View Royal

Template:Short description Template:More citations needed Template:Use Canadian English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Main otherTemplate:Template otherTemplate:Main other View Royal is a town in Greater Victoria and a member municipality of the Capital Regional District of British Columbia, Canada. View Royal has a population of 11,575 residents. With over Template:Convert of parkland, View Royal includes Thetis, McKenzie, Pike, and Prior Lakes and portions of Esquimalt Harbour and Portage Inlet.

History

European settlement began in the 1850s by Kenneth Mackenzie who established a farm known as Craigflower Manor. In the mid-19th century, Dr. John Helmcken, Vancouver Island's first doctor and later speaker of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly, paid the Hudson's Bay Company $5 per acre for hundreds of acres of land between Esquimalt Harbour and what is now Victoria General Hospital. The land was cleared for Victoria's growth. In 1912, the Island Investment Company bought Template:Convert of land below Four Mile Hill, fronting the harbour, from Dr. Helmcken’s son James. They marketed lots as "View Royal" because of their "royal view", which gave the town its name.

View Royal remained unorganized for over half a century. By the 1950s, things had begun to change. In 1959, a group of residents in the Shoreline Drive area circulated a petition urging annexation by Esquimalt. Several studies and referendums came and went, but View Royal continued with its unorganized status. In 1966, the Capital Regional District emerged, bringing with it regional approaches for such service deliveries as sewage collection. Then a Price Waterhouse study presented three options: status quo, union with Esquimalt, or incorporation as a town. The town’s incorporation became official on December 5, 1988.

Many historic sites still exist in View Royal, including:

• Four Mile Pub & Six Mile Pub: two historic "road houses" or pubs that have existed for approximately 150 years.
• Craigflower Manor & Schoolhouse: one of Canada's National Historic Sites. Completed in 1856, the Manor site was one of four original farms set up by the Hudson's Bay Company as part of their obligations in settling Vancouver Island. The site housed the McKenzie family in the Manor as well as twenty other dwellings, a sawmill, a flour mill, a blacksmith's shop, a brick kiln, a slaughterhouse, and a general store. The Craigflower Schoolhouse, the companion adjacent site to the Manor, is located across a municipal border. The two properties are located at the intersection of Admirals Road, Craigflower Road, and Island Highway.

Several changes have gone on in View Royal in recent years, including the completion of the Island Highway Improvement Project in 2011, which included new cycle lanes, sidewalks, turning lanes, and planted medians. Beginning in 2013, the Town of View Royal and District of Saanich replaced the 80-year-old Craigflower Bridge and approach roads, and construction began on the new Public Safety Building, completed in fall 2014.

Geography

View Royal is divided into eight neighbourhoods based on topography, transportation corridors, natural environment, and the age of housing stock. These neighbourhoods are Atkins, Burnside, Craigflower, Harbour, Helmcken, Hospital, Thetis, and Wilfert.

View Royal has 70 municipal parks and Template:Convert of trails. View Royal's shoreline includes sandy beaches with small caves, large driftwood, and rocks, which are home to starfish, crabs, seals, and other marine life.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, View Royal had a population of 11,575 living in 4,915 of its 5,175 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 10,408. With a land area of Template:Cvt, it had a population density of Template:Pop density in 2021.

In 2011, there were almost 4,140 housing units in the town with a median population age of 44.1 years, which compares to the CRD at 44.8.

Ethnicity

Panethnic groups in the Town of View Royal (2001−2021)

Panethnic group	2021		2016		2011		2006		2001
	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%
EuropeanTemplate:Efn	8,610		8,045		8,085		7,710		6,490
Indigenous	670		435		250		160		180
South Asian	655		565		415		215		190
East AsianTemplate:Efn	615		350		210		250		190
Southeast AsianTemplate:Efn	270		200		170		65		85
African	205		135		20		130		60
Middle EasternTemplate:Efn	105		45		15		30		0
Latin American	100		90		45		110		25
Other/MultiracialTemplate:Efn	30		35		0		10		45
Total responses	11,260		9,910		9,245		8,675		7,260
Total population	11,575		10,408		9,381		8,768		7,271
Note: Totals greater than 100% due to multiple origin responses

Religion

According to the 2021 census, religious groups in View Royal included:

• Irreligion (6,535 persons or 58.0%)
• Christianity (3,890 persons or 34.5%)
• Islam (195 persons or 1.7%)
• Hinduism (185 persons or 1.6%)
• Sikhism (170 persons or 1.5%)
• Buddhism (90 persons or 0.8%)
• Judaism (40 persons or 0.4%)
• Other (165 persons or 1.5%)

External links

• Template:Official website