Walking Tour 1

Downtwon & The West End

Start: The Fairmont Hotel Vancouver.

Finish: Cathedral Place.

Time: 2 to 3 hours, not including museum, shopping, and eating stops.

Best Time: Daytime, particularly during the week when the Law Courts building is open.

Worst Time:Late in the evening when the shops and offices have closed.

Vancouver's West End is said to be the densest residential district west of Manhattan. I don't know if that's true or not, but what I do know is that urban density has never been more beautifully planned or landscaped than in Vancouver. Every Edwardian house and every high-rise residential tower in the West End is surrounded by lush, beautiful plantings of trees, shrubs, and flowers. This appealingly green idea of the urban working with nature instead of against it carries over into Vancouver's commercial downtown, where the placement and orientation of buildings has been carefully controlled to preserve view corridors to the mountains and bodies of water. Remember to look up as you wander downtown -- more often than not, you'll be rewarded with a peekaboo view of a North Shore peak.

1. The Fairmont Hotel Vancouver

At 900 W. Georgia St. and dating from 1939, this hotel is owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), just as the city itself was for many, many years. In return for agreeing in 1885 to make Vancouver its western terminus, the CPR was given 2,400 hectares (5,931 acres) of prime real estate -- nearly the whole of today's downtown. The Hotel Vancouver is built in the CPR's signature château style, with a verdigris-green copper roof. It's worth stepping inside to see the grand, old-fashioned ambience of the lobby.

Leaving by the Burrard Street exit, turn left. When you reach the corner, turn right, cross Burrard Street, and you're on:

2. Robson Street

The shops on this corner get more foot traffic than any others in Canada. Things were different back in the 1950s, when so many German delis and restaurants opened up that for a time the street was nicknamed "Robsonstrasse." Beginning in the 1980s, the older businesses were replaced with high-end clothiers and new restaurants and gift shops with signs in Japanese. Whether you're into shopping or not, Robson Street is a great place to walk and people-watch. The street has an international cosmopolitan feel to it, and chances are you'll hear Cantonese, Croatian, Japanese, and other tongues as you stroll.

Two blocks farther down Robson at Bute Street, turn left and walk 1 block through a minipark to Barclay Street, and you've entered:

3. The West End

Beginning in about 1959, this down-at-its-heels neighborhood of once-grand Edwardian houses was transformed by the advent of the concrete high-rise. By 1970, most of the Edwardian houses had been replaced by apartment towers, and the West End was on its way to becoming one of the densest -- and simultaneously one of the most livable -- inner cities on the continent. The minipark at Bute and Barclay is one of the things that makes the neighborhood so successful: Traffic is kept to a minimum on the tree-lined West End streets, so that residents -- though they live in the city center -- can enjoy a neighborhood almost as quiet as a small town. Beautiful landscaping, and plenty of it, adds to the area's appealing allure.

Turn right and walk 3 blocks down Barclay Street to Nicola Street. Along the way you'll see some of the elements that make the West End such a sought-after enclave: the gardens, street trees, and the range and variety of buildings -- including a few surviving Edwardians, like the Arts and Crafts house at 1351 Barclay, and the pair of houses at the corner of Barclay and Nicola streets, otherwise known as:

4. Barclay Square

This beautifully preserved bit of 19th-century Vancouver consists of Barclay Manor, built in the Queen Anne style in 1890, and Roedde House, a rare domestic design by British Columbia's leading 19th-century institutional architect, Francis Rattenbury. Roedde House is now a museum, open for guided tours Tuesday through Friday 2 to 4pm; admission C$5 (£2.50). On Sundays, tea and cookies are served and the admission price is C$1 (50p) more.

Turn left and walk south down Nicola Street for 1 block -- past Fire Station No. 6 -- then turn right and go 1 block on Nelson, then left again onto Cardero Street, passing by the tiny Cardero Grocery at 1078 Cardero St. All the grocery needs of the West End were once supplied by little corner stores like this one. Turn right and walk 2 blocks on Comox Street to reach Denman Street, the perfect place to:

Take A Break

If Robson Street is the place Vancouverites go for hyperactive shopping sprees, Denman is where they go to sit back, sip a latte, and watch their fellow citizens stroll past. Urban Rush, 1040 Denman St. (tel. 604/685-2996), is a fine spot for coffee and baked goods, particularly if you can nab a table on their outdoor terrace. One block down on the opposite side of the street, Delany's on Denman, 1105 Denman St. (tel. 604/662-3344), is a favorite coffee hangout for members of the West End's sizable gay community. Everyone's welcome, of course, and the pies and cakes at this little cafe are great.

When you're ready to continue the walking tour, go 2 blocks farther down Denman Street and you're at:

5. English Bay Beach

This is the place to be when the sun is setting, or on one of those crystal-clear days when the mountains of Vancouver Island can be seen looming in the distance -- or any day at all, really, so long as the sun is shining. Every January 1, shivering Vancouverites in fancy costumes surround the bathhouse here at the very foot of Denman Street (entrance at beach level) to take part in the annual Polar Bear Swim.

Walk southeastward (left, as you're facing the water) on Beach Avenue, and you come to a tiny green space with a band shell known as:

6. Alexandra Park

Back around the turn of the 20th century, a big Bahamian immigrant named Joe Fortes used to make his home in a cottage near this spot -- that is, when he wasn't down on the beach teaching local kids to swim. In recognition of his many years of free service, the city finally appointed Fortes its first lifeguard. Later, a marble water fountain was erected in his memory by the Beach Avenue entrance to the park.

When you're finished looking around the park, head up Bidwell Street 2 blocks to Davie Street, cross the street, turn right, walk 2 blocks farther on Davie Street, and on your left at no. 1531 you'll see:

7. The Gabriola

This was the finest mansion in the West End when it was built in 1900 for sugar magnate B. T. Rogers. Its name comes from the rough sandstone cladding, quarried on Gabriola Island in the Strait of Georgia. Unfortunately for Rogers, the Shaughnessy neighborhood soon opened up across False Creek, and the West End just wasn't a place a millionaire could afford to be seen anymore. By 1925, the mansion had been sold off and subdivided into apartments. Since 1975, it's been a restaurant of one sort or another -- currently Romano's Macaroni Grill. The wrought-iron tables in the garden are nice spots to sit on a summer day.

Cut through the garden and walk up through the Nicola Street minipark, turning right on:

8. Pendrell Street

A few interesting bits of architecture reside on this street. One block farther, at the corner of Broughton Street, is the Thomas Fee house, 1119 Broughton St., where one of the city's leading turn-of-the-20th-century developer-architects made his home. Farther along, at the southeast corner of Pendrell and Jervis streets, is St. Paul's Episcopal Church, a 1905 Gothic Revival church built entirely of wood. A block away at 1254 Pendrell is the Pendrellis -- a piece of architecture so unbelievably awful, one gets a perverse delight just looking at it. Built as a seniors' home at the height of the 1970s craze for concrete, the multistory tower is one great concrete block, with nary a window in sight.

At Bute Street, turn left and walk 1 block to Comox Street, and you're at:

9. Mole Hill

These 11 preserved Edwardian homes provide a rare view of what the West End looked like in, say, 1925. That they exist at all is more or less a fluke. The city bought the buildings in the 1970s but continued renting them out, thinking one day to tear them down for a park. By the 1990s, however, heritage had become important. The residents of the houses waged a sophisticated political campaign, renaming the area Mole Hill and bringing in nationally known architectural experts to plead the case for preservation. The city soon gave in.

Cut across the park to Nelson Street and continue down Nelson Street past Thurlow Street to 970 Burrard St., where stands:

10. The B.C. Hydro Building

Built in 1958 by architect Ned Pratt, it was one of the first modernist structures erected in Canada, and has since become a beloved Vancouver landmark, thanks in no small part to its elegant shape and attention to detail. Note how the windows, the doors, and even the tiles in the lobby and forecourt echo the six-sided lozenge shape of the original structure. In the mid-'90s, the building was converted to condominiums and rechristened the Electra.

From here, continue on Nelson Street, crossing Burrard Street and Hornby Street to:

11. The Provincial Law Courts

Internationally recognized architect Arthur Erickson has had an undeniable impact on his native city of Vancouver. His 1973 Law Courts complex covers 3 full city blocks, including the Erickson-renovated Vancouver Art Gallery at its north end. Linking the two is Robson Square, which Erickson -- and everyone else -- envisioned as the city's main civic plaza. As with so many Erickson designs, this one has elements of brilliance -- the boldness of the vision itself, the tiered fountains (behind them are the offices of the Crown attorney -- the Canadian equivalent of a district attorney), the cathedral-like space of the courthouse atrium -- but, raised above street level, the entire ensemble is removed from all the life around it. To reach the courthouse, take the concrete stairway up and follow the elevated pedestrian concourse. The courthouse, with its giant glass-covered atrium, is worth a visit.

When you've seen the Law Courts, backtrack along the concourse, and you'll end up at:

12. Robson Square

As a civic plaza, Robson Square should be grand, but in fact it's pretty underwhelming. Its basic problem is that it has been sunk 6m (20 ft.) below street level, so it's never exactly appealing or inviting to passersby. Although there's a pleasant cafe in the square and a UBC bookstore, Robson Square lacks the throngs of people that add the essential ingredient -- life -- to a civic plaza. But just look across the street, and you'll see all the life that Robson Square lacks.

Directly across from Robson Square at 750 Hornby St. is the:

13. Vancouver Art Gallery

On sunny days, people bask like seals on the steps of the old courthouse-turned-art-gallery, a great gathering place and the perfect spot to see jugglers and buskers, pick up a game of outdoor speed chess, or listen to an activist haranguing the world at large about the topic du jour.

Designed as a courthouse by Francis Rattenbury (architect of Roedde House, described above, and the Legislature Buildings and Fairmont Empress hotel in Victoria) and renovated into an art gallery by Arthur Erickson, the Vancouver Art Gallery is home to a tremendous collection of works by iconic West Coast painter Emily Carr, as well as rotating exhibits ranging from native masks to video installations. Film buffs may remember the entrance steps and inside lobby from the movie The Accused.

To continue the tour, go around the gallery and proceed down Hornby Street. Note the fountain on the Art Gallery's front lawn. It was installed by a very unpopular provincial government as a way -- according to some -- of forever blocking protesters from gathering on what was then the courthouse lawn. In 2007, the 2010 Winter Olympics countdown clock was placed here.

Cross Georgia Street and have a glance inside the Hong Kong Bank building, 885 W. Georgia St., where a massive pendulum designed by artist Alan Storey slowly swings back and forth.

Cross Hornby and continue west on Georgia Street to 690 Burrard, where stands:

14. Christ Church Cathedral

A Gothic Revival sandstone church with a steep gabled roof, buttresses, and arched stained-glass windows, the Anglican Christ Church Cathedral was completed in 1895. It was nearly demolished in the 1930s, when developers offered a lot of money to the church for the land. A local reporter uncovered the clergy's plot to raze the landmark in exchange for a big profit, and publicized it while negotiations were in the final stages. The public outcry marked the first shift in local sentiment toward the preservation of heritage sites.

Backtrack east to Hornby, turn left, walk half a block, and climb the few steps into:

15. Cathedral Place

Often overlooked by Vancouverites, peaceful Cathedral Place is a charming example of an urban park. The building behind it, at 639 Hornby, is a postmodern structure with small Art Deco parts melded onto a basically Gothic edifice. Some of the panels on its front were salvaged from the Georgia Medical-Dental building, a much-loved skyscraper that used to stand on this site. As for the Cathedral Place courtyard itself, it has the formality and calm of a French garden, the perfect spot to sit and enjoy a bit of peace.