Vancouver Squatting #1: The City Archives offers the following caption for this image- "Aerial view of Hastings Park, looking north east, with squatters shacks on shore of Burrard Inlet," (1936). Along the foreshore were dozens of inter-tidal dwellings, beach wood scavenged, hand built and sculpted, bridged on the lee side of the track. The tradition of squatting along the coast in British Columbia has a long history, dating of course back to the mid-19th century. Below a squatter cuts driftwood with a long saw.
The False Creek Shacks, 1934
“For fifty
years or more, the shores of False Creek were dotted with floating cabin
habitations, of bachelors.. sometimes wives too. From Westminster Ave (Main
St.) both sides westwards to the Indian reserve. The occupants were sometimes
resident, at others transients. The first floating habitation was that of the
C.P.R. Roundhouse.. see photo.. at the foot of Drake Street. The last shacks
disappeared when the R.C.A.F. occupied the Indian Reserve, west of the Burrard
Bridge, and a fish dock was built east of the bridge.Firewood cost nothing save
the labour of sawing; fish for the catching; fresh water from the nearby
watertap. It was a free cheap way of living. Gradually they were crowded out.
First when the head of False Creek was filled in; then came sawmills and other
industries. By 1936, they had almost completely disappeared; a large number
moved up Burrard Inlet beyond the Second Narrows Bridge.”
- from Major Matthews, Early Vancouver, Volume I
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