3. Alexandra Park Cottages – Bidwell Street [Lost]

These tiny Victorian beach cottages are the last two survivors from English Bay’s early days, at 1318 & 1324 Bidwell Street.

Together they provide an eccentric backdrop for Alexandra Park and Bandstand in the West End, on Bidwell Street just up from Beach Avenue. Their new owners have applied to develop condos on the site. The cottages have no legal protection as they were missed for inclusion on the City’s Heritage Register. A purchaser willing to move them may be their only hope.

Updates

Update June 27, 2005: The cottages have been demolished, replaced by banal condos.

Update 2018: Cottages’ background – built as a grouping of five cottages on Bidwell Street in 1899 by James Jeffery, the southern two cottages (1318 & 1324 Bidwell) survived until 2002 when they were demolished for a new development. The northern three cottages (1300, 1306 & 1312 Bidwell) were demolished around early 1910 for an apartment building. (Water permits 3864-3868 issued June 7, 1899 to James Jeffery)