Neighbourhood guide

Downtown Vancouver

Gastown, Yaletown and water everywhere

Vancouver46 spots

The vibe

Downtown Vancouver sits on a peninsula ringed by water and mountains. The cobblestones and brick fronts of Gastown, Yaletown's old warehouses turned patios, the glass towers of Coal Harbour where floatplanes land: in a few blocks you go from pioneer town to Pacific metropolis.

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UGO signatures

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See & discover

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Where to eat

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Drink & nightlife

Good to know

Walk from Canada Place to Coal Harbour at sunset: the waterfront path, the floatplanes and Stanley Park straight ahead.

When to go

Late afternoon along Coal Harbour, when the floatplanes come in and the light falls on the North Shore mountains. Evenings in Gastown and Yaletown for the bars.

Getting there

SkyTrain to Waterfront, Granville or Yaletown–Roundhouse (Canada Line); SeaBus from North Vancouver to Waterfront.

The story

How the neighbourhood came to be

It all began in 1867, when “Gassy” Jack Deighton opened a saloon on Burrard Inlet: the settlement that grew around it took the name Gastown. Incorporated as Vancouver in April 1886, the city burned almost entirely two months later, then was reborn with the arrival of the Canadian Pacific transcontinental railway in 1887. Expo 86 and converted warehouses did the rest.

Did you know?

1The city was incorporated on April 6, 1886, and almost entirely destroyed by the Great Fire of June 13 that same year.
2The Gastown steam clock, installed in 1977, whistles the hours using steam from the neighbourhood's heating system.
3Gastown is named after “Gassy” Jack Deighton, a talkative sailor who opened the first saloon there in 1867.

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UGO signatures

UGO Signature

Explorer le quartier historique de Gastown

Gastown is a historic Vancouver neighbourhood that can be explored on foot among commercial buildings and older façades. A walk offers opportunities to observe the architecture and explore part of Vancouver’s urban history. Gastown Historic District is a National Historic Site of Canada.

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