• The Story of a People's Place
• The Industrial Heyday
• The Dark Ages
• Granville Island's Renaissance:
  A New Beginning
• A Template for Urban Renewal
• Everyday People

In the late 1800’s, the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, the symbolic ‘steel ribbon’ uniting Canada from coast to coast, was approaching completion. False Creek soon became the subject of much debate over ownership and usage. Eventually the land was transferred to the National Harbour Commission, which agreed to fill in the island to ten feet above the high tide mark, creating new permanent land where heavy industry could flourish. These developments could not have come at a better time. World War One loomed from across the sea. Shipping traffic was growing exponentially in the Port of Vancouver, particularly with the opening of the Panama Canal. The demand for an industrial area in Vancouver had reached a high that could no longer be ignored.

The Industrial Heyday

At its height in 1930, the newly created Island, then known as Industrial Island, employed 1,200 workers and was home to a wide range of industrial manufacturers. They made wire and fibre ropes for logging, chain for pulling barges, and other materials for the shipping, mining and logging industries. Barges brought in lumber from up the coast and took away chains, some with links larger than the tallest man. It was a time of pride and camaraderie, when generations of workers placed a high value on their craft and the quality of their workmanship.

The Dark Ages

After World War Two, Industrial Island’s decline was swift and unequivocal. It became a dark and lifeless place with rusted, abandoned warehouses. The Island had become a hazard to the environment and an eyesore to the people. The fate of False Creek was put on the back burner while the city around it progressed.

When heavy industry became unfashionable and obsolete in a centralized urban context, still echoing in the empty tin-clad buildings remained the spirit of friendship and traditional pride in craftsmanship. Just like the ocean tides of old, the changing tides of humanity would wipe clean the dirtied face of the Island and refresh it with a renewed vision of its purpose as a gathering place for people.

• Panoramic view from the old bridge in 1920, when the sandbar had just been dredged and Industrial Island was born.

Photos courtesy of Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden Architects

• The old trucking company, now Bridges Restaurant. Photo courtesy of Bridges.

• Machining factory under construction. Now the Public Market.