Gastown Steam Clock: Vancouver Travel Guide (4.5★)

A clock on a Water Street corner

The clock sits right on the sidewalk, not behind a fence. It is a tall, narrow tower of dark metal and glass at the corner of Water and Cambie, with a clock face on each side and a small crown on top. Brick paving runs under your feet and Victorian-era brick and stone buildings rise around it.

It looks a century older than it is. The clock was built in 1977, designed to look like something from the gaslight era, and it has since become the most photographed object in Vancouver’s oldest neighbourhood. It is very popular, and the crowd around its base on a busy afternoon shows it.

The quarter-hour performance

Timing is everything here. Every 15 minutes the clock lets off a burst of steam and plays the Westminster Quarters on its steam whistles. That is the same chime tune used by Big Ben. On the hour it plays the full sequence before sounding the hour.

Between performances there isn’t much to see. Steam may drift from the top and the hands move quietly, but most people just stand around waiting. Glass panels let you look at part of the mechanism inside, which is worth a minute while you wait.

So check your phone as you walk up. If you are a few minutes before :00, :15, :30 or :45, wait. If the whistle has just finished, have a coffee nearby and come back.

• Best moment: the top of the hour, for the longest whistle sequence
• Shortest wait: arrive two or three minutes before a quarter mark
• Time needed: 10–20 minutes, unless you are walking the rest of Gastown

Where the steam comes from

The steam isn’t just for show. The clock was designed by Canadian horologist Raymond Saunders and placed over a vent in the downtown steam heating system. That underground network pipes steam to heat buildings across central Vancouver, so the clock draws on the city’s own plumbing.

Part of the original idea was practical: to put the steam escaping from the grate to use. Over the years the clock has been repaired and changed, and an electric motor now assists the mechanism. The whistles, though, still sing on real steam, and that’s what people come to hear.

Getting to Water and Cambie

You can walk here from downtown. Waterfront Station is the nearest transit hub. It serves the SkyTrain’s Expo Line and Canada Line, the SeaBus from North Vancouver and the West Coast Express.

Leave the station and head east along Water Street. Within a couple of blocks the road changes to brick paving and the clock appears at the Cambie corner. The address to put into maps is 305 Water St.

Water Street is a working road with cars, delivery vans and tour coaches squeezing through. Parking on the street is tight and driving in Gastown is slow. Transit or walking is the easier choice.

Beating the crowd at the curb

The crowds come in predictable waves. On weekdays the corner is quietest 7am–8am and again 10pm–11pm. On weekends the calm windows are 7am–9am and 10pm–11pm.

Try not to arrive on a weekend between 11am and 9pm. That is the busiest stretch, when tour groups and day-trippers stand three or four deep on the sidewalk. It is hard to get a clean photo without strangers’ phones in it.

The early slot gets you empty brick streets and soft light on the clock face. The late slot gets you the clock lit up against the dark buildings, with Gastown’s restaurants and bars still busy nearby. Google currently lists it as viewable 24 hours a day, but it’s still a city street, so construction or events can change that.

Sharing the sidewalk at the whistle

There’s a routine to watching the clock. Seeing it costs nothing and there’s no ticket or queue. People simply gather on the sidewalk a few minutes before the quarter hour and break up once the whistle stops.

• Stand across the street if you want the whole tower in frame. The far sidewalk on Water Street gives you the clock face, the steam and the old buildings behind.
• Stay out of the roadway. Plenty of visitors step off the curb for a better angle while traffic is moving. Watch for cars.
• Keep the doorways clear. Shops and cafés share this corner, and their customers need to get in.
• Film the quarter, then move. Once the chime ends, step back so the next group can get close.
• Don’t touch the glass or the vents. The steam is hot and the clock is still a working machine.

Many locals pass the clock on their way to work without a glance. If you want to look like one of them, take a picture and keep walking east into the rest of Gastown.

Walking on from the clock

The clock makes a good starting point for a Gastown walk. Follow Water Street east and you reach Maple Tree Square, at the corner of Water and Carrall. A statue there marks “Gassy” Jack Deighton, the saloon keeper the neighbourhood is named after.

Gastown was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2009. Its brick warehouses now hold independent shops, galleries, cafés and restaurants, so it’s easy to spend an hour or two on the side streets.

• Harbour Centre and the Vancouver Lookout: the tower with the observation deck, a short walk west near Waterfront Station
• Canada Place: the white sail roofs on the waterfront, a few minutes beyond the station
• Chinatown: south of Gastown, for a longer walk through the older east side of downtown

The east end of Gastown runs into the Downtown Eastside, an area with visible street homelessness. Use the same awareness you would anywhere downtown, especially late at night, and treat people on the street with respect.