1912

The Belmont Building

801-807 GOVERNMENT STREET/
600-620 HUMBOLT STREET

Anchoring the northeast corner of the Inner Harbour Precinct, the Belmont Building establishes the gateway to historic Government Street. The concrete for Victoria’s first reinforced concrete office building was provided by one of Victoria’s great entrepreneurs—Robert Pym Butchart (see Butchart Gardens). Butchart headquartered both his Portland cement enterprise, the only one west of the Great Lakes, and his office of Director of Wooden Ship Building for the First World War’s Imperial Munitions Board in the Belmont Building. Another of the building’s notable original tenants was William Gardener, developer of Oak Bay’s residential masterpiece, the Uplands Residential District.

Today, under the stewardship of Jawl Properties Ltd., British Columbia’s Provincial Government is the major tenant of this, one of Victoria’s most historically significant buildings. At street level two excellent restaurants offer both indoor and outdoor dining opportunities while a number of unique shops make intriguing offerings to passersby.