The Signing Post
You are standing in Bastion Square. The Hudson’s Bay Company, whose legacy continues at the store on Government Street, established Fort Victoria here in 1843.
Men and women from many places worked and lived in Fort Victoria, including French Canadian, Hawaiians, British and First Nations people.
This area has always been an important public space. All visitors had to gain permission from a gatekeeper to enter Fort Victoria and they were required to provide letters of introduction to the Chief Factor at the fort where ship captains also signed a register.
Bastion Square became a different kind of gathering place during The Fraser River Gold Rush of 1858 when over 25,000 people began to arrive in Fort Victoria to buy supplies. Soon the fort was demolished and stores, hotels and saloons were opened for the gold miners. A new court, jail and law offices were also built in Bastion Square.
Today, Bastion Square in the heart of Victoria’s Old Town National Historic Site and hosts the Maritime Museum as well as shops, offices, restaurants, bars and cafes.
Marker can be reached from Wharf Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
