Redbrick has announced its proposal to build Westholme, a landmark hotel in the heart of downtown Victoria, BC—named for the original Westholme Hotel that anchored the same stretch of Government Street more than a century ago.

Westholme is proposed to take shape on the vacant lot at the corner of Pandora Avenue and Government Street. With McPherson Playhouse and Centennial Square just across the street, the hotel would be a natural gateway to the emerging Industry, Arts, and Innovation district in Downtown’s north end.

While the hotel would add meaningful visitor capacity to a growing part of our city, it would also help address the current city-wide hotel room shortage—and it’s no coincidence that 603 Pandora Avenue is already zoned for a hotel.

A hotel, in that very location, has been part of the social fabric of the city for well over a century. But that’s because it was never just a hotel. From a post-prohibition watering hole and a restaurant that seated six hundred, the property was always a place for locals and visitors to gather.

That’s the ethos we’re bringing to the development of Westholme. A gathering place our community can enjoy and feel excited to see as part of the city.

Westholme’s opening night, 100+ years ago

Long-time Victoria locals will remember the somewhat infamous Victoria Plaza Hotel and pub that once stood at 603 Pandora. But what many don’t know is that a century ago, it went by another name. Westholme Hotel.

In 1910, a fire broke out in Spencer’s Department Store in downtown Victoria, consuming 40 businesses and damaging the Driard Hotel. The Driard transferred its liquor license to the unlikely new owners, the Westholme Lumber Company. Westholme Hotel opened its doors on Government Street in 1911.

The six-storey Edwardian building boasted 100 rooms with mahogany furnishings and a restaurant, the Songhees Grill, in its basement. Songhees Grill quickly became one of the most popular spots in the city with seating for 600 and an orchestra for the public to enjoy as they dined and danced the night away.

Riding on the restaurant’s success, in 1954, the hotel opened the Westholme Beer Parlour. It was one of the first few places in Victoria where you could order a beer by the glass when the city began to relax its strict liquor laws, long after prohibition ended.

Westholme becomes the Century Inn

Come 1965, the heritage structure of Westholme now sat next to the modernized Centennial Square and across from the newly renovated McPherson Playhouse. The hotel submitted plans to revitalize, adding a new lobby to the northern side. The enlarged Westholme reopened as the Century Inn, advertised as “The Inn on Centennial Square.”

True to its name, the lobby featured a miniature version of the new Centennial Square fountain. 

Monty’s makes a name for itself

No, not Monty’s the strip club—yet. We’ll get there. The Century Inn was home to many phases of Victoria’s nightlife including the Centurion Beer Parlour and Buckin’ Bronc Country Pub.

In 1984, the venue opened Monty’s, a magnificent, multi-level pub featuring rich wood pannelling, lots of brass, and a replica WW1 biplane hanging from the ceiling. The name, “Monty’s,” was chosen to evoke an English fighter pilot. Despite what we all associate with “Monty’s,” the original bar was one of the nicest in town.

Monty’s closed just one year after opening to reopen as a three-hundred-seat disco nightclub. But booming business with the venue and hotel was already waning. The Century Inn closed its doors in March 1986 to reopen in 1988 as the Victoria Plaza Hotel and Monty’s Showroom Pub. By the mid-nineties, Monty’s was well known as one of the two strip clubs in the city.

A devastating fire brings an end to an era

Victoria Plaza Hotel and Monty’s fell out of favour with locals and discussions about redeveloping the property began to circle as early as 2007. Between 2011 and 2016, the hotel sold twice to different investment groups. Monty’s and the hotel shut down in 2013.

The then-owners of the property were in the process of resubmitting development plans to the city when a fire broke out and burned through the hotel until there was nothing left.

What’s next for Westholme?

The corner of Government Street and Pandora Avenue has been fenced off since the fire. But there’s more missing from the street than just a building.

Like Westholme’s history, this development is heavily contextualized by its social importance. Right now, the site is woefully under-serving our community. With initiatives like the emerging arts and innovation district, this gap is only going to widen.

A key part of our downtown corridor is currently underutilized and interrupts the natural momentum of pedestrian traffic. Downtown’s expanding north end needs hospitality infrastructure in order to thrive—and not just a hotel.

We envision an architectural landmark that demonstrates just how much care and vision this community has for its city. We want to integrate purposeful third spaces for locals, grounded in a simple belief: the things that make a city worth visiting are the same things that make it worth living in.

Westholme Hotel architectural rendering by Olson Kundig

Redbrick has had front-row seats to these needs as a business that has been a resident of the neighbourhood for all 15 years we’ve been in operation. This development matters deeply to us, and we can literally see its potential (every time we head down Pandora Street for a coffee, or sneak in a lunchtime walk across the water).

There’s so much lively social history on that corner, not just as a hotel for tourists but predominantly for locals. That’s the legacy Westholme leaves behind and the one we want to revive—a hotel deeply rooted in the people and places that make this city an extraordinary community.

Globally-renowned firm, Olson Kundig Design, has been brought onto the project to help transform 603 Pandora into an architectural landmark. Their expertise includes cultural and museum sites, exhibition design, commercial and mixed-use design, and hospitality projects.

Right now, we’re still in the preliminary stages of development alongside Aryze Developments, so the next few months hold more community engagement and ongoing conversations with the City of Victoria. To stay up to date with what’s happening with Westholme, you can sign up for our newsletter, where we’ll be sharing the hotel’s rich history, neighbourhood stories, upcoming events, and development updates.

For a deeper dive into Westholme’s history, you can read up on Glen Moffat’s Aquae Vitae or check out this blog post from Sidewalking Victoria.