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Dragon Alley

Dragon Alley sign on building

A Hidden Dragon in Chinatown

Dragon Alley connects Fisgard and Herald streets. Originally, there were two passageways through buildings that Michael Hart constructed on each street in 1890. The Hart’s Fisgard Building replaced a wooden hut once owned by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. The Hart’s Herald Building was constructed as a stable and carriage repair shop. In 1910, Quan Yuen Yen and Joe Gar Chow purchased both buildings, and in 1912 they built a three-section, two-storey lodging house between the two Hart buildings intersected by a north-south passageway that connected to the two walkways through the Hart buildings. This route through the three buildings is now known as Dragon Alley. In 2000-2001, Moore Paterson Architects of Victoria won architectural and heritage awards for their conversion of the derelict central Quan Yuen Yen building into updated live-work townhouses.

Looking into Dragon Alley from Herald Street, through the Hart’s Herald Building (Photo by Charles Yang, 2012).

Looking into Dragon Alley from Herald Street, through the Hart’s Herald Building (Photo by Charles Yang, 2012).


Sources

City of Victoria, Community Planning Division, Heritage — Case Studies: “Dragon Alley — 532 ½ Fisgard St.” http://www.victoria.ca/assets/Departments/Planning~Development/Community... (accessed 7 October 2012).

Lai, David Chuenyan. The Forbidden City within Victoria: Myth, Symbol and Streetscape of Victoria’s Earliest Chinatown. Victoria: Orca Book Publishers, 1991.

Moore Architecture, “Awards,”
http://moorearchitecture.ca/awards/ (accessed 7 October 2012).