43 Lewis Street

The historic place is a one storey, English Arts and Crafts style bungalow, built in 1928, located in the James Bay neighbourhood of Victoria, B.C.

43 Lewis Street has historic and aesthetic value for contributing to the historic character of Lewis Street, a small dead-end street in the James Bay neighbourhood with an intact historic streetscape of houses of a variety of styles, built at the beginning of the twentieth century. The street is narrow, with no sidewalks, and the proximity of the houses to the street create a small, intimate urban scale which recalls the early years of the development of Victoria as a city. James Bay is significant as Victoria's oldest residential neighbourhood and for illustrating the early pattern of neighbourhood settlement where pioneer farms were subdivided to form the first suburbs. The close proximity and compact nature of this unusually intact historic streetscape offers a window into what a typical James Bay street might have looked like prior to World War Two.

Built in 1928 by John and George Playfair, and their cousin, George Cramer, local builders, the house at 43 Lewis Street has aesthetic value for illustrating the English Arts and Crafts style, which was a common style in Victoria during the 1920s and 1930s. The house is valued as a representative example of the modest working class homes which sprang up due to the close walking distance to the industrial activity around Ogden Point which was fueled by the economic boom prior to World War One.

The elements that define the character of 43 Lewis Street include all elements of the English Arts and Crafts bungalow style including, but not limited to:

- Simple one storey form

- Hipped roof, open soffit and exposed rafters

- Stucco finish

- Three over one wood sash windows

- Cantilevered box bay windows

- Corbelled chimney