About The Uplands in Oak Bay
The Uplands is an area of luxury homes on large properties ranging from roughly a quarter acre to three acres, with many lots averaging around half an acre in size. It features some of the finest real estate on Vancouver Island and contains only a small number of condos and townhomes. The neighbourhood is overwhelmingly defined by detached homes, estate properties, mature landscaping, broad streets, and a level of privacy rarely found so close to downtown Victoria.
The subdivision was originally planned in the 1920s by the Olmsted Brothers of Chicago. John Olmsted, a noted landscape architect, spent days walking the expansive Uplands Farm property to map out its intricate road network. Even then, the area was said to be among the most beautiful properties in Victoria, receiving sun throughout the day, studded with Garry oak trees, and shielded from wind on several sides.
Today, The Uplands is regarded as one of Greater Victoria’s finest residential neighbourhoods. In the early 1920s, however, the development made heavy going. By 1923, the developers owed Oak Bay Municipality $79,000 in taxes. When the municipality tried to foreclose, it discovered that all taxes were in default except those on Lot 1. Lot 1 covered the roads within The Uplands estate. Had the municipality foreclosed, it would have had no readily available access to the property.
Unfortunately, early records of Uplands transactions and land deals in Oak Bay generally were reduced to pulp when the basement of the old Municipal Hall, at the corner of Hampshire Road and Oak Bay Avenue, was flooded in 1955. That site is now occupied by the Bank of Nova Scotia.
The Early Development of The Uplands
French capital, presented by the Credit Foncier, helped promote what is now the beautiful Uplands development. Full-page advertisements were asking $2,500 to $5,000 per lot, but at first there were no takers. For many years, there was only one resident, Andrew Wright, in The Uplands. His home at 3175 Beach Drive later became the home of Hubert Wallace.
As if to confirm its glimmerings of permanence, Oak Bay has The Uplands: a residential area so well conceived and resolutely maintained that it has approached, in the words of one university professor, a state of immortality. The 465-acre subdivision, formerly part of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Uplands Farm, was developed by a daring consortium in the pre-First World War boom years.
Its planning was based on the garden city concept then popular in England and the United States. The idea was to create a central axis, Midland Road, and then follow the contours of the land with curving boulevards, spacious view lots on gently sloping benches, and abundant green spaces. There were 523 lots in all. For its time and place, the subdivision was remarkable: paved roads, underground utilities, and a streetcar line connecting the area to downtown Victoria.
Riffington and the Andrew Wright Mansion
Although not the first residence in The Uplands, the Andrew Wright mansion known as Riffington, at 2991 Beach Drive, was built as the showplace. Wright, Scottish-born, had made his money in real estate in Winnipeg and was a director of the development firm The Uplands Limited. He chose prime seafront acreage for Riffington.
Construction materials, including stone from Haddington Island off northern Vancouver Island, lumber, and imported hardwoods, were barged to the site. Under the combined efforts of a small army of skilled tradesmen and labourers, the grand home rose in 1911.
The property remained in the Wright family until 1946, when Wright’s son Andrew sold it to shipbuilder Hubert Wallace. Wallace later observed that the architect must have been outstanding. A set of blueprint plans dated 1913, on file in Oak Bay municipal records, identifies the architect as Philip A. Jullien of Vancouver, of whom relatively little is known.
Riffington was well ahead of its time. Its remarkable two-storey octagonal entrance hall, rose-windowed at the dome and galleried at the upper level, formed the central focal point of the home. Rooms radiated from this centre. Four bedrooms, each with a full bathroom and dressing room, occupied the entire upper floor.
The principal rooms on the main level, including the living room and dining room with wide sea views, a French drawing room, and a billiard room, were superbly proportioned and looked out over acres of manicured grounds.
Uplands Farm and Early Victoria
Victoria in its early years was a scattered and largely pastoral settlement. Farms were very different from those in crowded Europe. They often consisted of a comparatively small area of cultivated land and a much larger area of waste land over which cattle roamed.
Uplands Farm, started in 1851 in what is now part of Oak Bay Municipality, consisted of a few farm buildings while cattle grazed in an area bounded by Cedar Hill Cross Road to the north, Camas Lane to the southeast, above Allenby Street to the south, Richmond Road to the west, and the shoreline to the east.
Living in The Uplands Today
Modern-day Uplands remains one of the most desirable residential addresses in Greater Victoria. The neighbourhood is known for grand detached homes, oceanfront estates, mature gardens, quiet winding roads, and a strong sense of privacy. Its location beside Uplands Golf Club, Cattle Point, Willows Beach, Cadboro Bay, and the University of Victoria gives residents convenient access to recreation, schools, shopping, and the waterfront while preserving the feeling of a private residential enclave.
Real estate in The Uplands is typically among the highest priced in Greater Victoria. Buyers are drawn by the large lots, architectural variety, prestige, privacy, and irreplaceable land value. Homes range from classic character residences and mid-century properties to major contemporary estates, with some of the most exceptional properties located along Beach Drive and the waterfront edges of the neighbourhood.
