Water Street is a street in the Gastown

Gastown

Gastown is a national historic site in Vancouver, British Columbia, at the northeast end of Downtown adjacent to the Downtown Eastside. Its historical boundaries were the waterfront , Columbia Street, Hastings Street, and Cambie Street, which were the borders of the 1870 townsite survey, the proper...

 area of Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

, British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

. It is named for its proximity to the water, in this case the south shore of Burrard Inlet

Burrard Inlet

Burrard Inlet is a relatively shallow-sided coastal fjord in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Formed during the last Ice Age, it separates the City of Vancouver and the rest of the low-lying Burrard Peninsula from the slopes of the North Shore Mountains, home to the communities of West...

, and was briefly known as Front Street. Water Street is popular amongst tourists; its most famous landmark is the steam clock

Steam clock

A steam clock is a clock which is fully or partially powered by a steam engine. Only a few functioning steam clocks exist, most designed and built by Canadian horologist Raymond Saunders for display in urban public spaces...

.

History

In the early to mid 20th century, Water Street was the center of Vancouver's food, clothing and dry goods wholesale businesses. Due to Vancouver being the main port of western Canada, much of the trading of goods from east Asia went through Water Street.
Water Street also housed the British and American firms that provided heavy equipment for the coastal and interior logging operations.

In the 1960s, due to limited space and rising real estate costs, the wholesale business left Water Street and gentrification

Gentrification

Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...

occurred afterwords with shops, restaurants, offices and galleries opening on the street.