Gastown Introduction

Hi! My name is Chris King. I've been stomping around Vancouver for over 25 years. When I first moved here in 2000, I attended an acting school at Maple Tree Square in Gastown, which is where we'll be walking today. I took the train every morning to Waterfront Station, where you are now, and walked down what turned out to be the most amazing street in Vancouver. As I came to learn more about my new home, I continued to be drawn back to Gastown. Each apartment I moved to seemed to hop me closer and closer and now I live on the same block as the acting school I attended so many years ago. The school is gone but I'm still here and exploring the city more than ever.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to do this walk with you today. I'm also a wizard and am needed in many different places. But I do hope you enjoy this smartphone based experience. I really do live near Maple Tree Square, so If you send me an email when you are nearby, I might be able to pop by and stop for a chat. I also offer customized in-person bike or walking tours. Let me know what you are interested in and we can try to set it up. I do a great picnic in Stanley Park, with locally sourced sandwiches and snacks. I can also help if you are interested in learning more about legalized marijuana in Canada.

A piece of logistics before we get started, and that is the important topic of toilets. Whether you call them washrooms, bathrooms, or restrooms, they are critical to enjoying your day out. The best pit stop that I know of is in Sinclair Centre. Sinclair Center is located diagonally opposite Waterfront Station. Looks for a set of grey doors and a green sign that says 325 Granville Street. Go in here and you'll find an amazing handblown glass store called Ethereal Arts. Just past there to the left is a set of washrooms that almost nobody knows about. The next best place for a bio break is in the food court of Harbour Centre, which is a bit further down Cordova on the other side of Waterfront Station. There are also public washrooms in Victory Square, which is the final stop of the tour. More about those when we get there.

But enough of my yacking! Let's get on with the tour of Gastown!

Take yourself back 150 years, the busy street you're standing on is nothing but a dirt trail. You're surrounded by trees — massive red cedars and maples that tower above a small collection of buildings and a simple lumber mill. The city of Vancouver is still just a distant dream. You can't even get a drink around here!

Although Europeans were just arriving in the area, the indigenous Coast Salish people had been living here for thousands of years. There was a village in Stanley Park called Whay Whay, (also spelled X̱wáýx̱way or x̌ʷay̓x̌ʷəy̓), that had been populated for over 3000 years. The Europeans liked to describe the area as untapped wilderness, but it's estimated that around 100,000 indigenous people lived in the area that is now Greater Vancouver. You can learn more about early Vancouver and our treatment of the Indigenous population on the VanWalks website, linked below

The story of Vancouver, as we know it today, begins right here in Gastown. The new town was nicknamed Gastown after one of its first business owners, a man known as 'Gassy' Jack. Gassy Jack built a pub overnight in 1867 and ended up becoming the most famous resident of the new centre of the province of British Columbia, the town that would eventually be called Vancouver. We'll learn more about Gassy Jack later.

Vancouver is actually one of the youngest cities in BC. It developed around the Hastings Mill, also opened in 1867. The term “Skid Row” originally, “Skid Road”, was coined here, referring to the skids they used to drag logs to the mill. It also had a reputation for being a bad part of town because of the rough living, transient nature of the loggers and millworkers.

Despite its history, the retro Victorian-era look of Gastown is not the remnants of the original settlement but a specifically designed revitalization scheme of the 1970s. Nowadays, the neighbourhood serves as a tourist hub, a nightlife destination for locals, and the border to Canada's poorest population. The current “Skid Row” of East Hastings street is known as the Downtown Eastside.

Along this walk you'll see the sometimes beautiful, sometimes messy intersection of history and myth, gentrification and authenticity, wealth and squalor, diversity and destruction. The evolution of Vancouver isn't necessarily pretty. But for the past century and a half you can count on there being a place to stop for a drink or two, here in Gastown.

From here, head into Waterfront Station, the red brick building with the white columns out front. You can't miss it.