Granville Island, before the pandemic, was rated the number two tourist attraction in Canada for its huge number of visitors.
With the U.S. border closed and cruises cancelled things are quiet at the Island these days, but there’s a new competitor in town available to take up the action. The district formerly referred to as Lower Lonsdale is now open for business as The Shipyards. How long will it be before local citizens and the rest of the Lower Mainland discover this fabulous new destination? People are staying closer to home this summer and no doubt looking for new and interesting destinations. The Shipyards District certainly fills the bill.
The name refers to the old industrial waterfront where ships were built during the Second World War, but over time the district went downhill. Renovations started a decade ago and today the waterfront is finally filled with new shops, pubs, restaurants, condos, art galleries and soon a museum.
While the focus is on the waterfront, the action doesn’t stop there. All of Lower Lonsdale has been renovated as far as Fourth Street to the north. Where once were seedy bars and decrepit apartments, today hip new restaurants, cafes and condos crowd along the main drag.
Off Lonsdale, from Chesterfield in the west all the way to St. David’s in the east, new businesses and condos have popped up. Perhaps the most interesting development has been the slow appearance of what is now officially referred to as the Brewery District, where several new craft breweries have opened.
You might want to consider a pub crawl. Starting from ground zero at Lonsdale Quay, Greenleaf Brewing serves up its own craft beers. It’s a quick hop, skip and a crawl over to mighty Tap and Barrel, a smash since it opened (so to speak).
Make sure not to overlook Streetcar Brewery, a small brew pub that is hidden away in the alley behind East First and Lonsdale. Take a peek in the lane and you might see the 15-seat Beer Bike also parked there, a new and novel way to explore the neighbourhood when available. The tried and true Rusty Gull, now seriously upgraded as the Gull Bar and Kitchen, is just down the block. Wander down to Esplanade where you’ll find Beere, another craft brew house. The next block boasts the House of Funk, a brew house and coffee roaster. On the way back, North Point Brewery has opened on First Street near St. Andrews Avenue.
Speaking of coffee roasters, the Shipyards District hosts quite a number of new small cafes roasting their own, as well as many new small restaurants and shops well worth browsing. If you drop into Goodlad on Esplanade you can sip a coffee, get a haircut and get your pants hemmed all at the same location. Try that at Starbucks!
Otherwise, there’s Alchemy at Fourth and Lonsdale, West of Java and Lift at First and Lonsdale, plus Nemesis and Artigiano at the Shipyards itself. Just off the waterfront, don’t forget the Polygon Gallery and the upcoming new North Shore Museum when they are open. If you need a mission rather than a mere ramble, the North Shore Heritage Preservation Society lists a lovely walk of historic houses and commercial buildings in the District.
Everyone knows the hills of San Francisco don’t deter tourists, but Lower Lonsdale can be steep, so if you want gravity on your side you can start at Fourth and Lonsdale and make your way down. There’s a bus stop and street parking at that corner. Make sure you stroll by Kiwanis Towers at 170 West Second. Across the street to the south a winding brick path wanders under a canopy of trees. In the spring the lane is completely covered in white or pink cherry blossoms, looking like a wedding is taking place. This is Vancouver’s miniature version of famous Lombard Street in San Francisco, only Lombard (“the world’s crookedest street”) is bumper to bumper cars whereas little Cherry Lane is a footpath on the way to heaven.
Your downhill walk should end at the Spirit Trail, where the choice is simple: head east or west? Heading east, if you don’t have your own bike drop in to Reckless Rider at the centre of the Shipyards where they’ll rent you one. Forget about buying a bike in the pandemic; they’re all sold out.
The Spirit Trail is a dream to ride. Going east, currently it ends at the Upper Levels highway. West? All the way to Ambleside. It’s flat and paved and no traffic, except for all the other riders looking to enjoy one of the finest bike trails found in any urban environment anywhere. From the Shipyards, it’s about a 30-minute ride in either direction. Otherwise, you might just want to wander around the Shipyards themselves. Not every shop is open, but the only way to find out is to wander around, and that in itself is a pleasure, with lots of take-out food available so you can simply plunk yourself down on a bench and enjoy the fabulous view of Vancouver across the harbour where the poor citizens of the Village of Vancouver don’t know what delights they are missing across the way.
When things get back to normal and the cruise ships and tourists are back in town, you can expect swarms of them to sail across on the Seabus to see what they can sea, revitalizing the Quay and discovering the Shipyards. Meantime, lucky folks here on the Shore who haven’t discovered this new District yet have a real treat waiting for them this summer.
Michael McCarthy is the author of several travel books including Picnics in Paradise; 50 short walks and bike trips on the North Shore, and Strolling the Shore; Exploring the Shipyards, Lower Lonsdale, the Brewery District and the Spirit Trail. His books can be found at local shops, cafes and pubs; on Amazon; or at transformative-travel.ca.
This article originally appeared in the Explore the Shore feature found in the July 15, 2020 edition of the North Shore News.
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