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Mowgli-dog
Location: Vancouver, B.C. Gender: Male Total Likes: 31 likes
| | | | Re: Under the Garden City: Victoria B.C. secret tunnels. < Reply # 2861 on 11/24/2009 11:34 PM > | Reply with Quote
| | | Posted by KublaKhan
Any why not? There was an open cavity under a massive parking lot here in Vic. Someone burned out that place as well. It's gone now. Filled/fucked/closed.
| I've just seen it so many times, granted, on this side of the water. If they go to the expense of re-doing the utilities and roadworks, it makes no sense to leave an old void that may or may not be stable. A non-City owned parking lot may not be held to the same standard. Likewise for sidewalk "beautification" with new concrete, street furniture and such, the old glass tile areaways are filled prior to new concrete being poured, unless it is a feature the property owner wants to save, in which case they re-inforce and install lights under the glass similar to what they've done on the east side of the 500 block Beattie Street here in Vancouver. Of note, if you read old City Council records when the Engineering Department is presenting a report to council or a committee on proposed roadworks, renovations, or property developments, tunnels or areaways are often mentioned. The Woodwards tunnel across Cordova Street was referred to several times when council debated the Woodwards development. This is similar for under sidewalk areaways throughout the City at or near development sites. This may be the same for Victoria Council, I don't know.
[last edit 11/24/2009 11:37 PM by Mowgli-dog - edited 1 times]
| "We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm." -George Orwell Rest in peace, my pal Mowgli - the best dog there ever was. |
| yellow_wallpaper
Location: Victoria, Canada Total Likes: 5 likes
If you're not dirty, you're not doing it right.
| | | Re: Under the Garden City: Victoria B.C. secret tunnels. < Reply # 2864 on 11/25/2009 6:01 AM > | Reply with Quote
| | | Posted by KublaKhan
Once again, there was no need to smuggle opium into the city, as it was perfectly legal to produce it. Opium was made in Victoria. There were legal opium dens. It was not a crime to manufacture/possess/sell/use opium. That came later, and after much of the tunnels system was already in place. Given the volume of cash currency/bonds/certificates for exchange, etc. that came into and out of the city, and given that it was not exactly safe to move said items above ground from point A to point B, the tunnels were most certainly used to move this stuff underground. There was also a pretty decent trade in indentured labour...human smuggling was reasonably common (as it is to this day...here, in Victoria. Yes...human trafficking in Victoria in this present day and age). However, given that as a port city people were coming and going at all hours...ships were sailing into harbour on every hour of the day going for months...thousands of people passed through Victoria with no intention of staying...it's doubtful that the tunnels would have been used solely for this purpose. There's the story of men getting drunk in the saloon, and then waking up hours later way out at sea. Imagine that...you're at the bar sucking back pints, getting tapped on the bean, being shuttled underground from the saloon to a waiting ship. And then off you go to some other port. And you wake up with a hangover, and the floor is rolling around under your feet, and you look out the window and there's nothing but water as far as the eye can see. You're in the Navy now, sailor. The location of this entrance (wall pic) is interesting in that it generally offers point A in a straight line all the way up to what was then the Fort Victoria enclosure, the old courthouse, etc. Also, the hole in the wall is a right-angle entrance from a 'rumoured' tunnel that begins 'somewhere' on Store Street and carries on down Warf Street. You can see evidence of this tunnel plainly enough, and with little effort, and that this tunnel eventually makes it's way to the old Customs house. And so on and so on.
| Not necessarily. Licenses for said sale was required. I completely agree that it was widely used, but still smuggled in some cases nonetheless. The tunnels could also have been used to smuggle not into Victoria, but out to sea. It was cheaper for cities on the coast to import Opium from Victoria rather than China. Theres a possibility that customs was checking the ships going to various ports. As well, it was banned in Victoria in the early 1900s I believe, and the dens/gambling houses remained open well into the middle of the century (longer in some cases) and the tunnels weren't closed until around that time either. In regards to the business located behind the wall, I've been into the basement of the same building, different suite. Theres a bricked up doorway in the back of the space, simular to another one in the area A. Lien was kind enough to show me. John Adams is my hero. Edit - Iz a gud spellr.
[last edit 11/25/2009 6:15 AM by yellow_wallpaper - edited 1 times]
| "...let us step into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure." - Dumbledore |
| A. Lien
Location: Fantasy Island B.C. Gender: Male Total Likes: 17 likes
Abductees Anonymous all welcome
| | | Re: Under the Garden City: Victoria B.C. secret tunnels. < Reply # 2877 on 12/16/2009 3:52 AM > | Reply with Quote
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