Government House is the official residence of the Lieutenant Governor of the Province of British Columbia.

This is the fourth residence to be built on the site. The original structure, erected in 1852, burned to the ground after only three months. It was rebuilt as Cary Castle, the residence of George Hunter Cary, Attorney General of British Columbia and Vancouver Island, in 1860, and purchased by the Province in 1865 as the official residence of the Governor of Vancouver Island.

When, Vancouver Island merged with Mainland British Columbia in 1866, forming a single Crown Colony, Victoria became its Capital.

Cary CastleFive years later, on 20 July 1871, British Columbia entered Confederation as a province of Canada, and Cary Castle became Government House, the official residence of the Lieutenant Governor of the Province of British Columbia.

After being destroyed for the second time by fire, in May 1899, a new Government House was designed by architects Francis M. Rattenbury and Samuel Maclure and completed in 1903. This new mansion occupied its imposing site overlooking the Straits of Juan de Fuca until it too was razed by fire in April 1957 leaving only the porte cochère.

The present Government House, officially opened on May 19, 1959, is T-shaped with a full basement and ground, second and third floors. The structural frame is of steel-reinforced concrete finished in grey, blue and pink rock-faced British Columbia granite. Dressed stone sills and coping are of local Haddington Island stone. The terraces and balconies are paved with black Jervis Inlet slate.

Entering through the portico leads to a long red-carpeted oak-paneled hall long, lined with portraits of past Lieutenant Governors to date. On each side of the granite fireplace are life-size paintings of Her Majesty The Queen and of His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh. On the landing of main stairway below the Rogers Stained Glass Window. Hang the Heraldic Shields of Arms of Members of The Royal Family and of Governors General who have stayed in Government House. Off of the entrance are drawing-room in greens, yellows and white, the dining-room, panelled in fir and patterned after the original and the Ballroom, a blend of traditional and modern design as well as the offices of the Lieutenant Governor and Private Secretary.

Government House The personal living quarters of the Lieutenant Governor are on the Second Floor as well as guest accommodation including a Royal Suite in which The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh, and the Prince and Princess of Wales and other Members of The Royal Family have stayed.

Government House rests on 36 acres of gardens and grounds designed by Robert Savery, born and educated in England where British landscape tradition asserted much influence upon his stylistic tendencies and general outlook.

Prior to the 1957 fire, the western landscape had only a few plots of hybrid tea roses in a lawn with a natural sloping grade, heavily surrounded by trees. However, Savery's new landscape design changed the characteristics of the area and conditions were improved to rare Garry Oak ecosystem, and 5.7 hectares of formal gardens including the Bruce Pavilion, Rotary Garden of International Friendship, Victorian and Sunken and Rose Gardens, Winter, Iris, Perennial, Alpine, Heather, Herb, Ballroom Terraces, Cut Flower, Cottage and English Country Gardens.


1401 Rockland Avenue,
Victoria, British Columbia,
Canada V8S 1V9