Once it was the largest indoor salt-water swimming pool in the British Empire.
Now the Crystal Garden, built in 1925, is going to be home to two pickleball courts — at least temporarily. Starting Jan. 9 and running to Feb. 18, the city will provide the two courts using $60,000 from the city’s OUR DWTN revitalization program.
Jeff Brehaut, Victoria’s manager of recreation services, said one component of the program is to animate public spaces downtown.
Given the need and the desire to have an indoor pickleball venue, we decided that we would give that a try and see what the public thought about that,” he said.
The move is being applauded by the Victoria Regional Pickleball Association, which calls the game the fastest-growing sport in Canada. “Pickleball in Beacon Hill Park has been a resounding success and we expect local and visiting players will embrace playing in the Crystal Garden as well,” said association president Connie McCann.
The city has been looking at sites to establish pickleball courts given the surge in popularity during and after the pandemic.
A pickleball pilot project begun last year in Beacon Hill Park on the Arbutus Way parking lot near Goodacre Lake is still going strong, and there are plans to build as many as 11 courts at Topaz Park.
Brehaut said the designs for Topaz’s additions are being finalized and are expected to go before Victoria council in the new year. If the courts are approved, they could be constructed by the spring of 2025.
The temporary courts at Crystal Garden will be available for drop-in times, reservations and registered programs. Information will be available online Tuesday at victoria.ca, and registration will open on Thursday at noon.
Brehaut said the Crystal Garden has plenty of room for the courts, which will operate in response to demand. “Essentially, we’ll be open when people are requesting access,” he said.
As for the pilot project at Beacon Hill Park, it will remain in play until the city can replace it with a more permanent solution in that neighborhood or a more traditional use of the space is required.
The Beacon Hill project was established shortly after Victoria banned pickleball from Todd Park in James Bay due to noise complaints from nearby residents.
When it was completed in 1925, the Crystal Garden provided Victoria with its first indoor swimming pool and attracted international attention.
Commissioned by the Canadian Pacific Railway to entertain visitors to Victoria, the Crystal Garden was designed by Francis Rattenbury, architect of the B.C. Parliament Buildings and the Empress Hotel, and P.L. James, who had collaborated with Rattenbury in the design of the Steamship Terminal.
The pool closed in 1970 and the building stood empty for 10 years. After the city sold it to the province for a nominal sum, the Provincial Capital Commission spent millions upgrading the structure and reopened it in 1980 as the Crystal Garden Conservation Centre, a conservatory housing tropical plants and endangered animals.
In 2004, the Provincial Capital Commission closed the conservation centre amid controversy. After $20 million in renovations, the new incarnation of the Crystal Garden, called the B.C. Experience, opened in 2006, but closed three months later in bankruptcy.
The building was then leased to the city, which spent nearly $10 million on renovations in 2008 to make it part of the Victoria Conference Centre. The Crystal Garden became city property in 2014 in a land swap that followed the dissolution of the Provincial Capital Commission.
