If you live on the North Shore, chances are that you spend at least some of your summer at West Vancouver’s Ambleside Beach.
Did you know that you are sitting on reclaimed land? Prior to 1965, much of this land was a swamp.
In 1914, Ambleside was subdivided into lots and filled with makeshift homes and a few businesses. Because much of the area was often under water, many of the structures, including Overington’s barber shop, were raised on stilts, and most comprised little more than a floor, some wooden sides and a canvas top.
In those days, a large slough cut through Ambleside and ran between Capilano River and 14th Street, and boats moored on the north side of Marine Drive. In the winter, residents skated on the frozen slough. In the summer they fished for cod, and shot pigeons and ducks on the surrounding marsh.
During the Second World War, 18 huts were built by the Department of National Defence. They were fitted out with four-gun emplacements and anti-aircraft guns to defend the harbour entrance below Lions Gate Bridge. After the war, the huts were converted into housing for war vets and their families. Officially, the housing development was named Ambleside Park Village; unofficially locals called it “Diaper Lane.” The huts were built on low land that flooded several times a year, and at those times, food and supplies were brought in by rowboat.
By 1961, only one hut was left. It was turned into a home for the West Vancouver Rod and Gun Club. Later it became the Ambleside Youth Centre, and in 2019, it was demolished.
The playing fields and pitch-and-putt are built on sawdust, bark and wood waste from a North Vancouver sawmill. The duck lagoon was created by dredging part of the slough, while Ambleside Beach is a product of 85,000 cubic metres of sand and gravel hauled from the sandbanks west of Navvy Jack Point.
The Ferry Building at the foot of 14th Street is now a quaint little art gallery, but between 1913 and 1947 it was the headquarters of West Vancouver’s ferries. On a good day, the ferry trip to Vancouver took 25 minutes. Too bad we don’t still have that service.
The Silk Purse is one of the last examples of the summer cottages that used to dot the area before Lions Gate Bridge opened in 1938. Built in 1925, former Vancouver Mayor Tom Campbell inherited the cottage from his father, and in 1969, sold it to John Rowland. Rowland’s son told him he was trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. The name stuck and he rented out the Silk Purse as a “honeymoon cottage” for $12 a night, including breakfast and champagne. The District of West Vancouver has owned the Silk Purse since 1991. It’s operated by the West Vancouver Community Arts Council.
When the north side of the Park Royal Shopping Centre opened in 1950 it was the first covered mall in Canada.
The Ambleside Swimming Pool opened on July 9, 1954. After several money-losing years, the heated pool was closed in 1976 and filled in the following year.
The Welcome Figure that faces Stanley Park was a gift from Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (the Squamish Nation) to the people of West Vancouver in 2001. The figure was carved from an old growth cedar log from Hollyburn Mountain, and restoration work was finished in 2023, overseen by original master carver and elder Sequiliem (Stan Joseph).
In June 2023, the District of West Vancouver did a land trade with Jimmy Pattison for his former waterfront property at Ambleside Beach, assessed at $5.4 million, and announced it would turn the lot into a park and public walkway. The owners of the 1963 house next door at 1444 Argyle – the last holdout from the 32 residential lots that once dotted the waterfront – sold to the District of West Vancouver in April for $7.3 million. It’s still standing for now, but the plan is to demolish the house later this year and add the lot to the existing Brissenden Waterfront Park.
Eve Lazarus is a North Vancouver resident and author. Her latest book is Beneath Dark Waters: The Legacy of the Empress of Ireland Shipwreck. [email protected]
