. D. Pemberton. Gonzales House was on a very large property on Rockland heights near where Gonzales Avenue starts.

1949 Crescent Road, built in past 5 years or so, recycled beautiful stained glass from earlier house on this site.

The name Foul Bay almost certainly derives from a nautical term referring to a poor anchorage. However, this was misunderstood and for a decade starting in the mid 1920’s there was a campaign to have its name changed, and for Foul Bay Road to be changed too. One resident, during the ensuing debate, said that it “offends good tastes and in its ordinary meaning conveys a very wrong impression of the beautiful sand-fringed and clear bathing beach.” (Quoted in this short history of the area). In the mid 1930’s the bay name was changed, but Foul Bay Road kept its name. Quimper Street, which was laid out in the mid 1920’s is shown as  Gonzales Avenue on the legal plans of that era and was to have continued in a loop up through Trafalgar Park and onto what is now King George Terrace. This perhaps shows the plans that the name changers had for the area, with Gonzales Avenue continuing down from Rockland, along lower Foul Bay Road, and then beside Gonzales Bay along part of Crescent Road and through Harling Point which is the east boundary of the bay.

East end of Ross Bay

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Gonzales Bay to south-west

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Gonzales Bay, gentle waves

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East end of Gonzales Bay under construction summer 2011

Canon 5D MkII, Top 5 images with Nikkor-N 24mm/f2.8 lens, ISO 200, various speeds and apertures. Bottom image with Canon 50mm/f1.4 lens, ISO640, f3.5, 1/5000th

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