Grand Granville Island
This village square pulses with life in Vancouver, British Columbia
First one person stops, then another, and soon a small crowd grows around the fiddler as he plays foot-stomping music outside Granville Island’s public market. A little girl finally cannot stand still any longer and bursts into the center, dancing in the circle of onlookers. She spins and waves at the fiddler, who plays louder and faster as they build up to the grand finale. Everyone laughs and claps, the fiddler takes a bow, and the girl and her mother go into the market.
Art, in one form or another, is everywhere on Vancouver’s Granville Island, from the buskers’ performances and artisans’ creations to the market’s fruit and vegetable stands. It wasn’t always this way, however. Several decades ago, the area was a prime location for heavy industry. Then redevelopment in the 1970s and the opening of the public market in 1979 turned Granville Island into Vancouver’s unofficial village square.
The name is a misnomer: Granville is not an island at all, but a 43-acre peninsula in False Creek under the south end of the Granville Street Bridge. Because the area is small and contained, a few hours of strolling here is hugely rewarding. You can pick up a map at the information center at the entrance to Granville Island, but all you really need to do is start walking. In addition to dozens of shops, galleries, and restaurants, there are about 75 studios where you can watch artisans at their craft, including silversmiths, glass blowers, and a master shoemaker.
