Welcome to Greater Victoria, where the streets change names.
Examples A, B, C, D and E: Cloverdale Avenue turns into Cook Street, Johnson Street into Begbie Street, Richardson Street becomes McNeil Avenue, Fort Street becomes Cadboro Bay Road, Pandora Avenue turns into Oak Bay Avenue, and there’s more, so many more.
How about multiple name changes within a short distance? In a two-kilometre span through the Gordon Head neighbourhood Ferndale Road becomes Grandview, then Ash, then Cordova Bay Road (and then Royal Oak Drive). Incidentally, in that same spot, Shelbourne funnels into Cedar Hill and then Cordova Bay Road, all in 500 metres.
Hat tip to Reddit user Swabbie for pointing out that one can travel from Helmcken in View Royal up to Saanich, down in to Victoria and back to Esquimalt all without making a single turn. One more turn at Admirals here and you can travel right to UVic. #yyj pic.twitter.com/G1woPiOhlt
— travisApaterson (@TravisAPaterson) July 15, 2019
Or, how about the three-kilometre connection starting in Oak Bay where Lansdowne crosses through a block of Saanich, enters Victoria and becomes Hillside, and then becomes Gorge as it re-enters Saanich again (although Hillside technically continues it is disconnected at the Government/Douglas intersection).
Even better, Tattersall becomes Saanich Road, becomes Boleskine, and then becomes Harriet.
READ MORE: Victoria street repatriated with proper spelling after a century-long mistake
The reality is most of the streets were originally farm roads, trails and accesses to the rail lines and were all well established once they were finally connected.
For example, North Dairy was only connected to Finlayson in the 1970s.
There are other oddities, such as the north entrance to Mayfair Shopping Centre is from Tolmie Avenue while the road up Mount Tolmie is called Mayfair Drive.
