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Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Empress Hotel

Francis Rattenbury was the architect responsible for the British Columbia Legislative Assembly Buildings pictured yesterday and was also responsible for centrepiece of today's photo, the Empress Hotel. This view was taken from where a tourist amusement called Undersea Gardens used to be. The floating Undersea Gardens building has been towed away and what now occupies the location is a small wharf where the Harbour Ferry stops to pick up and drop off passengers. The low white structure in front of the hotel on the right side of the photo is a small skating rink erected so that children here can have a taste of what the rest of this country enjoys at this time of year.

4 comments:

JoJo said...

I just can't imagine Inner Harbour w/o the Undersea Gardens building. Where is it now? Near Fisherman's Wharf?

William Kendall said...

The Empress is a real jewel of architecture.

Benjamin Madison said...

@JoJo: I did a post last spring about the demise of the Undersea Gardens - http://victoriadailyphoto.blogspot.ca/2014/03/pacific-undersea-gardens.html. So far as I know it was cut up for scrap....

Stephanie said...

Beautiful view!