Sunrise Shopping

Granville Island Market Vancouver BC Canada

Granville Island is just waking up. The rising sun casts an orange glow on the former industrial buildings of Vancouver’s favourite market. Vendors, artisans, bakers and boatmen prepare for a busy fall Saturday.

The ‘Island’ is an urban peninsula jutting into False Creek, a watery cul-de-sac in the shadow of the mammoth Granville Bridge. It’s home to a vibrant and colourful conglomeration of shops, galleries, artisanal workshops, theatres, restaurants, marinas, bars, a brewery, a floating village, and a produce market. A village within a city.

Remnants of its past contribute to the industrial atmosphere – a rusty yellow crane overlooks the creek, rippled and repurposed corrugated iron structures house the former Emily Carr School of Art. And colourful towers monitor a concrete factory churning out gravelly sludge.

And inside the covered market, glorious fruit and vegetables, fresh fish, flowers, herbs and spices.