Metro Vancouver Park Series: Quayside Park New Westminster
History While New Westminster was originally the capital of British Columbia, with time its relevance shifted as Victoria became the capital of BC. In the mid 1980s, a new development was created (Westminster Quay), apparently to revitalize the development of New Westminster during Expo.
Those who visited the area for Expo ‘86 can relive the experience by taking a “dive” on the submarine from Highway ‘86 in Quayside Park, or playing captain at the Expo Tugger near the Public Market. [Tourism New Westminster]
How to Get There The easiest way is Skytrain to New Westminster Station. The next easiest way is driving east along Marine Drive. There is a lot of heavy traffic (trailers and trucks) so public transit makes most sense. [Editor's note: You can also take Hwy 1 to the Canada Way exit and ride that all the way down to the waterfront, or take the Brunette Exit and take Columbia. Coming from the East hang a right on Royal Ave from the Pattullo]
Fun Tidbits While there is a sign that clearly says this park is called “Quayside Park”, New Westminster’s parks page calls it “Waterfront Esplanade”
Water-based play features such as a submarine, a tugboat and a cargo net unite the theme. Benches were made to look like parts of an old dock and heritage monuments explain the City’s history and give the area a quaint feel. Flower beds and creative landscaping help to separate, but meet the needs of, bikers and strollers.[New Westminster Community Parks]
You can read more from Raul on his blog, Hummingbird604.
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June 28th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
I haven’t been to the Westminster Quay in quite some time (my mum bought me a Ted Harrison print for my bday one day there). Though since the Casino has left the waterfront of Westminster has taken a dive.
Though I do hope they revitalize that area of New Westminster. They also used to allow tours of the submarine they had there and I am not talking about the yellow submersible they have there today. Do they still have the WWII sub there? Last I drove by I didn’t see its conning tower above the asphalt.
June 28th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Vancouver as a galaxy: here’s an interesting visualisation of Flickr pictures by Steven Wood, Tag Galaxy. Type whatever tag you want and the results are organized with your tag as the sun and related tags as orbiting planets. Try “vancouver”. Drag the mouse, use the wheel and click on a “planet”.
June 29th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
@ Tyler - Yes, they still do. I took a photo but forgot to upload it to Flickr
July 24th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
[...] personal life, random thoughts. Tags: New Westminster trackback A few weeks ago, I wrote a guest post for Rebecca’s series on Metro Vancouver parks on Westminster Quay, and this past week that I went to the Surrey Fusion Festival, I drove back through New West (JT [...]