Uplands (Greater Victoria)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Uplands, Victoria (known locally as "the Uplands") is an exclusive upper-class neighbourhood in Victoria, British Columbia located within the Municipality of Oak Bay between Cadboro Bay and Willows Beach. Uplands is a superb example of a garden suburb designed in the early part of the 20th century. It contains some of the most expensive real estate in North America.

In 1907, the developers of Uplands purchased the area for the sum of $275,000 and hired the leading landscape architect John Olmsted as the designer. Olmsted designed famous neighbourhoods in North America. The Uplands of today is faithful to Olmsted's vision: an elegant neighbourhood with estate-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. The Uplands has certain rules and expectations ranging from the ban of laundry put out to dry on clothes lines to the expectation that each home's display garden is constantly up to par.

Uplands has a seaside setting and has within its boundaries the large Uplands Park. 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 heaths and dramatic ocean vistas. 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. An excellent golf course and the Royal Victoria Yacht Club are also located in Uplands.

Neighbourhoods in Greater Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria: Chinatown | Cook Street Village | East Burnside-Gorge | Fairfield | Fernwood | Harris Green | Hillside | Humboldt Valley | James Bay | Jubilee | North Park | Rockland | Victoria West
Saanich: Beaver Lake-Elk Lake | Broadmead-Sunnymead | Cadboro Bay | Cedar Hill | Cloverdale | Cordova Bay | Glanford | Gordon Head | Gorge-Tillicum | Interurban | Lake Hill | Maplewood | Marigold | Mount Douglas | Mount Tolmie-Lansdowne | Prospect Lake | Royal Oak | Strawberry Vale | Swan Lake | Ten Mile Point | Town and Country-Burnside | West Saanich
Other areas: Belmont Park | Brentwood Bay | Broom Hill | Cloak Hill | Colwood Corners | Craigflower | Dean Park | Deep Cove | Durrance Lake | East Sooke | Florence Lake | Glen Lake | Goldstream | Gonzales | Gorge Vale | Happy Valley | Hatley Park | Island View | Kemp Lake | Lands End | Luxton | Matheson Lake | Mill Hill | Millstream | Otter Point | Pat Bay | Ravenwood | Rockheights | Rocky Point | Saanichton | Saseenos | Songhees | Swartz Bay | Thetis Lake | Uplands | Whiffen Spit | William Head | Willis Point | Willows Beach | Windsor Park | Work Point