In February 1965, the Planning Department presented to Burnaby Council a preliminary Development Plan entitled "Pacific Sports Centre," for the area immediately west of Burnaby Lake. This report proposed a conceptual plan for a comprehensive range of indoor and outdoor sporting facilities adjacent to Burnaby Lake. The idea was accepted by Council and led to the construction of the Burnaby Lake Rink beside the C.G. Brown Pool. In 1973, Burnaby and New Westminster jointly hosted the Canada Summer Games for which a rowing course and pavilion were built at Burnaby Lake and the success of the games and the sports facilities added within Burnaby Lake Park provided further stimulus for the creation of the sports and recreation facilities at this site.
Photograph of three rows of students on the bleechers in a sports field outside of a school. The school building is visible in the background. Two children seated in the front row are holding tennis rackets.
Photograph of three rows of students on the bleechers in a sports field outside of a school. The school building is visible in the background. Two children seated in the front row are holding tennis rackets.
The Ardingley-Sprott Neighbourhood is primarily non-residential and developed in the 1970s west of the Burnaby Lake park area. It grew to include a large recreational component in the form of the Burnaby Lake Sports Complex and playing fields.
The Thomas Irvine House is a very small, two room wood frame cottage, originally located on Laurel Street in Central Burnaby (now the site of the Burnaby Lake Sports Complex - West), and now relocated to the Burnaby Village Museum.
The Thomas Irvine House is a very small, two room wood frame cottage, originally located on Laurel Street in Central Burnaby (now the site of the Burnaby Lake Sports Complex - West), and now relocated to the Burnaby Village Museum.
Heritage Value
The Thomas Irvine House is representative of an extremely modest, vernacular working-class cottage of the early twentieth century, once common but mostly now demolished. Irish-born Thomas Irvine (1864-1964) and his friend, Robert Moore, constructed the house in 1911 to suit the simple needs of a bachelor. Irvine worked on the construction of the British Columbia Electric Railway Burnaby Lake Interurban Line and was a pile driver by trade. The house consists of two rooms, a living room/kitchen and a bedroom. There were some improvements made throughout the fifty years Irvine lived there, such as running water in 1929, and electricity in the 1950s, but the essential character and form of the house remained intact. Irvine was a well-known local character and pioneer of Burnaby.
The heritage value for this house also lies in its interpretive value within the Burnaby Village Museum. The site is an important cultural feature for the interpretation of Burnaby’s heritage to the public. The Thomas Irvine House was moved to the Burnaby Village Museum in 1975 and was restored to its 1920s appearance.
Defining Elements
The character defining elements of the Thomas Irvine House include its:
- rectangular form and simple massing
- bellcast hipped form with cedar shingle cladding
- cedar shingle cladding stained dark brown
- double-hung 1-over-1 wooden-sash window on front facade; simple double wooden-sash casement on west facade
- interior layout of the house with 2 rooms, a living room/kitchen and bedroom
- V-joint tongue-and-groove wood interior paneling
Item consists of a recording of an oral history interview with "The Bollywood Boyz", Harvinder Sihra and Gurvinder Sihra conducted by Burnaby Village Museum Registrar, Rajdeep.
00:00:00 – 00:05:26
Gurvinder “Gurv” Sihra and brother Harvinder “Harv’ Sihra introduce themselves, providing details on …
Interviewer: Rajdeep
Interviewees: "The Bollywood Boyz", Harvinder Sihra and Gurvinder Sihra
Location of Interview: Burnaby Village Museum
Interview Date: July 8, 2023
Total Number of tracks: 2
Total Length of all Tracks: 01:02:03 min
Digital master recordings (wav) were recorded onto two separate audio tracks, edited and merged together and converted to mp3 for access on Heritage Burnaby
Photograph credit: World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)
Scope and Content
Item consists of a recording of an oral history interview with "The Bollywood Boyz", Harvinder Sihra and Gurvinder Sihra conducted by Burnaby Village Museum Registrar, Rajdeep.
00:00:00 – 00:05:26
Gurvinder “Gurv” Sihra and brother Harvinder “Harv’ Sihra introduce themselves, providing details on where they were born and grew up (in Burnaby), names of their parents and provide details on their family history. They describe how their grandparents and other relatives continued to live in Punjab after their father and mother immigrated to Canada in the 1970’s, recall the reasons their parents decided to immigrate and details of their lives before and after arriving in Canada.
00:05:27 – 00:06:46
Gurvinder and Harvinder describe some of their experiences travelling through Vancouver airport and compare their experiences with their mother’s own experiences. Gurvinder and Harvinder describe the layout of the airport and how customs and immigration has changed over time.
00:06:47 – 00:09:21
Gurvinder and Harvinder provide details about their mother, Parveen Sihra. They share information regarding her education in India and how she was unable to get work related to her degree in biology after immigrating to Canada. They convey how she worked in the Burnaby City Hall cafeteria in the 1990’s and how she worked part time in order to take care of her children. They share how their parents were proud Canadians participating in events inside and outside the South Asian community and were both fluent in English but often spoke Punjabi at home.
00:09:22 – 00:16:06
Gurvinder and Harvinder recall their childhood experiences growing up in Burnaby. They talk about the sports that they were involved with including hockey and Taekwondo, family vacations spent travelling to India and their experiences attending Marlborough Elementary School and Moscrop Secondary School.They describe how they first became interested in watching wrestling and trying it out on their own in their family home. Gurvinder and Harvinder recall their own experiences of discrimination while growing up and playing sports.
00:16:07 – 00:27:37
Gurvinder and Harvinder reflect and recall events that lead them to their dream of becoming professional wrestlers. They talk about pivotal events including attending their first live wresting event at GM Place with their father in 1996, beginning their training in Calgary in 2004, travelling across the country to participate in minor wrestling events, wrestling in Rogers Arena in 2017 and 2020 and getting their first call to join WWE. They talk about the support that they’ve had along the way to getting them where they are today and comment on why they want to be wrestlers in the WWE.
00:27:38 – 00:29:25
Gurvinder and Harvinder provide background information on their various wrestling personas and names in the world of professional wrestling including the Singh Brothers and the Bollywood Boyz.
00:29:26 – 00:38:43
Gurvinder and Harvinder talk about their experiences wrestling in India and the support and expectations of family members in becoming successful. Gurvinder and Harvinder recall and reflect on the experience of being fired from the WWE when cutbacks were made during the COVID pandemic.
00:38:44 – 00:42:53
Gurvinder and Harvinder describe what a day in their lives looks like now. They talk about how they’re still very passionate and focused on their wrestling careers and describe their experiences of having support and enthusiasm from fans and their parents. They talk about travelling across the country to particpate in different wrestling events.
00:42:54 – 00:47:18
Gurvinder and Harvinder talk about their training regimen including exercise and diet and describe areas in Burnaby where they like to train in gyms and the outdoors.
00:47:19 – 00:49:49
Gurvinder and Harvinder talk about neighbourhoods in Burnaby including Metrotown and Deer Lake and how they’ve seen them change over the years.
00:49:50 – 00:54:27
Gurvinder and Harvinder talk about their highest and lowest points in their wrestling careers, highlighting specific events. They talk about the physical stamina it takes for wrestling and compare their sport with the sport of Kabaddi (a contact team sport between two teams originating in India).
00:54:28 – 00:59:01
Gurvinder and Harvinder reflect on what toughness means to them, and what keeps them motivated to do what they do.
00:59:02 – 01:01:31
Gurvinder and Harvinder impart their words of wisdom to younger kids in chasing their passions and dreams and talk about their favourite Bollywood films and actors.
History
Interviewees' biographies:
The Bollywood Boyz are a Canadian professional wrestling tag team composed of brothers Gurvinder "Gurv" Sihra (born in 1984) and Harvinder "Harv" Sihra (born in 1987). The pair are best known for their time in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) where Gurvinder and Harvinder performed under the ring names Sunil Singh and Samir Singh. They were both born and raised in Burnaby by their parents Harjeet and Parveen Sihra and attended Moscrop Secondary School. Gurvinder graduated from Douglas College where he studied criminology and has worked in loss prevention and has a third degree black belt in Taekwondo. Harvinder attended Douglas College with studies in history and has worked as a model and an actor. Both Gurvinder and Harvinder Sihra are Sikhs.
Interviewer biography:
Rajdeep was born and raised in the Lower Mainland and is of Punjabi (South Asian) descent. She has an Associate of Arts degree in Asian Studies from Kwantlen Polytechnic University, a Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) in Anthropology from the University of British Columbia. She is a student in the Restoration of Natural Systems program at the University of Victoria. Rajdeep works at Simon Fraser University as a Program Assistant and as a researcher with the City of Burnaby. At Burnaby Village Museum, Rajdeep contributed to the exhibit “Truths Not Often Told: Being South Asian in Burnaby”.
Photograph of an unidentified woman ten pin bowling at the Rose Bowl bowling alley. The woman is wearing a bowling shirt and bowling in lane four. Fellow bowlers are visible in the foreground with their backs to the camera, watching her.
Photograph of an unidentified woman ten pin bowling at the Rose Bowl bowling alley. The woman is wearing a bowling shirt and bowling in lane four. Fellow bowlers are visible in the foreground with their backs to the camera, watching her.
Photograph of an unidentified woman ten pin bowling in lane five at the Rose Bowl bowling alley. Fellow bowlers are visible in the foreground with their backs to the camera, watching her.
Photograph of an unidentified woman ten pin bowling in lane five at the Rose Bowl bowling alley. Fellow bowlers are visible in the foreground with their backs to the camera, watching her.