Granville Street
Night view of Granville Street, Downtown (2018)
Part of Hwy 99
NamesakeGranville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville
TypeStreet
Length9.8 km (6.1 mi)[1]
LocationVancouver, British Columbia
Nearest metro stationGranville
Vancouver City Centre
South endSW Marine Drive
Major
junctions		70th Avenue
41st Avenue
Broadway
Seymore Street/Howe Street
Georgia Street
Hastings Street
North endCordova Street
Other
Known forShopping districts, Granville Entertainment District, Granville Mall, Granville Island, South Granville
Streetcars on Granville in 1928

Granville Street is a major street in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and part of Highway 99. Granville Street is most often associated with the Granville Entertainment District and the Granville Mall. This street also cuts through residential neighbourhoods like Shaughnessy and Marpole via the Granville Street Bridge.

Location

A southbound view of Granville Street in Downtown Vancouver

Granville Street runs generally north–south through the centre of Vancouver, passing through several neighbourhoods and commercial areas, differing appreciably in their land value and the wealth of their residents.

Granville runs northeast–southwest:

Then, Granville Street runs north–south:

  • through South Granville Rise, extending approximately from 4th Avenue to 16th Avenue, crossing West Broadway
  • through Shaughnessy (from 16th Avenue to 41st Avenue)
  • near Kerrisdale and Oakridge (Granville borders both neighbourhoods from 41st Avenue to 57th Avenue; unofficially, Kerrisdale begins at 33rd Avenue)
  • through Marpole (from 57th Avenue to 70th Avenue; 70th Avenue becomes Southwest Marine Drive west of Granville)
  • near the Fraser River, where it merges with another section of South-West Marine Drive

Finally, Granville Street ends near the Fraser River at the approximate location of 72nd Ave., then merges with Southwest Marine Drive and continues southeasterly towards the Arthur Laing Bridge that leads to Richmond and the Vancouver International Airport.

History

19th century

The community was known as "Gastown" (Gassy's Town) after its first citizen - Jack Deighton, known as "Gassy" Jack. "To gas" is period English slang for "to boast and to exaggerate". In 1870, the community was laid out as the "township of Granville" but everybody called it Gastown. The name Granville honours Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville, who was British Secretary of State for the Colonies at the time of local settlement.

In 1886, it was incorporated as the city of Vancouver, named after Captain George Vancouver, who accompanied James Cook on his voyage to the West Coast and subsequently spent two years exploring and charting the West Coast.

20th century

Towards the middle of the twentieth century, the downtown portion of Granville Street had become a flourishing centre for entertainment, known for its cinemas (built along the "Theatre Row", from the Granville Bridge to where Granville Street intersects Robson Street), restaurants, clubs, the Vogue and Orpheum theatres, and, later, arcades, pizza parlours, pawn stores, pornography shops and strip clubs.[2]

By the late 1990s, Granville Street suffered gradual deterioration and many movie theatres, such as "The Plaza, Caprice, Paradise, [and] Granville Centre [...] have all closed for good", writes Dmitrios Otis in his article "The Last Peep Show." In the early 2000s, the news of the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympic Games, to be hosted in Whistler, a series of gentrification projects, still ongoing as of 2006, had caused the shutdown of many more businesses that had heretofore become landmarks of the street and of the city.[2]

21st century

Also, Otis writes that "once dominated by movie theatres, pinball arcades, and sex shops [Downtown Granville is being replaced] by nightclubs and bars, as [... it] transforms into a booze-based 'Entertainment District'." In April 2005, Capitol 6, a beloved 1920s-era movie theatre complex (built in 1921 and restored and reopened in 1977) closed its doors (Chapman). By August 2005, Movieland Arcade, located at 906 Granville Street became "the last home of authentic, 8 mm 'peep show' film booths in the world" (Otis). On July 7, 2005, the Granville Book Company, a popular and independently owned bookstore was forced to close (Tupper) due to the rising rents and regulations the city began imposing in the early 2000s in order to "clean up" the street by the 2010 Olympics and combat Vancouver's "No Fun City" image. (Note the "Fun City" red banners put up by the city on the lamp-posts in the pizza-shop photograph). Landlords have been unable to find replacement tenants for many of these closed locations; for example, the Granville Book Company site was still boarded up and vacant as of July 12, 2006.

While proponents of the Granville gentrification project in general (and the 2010 Olympics in specific) claim that the improvements made to the street will only benefit its residents, the customers frequenting the clubs and the remaining theatres and cinemas, maintain that the project is a temporary solution, since the closing down of the less "classy" businesses, and the build-up of Yaletown-style condominiums in their place, will not eliminate the unwanted pizzerias, corner-stores and pornography shops - and their patrons - but will simply displace them elsewhere (an issue reminiscent of the city's long-standing inability to solve the problems of the DTES).

Major intersections

The entire route is in Vancouver.

km[1]miDestinationsNotes
−0.5−0.31 Grant McConachie Way (to Arthur Laing Bridge) / SW Marine Drive – Vancouver International AirportInterchange
0.00.0Southwest Marine DriveGranville Street southern terminus; roadway continues south
0.40.25 West 70th Avenue (Hwy 99 south) – Tsawwassen ferry terminal, Canada–United States borderSouth end of Hwy 99 concurrency
1.60.99West 57th Avenue
2.41.5West 49th Avenue
3.22.0 West 41st Avenue (Hwy 99 south) – Tsawwassen ferry terminal, Canada–United States borderAlternate Hwy 99 connection between Oak Street and Granville Street
4.12.5West 33rd Avenue
4.93.0King Edward Avenue
5.83.6West 16th Avenue
6.23.9West 12th Avenue
8.15.0 West Broadway (Hwy 7 east) – Burnaby, Maple RidgeHwy 7 western terminus
7.04.3West 4th Avenue, Fir StreetInterchange; West 4th Avenue is southbound exit and northbound entrance; Fir Street is southbound exit only
7.0–
7.9		4.3–
4.9		Granville Street Bridge over False Creek
7.9–
8.1		4.9–
5.0		 Seymour Street, Howe Street (Hwy 99 north) / Pacific Street – Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal, WhistlerInterchange; northbound Hwy 99 follows Seymour Street, southbound Hwy 99 follows Howe Street
8.45.2Davie Street
8.75.4Nelson StreetOne-way, southeast-bound; provides access to the Cambie Bridge
8.95.5Smithe StreetOne-way, northwest-bound; provides access from the Cambie Bridge
Granville Mall south end (transit only)
9.15.7Robson Street
9.35.8 Georgia Street (Hwy 99 north)Former Hwy 1A south / Hwy 99A; near  Vancouver City Centre station
9.45.8Dunsmuir StreetOne-way, northwest-bound; near  Granville station
9.66.0Pender Street
9.76.0 Granville Mall north end (transit only)
Hastings StreetFormer Hwy 7A
9.86.1Cordova StreetAcross from  Waterfront station
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

Cultural references

  • Granville Street is the second-most expensive property in the game Canadian Monopoly.

References and further reading

Current issues

History

Listings and tour guides

Searchable resources

Citations

  1. 1 2 Google (July 28, 2021). "Granville Street (Vancouver)" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved July 28, 2021.
  2. 1 2 Atkin, John (2003). "Vancouver Neon!". Discover Vancouver. Archived from the original on February 4, 2003. Retrieved July 28, 2021.
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