Granville Island

Granville Island is a popular shopping neighborhood within a peninsula within Vancouver, BC. It is situated directly across from Downtown Vancouver's peninsula, within False Creek under the south end of the Granville Street Bridge.

Initially, the peninsula was once an industrial manufacturing area. Now, it has been transformed into a working neighborhood and a major tourist destination. Granville Island was named "One of the World's Greatest Places" in a 2004 Project for Public Spaces vote.

On Granville Island are a lot of well-known attractions, including an extensive marina, the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, a very large public market, Carousel Theatre and the Arts Club Theatre Company, different performing arts theatres, numerous fine art galleries, the False Creek Community Centre and various unique shopping boutiques. Still left over from the Island's industrial peak are two areas remaining, a machine shop and the concrete plant.

In the 1970's, Grandville Island underwent major redevelopment, with many of the art studios still surviving since that time: two Co-op Printmaking studios, a Glassblowing studio, the Circle Craft Shop, a Luthier which is a master sake maker, many Woodworkers Studios, boat builders and a Wood Co-op Shop, a Fine Art Print Studio, the B.C. Potter's Guild, and a lot of jewelry stores and trendy bead shops amongst others. Ever since the early 1990s, a daily Farmer's Market has been existing in that area and was truly the very first contemporary Farmer's Market in the Vancouver area.

The public market on Granville Island features a lot of local artists and day vendors that produce a wide range of artistic talent and culinary offerings. There are roughly 50 permanent vendor stalls within the market and an extra 100 day vendors who have stalls throughout the market and sell various Artisan cottage-industry handicrafts and foods on a rotational basis.

The Granville Street Bridge is an 8 lane bridge crossing False Creek. The bridge is 27.4m above Granville Island and is connected to Hwy 99 within the city of Vancouver, B.C.