elcome to Nairne House By-The-Sea

The award-winning, century old Nairne House provides excellent accommodation in James Bay, Victoria’s oldest residential neighbourhood. James Bay is well served by shops, services, restaurants and transit.

Accommodation is provided in a self-contained second-story suite, which features a large private bathroom and fully equipped butler’s pantry.

The historically designed and decorated suite, which has been the subject of numerous international magazine articles, features custom-built furniture, including a bed inlaid with abalone shell luxuriously appointed with beautiful linens and a down filled duvet. A television, VCR and telephone are provided for your convenience.

Vintage wicker furniture on the bandstand porch and an antique lawn swing invite guests to enjoy the much-admired garden and vistas of the historic neighbourhood and the sea.

Breakfast is catered in the privacy of the suite. An ever-changing menu features such temptations as savoury breakfast casseroles, crisps, crumbles, muffins, fresh fruit salads and juices. The pantry is stocked with juices, teas, coffee, bottled water and snacks. Special dietary requests are happily accommodated.

Information on restaurants, cultural events, architecture, gardens, local attractions and places of interest on Vancouver Island are provided in the suite’s reference library.

"If you had to choose a single house to epitomize old-fashioned, garden city, seaside Victoria, it might be the 1893 Nairne House at 642 Battery Street in James Bay, designed by the architect A. Maxwell Muir. Today, as it approaches its second century, this "classical cottage" is sheltered by mature trees and protected by a magnificent fence. The house has an extended, octagonal breakfast balcony providing an oasis from the hot midday sun.

"Battery Street is a block from the ocean promenade along Dallas Road, and conjures up images of tea planters, "old China hand" and members of the colonial Indian civil service retiring with their tiny pensions to tiny houses graced by rose arbours and honeysuckle, and Robert Louis Stevenson's "home is a sailor, home from the sea...," and long walks in the stiff breeze along the ocean front."

Painting and writing from: British Columbia in Watercolour by Michael Kluckner, 1993