Welcome to the Dictionary of Island Terms. Its purpose is to pin down the patois of Vancouver Island by recording its toponyms, nicknames, phenomena, slang, personalities and places. Explore the ever-growing A-Z here.

View Towers | building, legend | A 19-storey, 357 unit apartment complex located at 1147 Quadra Street in downtown Victoria. The building, completed in 1968, stands 187ft high and is the 7th tallest structure in the city. It has been locally notorious for much of its 50 year existence, having been the site of several murders, suicides, fatal overdoses, destructive fires, countless violent assaults and several hundred 9-11 calls besides. Its unflattering nickname of ‘Crack Towers’ has persisted since the 1990s.

Usage: “I used to buy weed on the 7th floor of View Towers until one night I found a pool of blood in the elevator…”