vancouver street plaza | North Park Neighbourhood, Victoria BC

see upcoming events and activities on the NPNA event calendar!

The lending hub returns!

The lending hub is a larger than life little free library where you can borrow board games, puzzles, lawn games, and sports equipment at no cost!

Hours: Friday, Saturday, Sunday 2-6pm

Follow us on social media (@WeAreNorthPark) for the most up to date information!

how the vancouver street plaza came to be!

The NPNA is thrilled to be a recipient of the Healthy Communities Initiative grant from Community Foundations of Canada with funding from the Government of Canada! This amazing grant was developed to help communities bring public space to life. Covid has taught cities across Canada that public space that meets the needs of residents is incredibly important. This federal grant is designed to activate underused public spaces in equity deserving neighbourhoods.

You can see the other projects funded from this grant here. You can also follow #HealthyCommunities on Instagram, as well as these accounts to see all the projects taking place across the country: Infrastructure Canada on Twitter and Community Foundations of Canada on Twitter and Instagram!

The location of this exciting project is Vancouver Street between Caledonia Ave & Green Street. The North Park Neighbourhood Association is working with the City’s Transportation department to activate this portion of Vancouver Street in coordination with planned placemaking investments. This project aligns with the recently completed bikeway improvements on Vancouver Street. The Transportation Department is contributing funds to support public art and public seating as well as coordinating Mobile Vendors through the Build Back Victoria Program.

See (and hear!) the lending hub & SUPPLY Pop-Up in action!

plaza guidelines

The following Plaza Rules will be posted and would apply to everyone equally. The rules are:

project elements

A mural along Royal Athletic Park by artists Kay Gallivan, Caitlin McDonagh, and Lydia Beauregard.
A little free library will be installed at the corner of Vancouver Street and Green at the entrance to the 940 Caledonia parking lot. See the photo of the little free library below! Thank you to community volunteer, Allan who made the LFL out of recycled materials!
Secured and moveable seating and shade. Bistro seats with umbrellas and lounging chairs for reading provided by the City of Victoria.
Whimsical lighting adds an inviting ambience to the street.
The focal point of the Plaza will be a lending hub. This is an 8×12 foot structure that will be staffed when open. From August-December 2021, the lending hub lent out puzzles, board games, sports equipment, lawn games and more! From Feburary – May 2022, the lending hub will be a little free craft store with SUPPLY Victoria (details above!)
A community bulletin board where neighbours can post notices about upcoming community events!
Arriving soon…. A little free pantry!

project timeline

This project is funded from June 2021-September 2022. While there are some elements that we intend to make permanent (lighting, mural, little free library, secured seating), the rest of the elements (lending hub, moveable seating) will only be in place until September 2022.

plaza committee

The community was invited – through direct invitation as well as the NPNA newsletter – to attend a Plaza Committee Planning Party on July 5, 2021 on site. The notes from this fun dinnertime working party are here.

There will be more meetings and opportunities to get involved! If you want to be a part of the “Plaza Committee” let us know by emailing executivedirector@npna.ca.