Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.

West End / Downtown

First Vancouver City Council Meeting after the fire - photograph by H. T. Devine
First Vancouver City Council Meeting after the fire - photograph by H. T. Devine (VPL # 508)

Related Guides

The peninsula that contains the West End and Downtown is the most densely populated area of Vancouver and also contains Stanley Park, its largest green space. Mole Hill, Yaletown, Coal Harbour, the Central Business District, Davie Village, Robson, and Granville Streets are all areas within these neighbourhoods.

Useful Websites

Restored West End Victorian house built in 1893.

Gathers together oral stories from individuals who grew up in Vancouver’s West End.

Walking tour highlighting buildings on Hastings from Victory Square to Bute Street.

Walking tour of this well-preserved part of the West End.

A list of book titles set in Vancouver's West End.

History of the West End starting in the late 1800s and running to about 1920. Information about buildings, streets, people and businesses.

Digital Library Resources
Culture and History Subject Icon

British Columbia city directories from 1860 to 1955. Directories include detailed historical information about British Columbian communities.

Access:
Everywhere for everyone
Newspapers and Magazines Subject Icon

Digitized newspaper archives covering The Province (1898 - present), The Vancouver Sun (1912 - present) and The Times Colonist (1884 - present).

Issues from most recent 3 months not available in this collection. See Canadian Newsstream for current issues.

Access:
Everywhere for Vancouver residents
Newspapers and Magazines Subject Icon

Search and view community newspapers from around BC published between 1865 and 1994. This collection makes many of BC's earliest newspapers freely available in digital format

Access:
Everywhere for everyone
Culture and History Subject Icon

Finding tool for historical information about BC in books, magazines and newspapers in the Vancouver Public Library collection.

Access:
Everywhere for everyone
Culture and History Subject Icon

A selection of historical images of Vancouver and British Columbia from the 1880s to the 1980s.

Access:
Everywhere for everyone
Culture and History Subject Icon

The Vancouver Public Library created This Vancouver to share the stories of Vancouverites and the history of Vancouver communities through images, audio clips, and videos. 

Access:
Everywhere for everyone

Recommended Titles

Cover Image for Buddy's: Meditations on Desire
Stan Persky
Call Number
306.7662 P46b
Publication Year
1989
Chronicles the lives of gay men in the West End in the 1980s.
Cover Image for Coal Harbour Recollections
Martin J. Wells
Call Number
971.133 W45c
Publication Year
2007
History of this area from white settlement, through its era as a working waterfront to its transition to a residential community.
G. Sutton Brown and Vancouver City Council (Technical Planning Board)
Call Number
710.09 V22d
Publication Year
1956
Planning document provides a detailed picture of the downtown area in the middle of the last century and ideas about how it could change.
Vancouver Planning Department, British Columbia Heritage Trust, Heritage Vancouver Society and Vancouver Museum
Call Number
720.9711 V224y
Publication Year
1997
Walking tour of historic buildings in Yaletown.

Contact Us

Northwest History Index

This card index in Special Collection provides access to the Northwest History Collection, a heritage collection covering the early history and exploration of British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest.

The collection includes:

  • magazine and newspaper articles
  • pamphlets
  • books
  • chapters in books
  • many other resources

As of August 1998, no new material has been added to the Northwest History Index. It is continued by the British Columbia Index.