Victoria’s Mayfair Mall: Brickyard to Boutiques
You’d never think for a moment that today’s upscale Mayfair Mall was a brickyard within living memory. Ah, progress…
Good grief, has it really been that long since I was a kid, messing about in the old Baker Company brickyard?
I was prompted to ask this of myself by the 50th anniversary of Victoria’s Mayfair Mall.
You’d never know it today, that these acres of glittering glass and cinder block and parking on the eastern shoulder of Douglas Street, between Tolmie and Finlayson, were, for years, derelict–a wasteland of tumbled-down structures, clay piles and ponds inhabited by frogs and tadpoles, snakes and water weeds.
Which is precisely what drew us kids to its barren landscape, those frogs
Now, I’m not talking basketball-sized bull frogs but our own native species, vivid green and smaller than a Mandarin orange. Why? you ask. To catch and release them in our parents’ back gardens to eat the bugs. It was our childish concept of environmental management, which likely put us well ahead of our times although mucking with Mother Nature has been a human imperative from the beginning of time.
What we didn’t take into account was the fact that we lived within sound and sight of Swan Lake and our transplanted frog population soon dwindled as they forsook our family gardens for the lake and the wild as Nature intended them to. But it was fun for us, and the water weeds we brought home did last longer and to real purpose, in our gold fish bowls.
We also learned something of the miracle of life by observing the evolution of frogs from a slimy substance in the water to dark dots to tadpoles to adults. Which sometimes were captured and swallowed whole by the black-with-yellow-stripe water snakes.
Small dramas though these may have been, perhaps, but the sort of natural and healthy learning curve that I think is denied to modern-day youngsters who seem to be more inclined to be indoors and sedentary.
All this was immediately beside Douglas Street which was Victoria’s main drag even then
Certainly it wasn’t anywhere near as busy as it is now but throughout my childhood the abandoned Baker’s Brick & Tile works were in unlikely juxtaposition on the city’s very doorstep. The 23-acre property which had operated for a century as a brickyard was acquired for development as a shopping centre in 1963 for $7 million with 250,000 square feet of floor space and 20-odd tenants, then the largest such development in Victoria.
The complex took its name from its original developer, Grosvenor-Laing Ltd., whose Grosvenor Estates owned much of London’s Mayfair section.
The original and longtime anchor was Woodward’s Department Store which occupied 80 per cent of the site. Opening day, Oct. 16, 1963, attracted an estimated 12,000 people in a three-hour period with women reportedly “rush[ing] to the Mohawk wool counter”.
And, speaking of Woodward’s
Who can forget $1.49 Day’s unbelievably (by today’s standards) good buys? I still use a three-foot-long steel ruler in my shop that cost me $1.49. Mind you, regular gas cost 38.9 cents per gallon in those days. (That’s right, per gallon!)
Mind you, to put that in perspective, I was only making $36.50 a week before deductions.
As a final bit of trivia, CIBC is Mayfair’s oldest tenant, having been there from the start, and an estimated 168.7 million shoppers have visited Mayfair since its opening (as of then) . All of which is a far, far cry from my frog-catching days!
Another trip down Memory Lane was occasioned by last year’s closing of Capitol 6, Victoria’s pioneer multiplex theatre which opened on Blanshard in 1981. Now, sad to say, that’s after my childhood days. But it put me in mind of how we kids spent each and almost every Saturday. That was Movie Day. Not at the Capital 6 on Blanshard but on Victoria’s Theatre Row, Yates street.
That’s where Famous Players’ original Capital Theatre was located, along with the Dominion and the Odeon. I’m sure there were more than just these three, but their names escape me at present. The Royal Theatre was a block away and I do remember the Rio Theatre, way down on Government Street, almost in Chinatown, which I attended only once, to see The Wizard of Oz.
That one sticks in my mind
It was advertised as Technicolour but starts out black and white. How we screamed blue murder in protest! We’d been gypped! We wanted colour! Which, of course, we got, once the movie got underway and Dorothy and Toto are swept up by the tornado.
Usually, there were screams of delight at the Saturday matinees when Hollywood westerns were the order of the day: James Stewart (Jimmy to me), Randolph Scott, the Duke, etc. And Tarzan and gangster flicks. All very edifying, of course, and they contributed immensely, I’m sure, to the making of the men we became.
Perhaps I should explain that, to choose your movie, you went to a specific theatre, as opposed to a multiplex with its varied fare under a single roof. But, in that long ago day, you usually got a matinee movie, a cartoon and newsreels, sometimes more.
With money enough left over from your allowance to buy fish and chips next door to the Odeon and bus fare home. (For another take on my youth in Victoria, you may wish to read my other post, ‘Growing Up In Victoria.’
Try that today!
I know, I know, I’ve said it before: They’re not making the good old days any more.
Oh my gosh, what a wonderful article TW! I may have come upon this place shortly after you did, by the time we moved to the island Mayfair was already a well-established landmark. But much of your musing here reflects back to personal experiences I had long forgotten, and today I find myself immersed in a time that seem long ago to me now! Great article, thanks for the jaunt down memory lane!
Growing up in semi-rural Saanich in the 1950s, I realize now, was a real blessing. That’s why I live in the Cowichan Valley now. Saanich imprinted me with farms and fields and cows and trees. Saanich is pretty suburban now but the Valley is still mostly green. I’m a little farther from the ocean than when I lived in Saanich, but that’s easily corrected by vehicle. You’d never know that Mayfair Mall was a brickyard, would you? –TW
Looking for info on the old brickyard found your old post . I grew up in that area and spent many hours playing at the ponds and catching frogs and orange belly salamanders . Spent a lot of time building rafts on swan lake and just playing around . Went to Quadra school so was close to the area .
Not sure you,ll get this but thanks for the memories
Hi, Stan. So you played at the brickyard and at Swan Lake? Both my old stomping grounds. Ah, those were the days!
I went to Tolmie School, by the way.
You probably know that the eastern shore of Swan Lake (the Atkinson/McLean/Pendrays farms) are now totally reclaimed by willows as a nature preserve.
I’m glad they haven’t allowed development but I do miss the fields of my childhood. Cheers, and all the best in this New Year. –TW
Good to see someone who knows of the Atkinson farm. My grandfather was Glen Atkinson. His farm included the properties where the Municipal Hall, Police/Fire hall and what was then the Social Services building on Vernon.
I remember when the UpTown Mall was a cow pasture, the Swan’s Dairy. I’m glad the municipality saved the Saanich Rd. side of the lake from development but I preferred it as pasture with the old Black’s barn to play in. Cheers, TW
Hi TW. I’m working on a project on a site adjacent to the old brickworks. We’ve found a LOT of brick, as well as old bottles in buried fill. Can you tell me more about the brickworks? I’ve seen some photos on the Archives website, but would love to know more. Do you recall the roller rink just up the hill? And then the Bldg supply place that followed. And the old Page, the Drycleaner?
P.S. I live in the Cowichan Valley too. My family farmed here.
Hi, Bridgett. I have written about the Cowichan Valley brickyards and, on a personal note, the Baker Brick yard where Mayfair Mall is now (as you have read on my site). Because clay comes under the Mining Act I also have access to more detailed information in the Dept. of Mines Annual Reports.
You’ll have to give me time to dig something out. Be advised that I work every day, all day, so it may take me a while. But I will follow up when I can. Cheers for now, TW
Thank you for your accurate history.
Your new Friend,Jeannie
Thank you, Jeannie, it’s nice to be appreciated. Please keep reading. I have trouble these days making time to post new articles but I keep trying! –TW
Born in 1962, I grew up hearing brickyard stories from my grandmother’s Vera Wilson (nee Baker). She was Stan Baker’s youngest child. In addition to the brickyard the family specifically Stan owned Victoria Ice Company which harvested their ice in your backyard at Swan Lake. Great article and the link to it ironically was posted by Dewayne Parrott on the Old Victoria FB page. Thanks
Thanks for writing, Rick. My childhood memory of ice is of a delivery man who came to the neighbourhood on a regular basis with blocks of ice he’d carry over his shoulder to the house with a big set of tongs; he’d always break off chunks for us kids to suck on then crunch with our teeth. God, how the Saanich of my childhood has changed! –TW