| View Royal | |
| Official Name: | Town of View Royal[1] |
| Settlement Type: | Town |
| Pushpin Map: | Vancouver Island#Canada British Columbia |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location of View Royal within British Columbia |
| Coordinates: | 48.4552°N -123.4387°W |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | Canada |
| Subdivision Type1: | Province |
| Subdivision Name1: | British Columbia |
| Subdivision Type2: | Regional district |
| Subdivision Name2: | Capital |
| Established Title: | Incorporated |
| Established Date: | 1988 |
| Government Type: | Municipal |
| Leader Title: | Governing body |
| Leader Name: | View Royal Town Council |
| Leader Title1: | Mayor |
| Leader Name1: | Sid Tobias |
| Area Footnotes: | [2] |
| Area Total Km2: | 14.36 |
| Elevation M: | 20 |
| Population As Of: | 2016 |
| Population Total: | 10,408 |
| Population Density Km2: | 724.8 |
| Postal Code Type: | Postal code |
| Postal Code: | V9B |
| Area Code: | 250 |
| Timezone: | PST |
| Utc Offset: | -8 |
| Timezone Dst: | PDT |
| Utc Offset Dst: | -7 |
| Blank Name: | Highways |
| Blank1 Name: | Waterways |
| Blank1 Info: | Strait of Juan de Fuca |
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[3] residents. With over 700ha of parkland, View Royal includes Thetis, McKenzie, Pike, and Prior Lakes and portions of Esquimalt Harbour and Portage Inlet.
View Royal's history is closely linked to the entire region. The Esquimalt First Nation, a Coast Salish indigenous peoples, have occupied View Royal since time immemorial. It began when early inhabitants of today's Esquimalt Harbour crossed an isthmus, now Portage Park, to harvest seafood in Portage Inlet.
European settlement began in the 1850s by Kenneth Mackenzie who established a farm known as Craigflower Manor.[4] 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 80acres 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:
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. 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.[6]
View Royal has 70 municipal parks and 25km (16miles) of trails.[7] 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.
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.[8] Beginning in 2013, the Town of View Royal and District of Saanich replaced the 80-year-old Craigflower Bridge and approach roads,[9] and construction began on the new Public Safety Building, scheduled to be complete in fall 2014.[10]
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, it had a population density of in 2021.[11]
| 2021 | 2016[12] | 2011[13] | 2006[14] | 2001[15] | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| European | 8,610 | 8,045 | 8,085 | 7,710 | 6,490 | ||||||||||
| Indigenous | 670 | 435 | 250 | 160 | 180 | ||||||||||
| South Asian | 655 | 565 | 415 | 215 | 190 | ||||||||||
| East Asian | 615 | 350 | 210 | 250 | 190 | ||||||||||
| Southeast Asian | 270 | 200 | 170 | 65 | 85 | ||||||||||
| African | 205 | 135 | 20 | 130 | 60 | ||||||||||
| Middle Eastern | 105 | 45 | 15 | 30 | 0 | ||||||||||
| Latin American | 100 | 90 | 45 | 110 | 25 | ||||||||||
| Other/Multiracial | 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 | ||||||||||
According to the 2021 census, religious groups in View Royal included:[16]