Truth & Reconciliation Day: Spotlight on Luke Marston

29 Sep 2023

The Truth and Reconciliation Day, on September 30th, is celebrated as a day for Canadians to acknowledge the harm caused by the residential schools and to honour the Indigenous survivors of these schools. As a...

Squatting Early Vancouver Part 2: Cut Throat Johnny’s

01 Jun 2022

Quick Summary: JR “Cut-throat Johnny” Linton, a grisled but ambitious squatter, built a floating cabin community at the foot of Abbott Street after the 1886 Great Fire, renting low-cost rooms to working-class men. Authorities increasingly...

Stonewall Event Hosted by Glenn Tkach

20 Apr 2022

Meet The Last Surviving Stonewall Activist Interview with our very own Glenn Tkach of the Really Gay History Tour Martin Boyce is a Stonewall Riot activist, sharing his story of one of the most significant...

Mugshot of Tar Flat resident William Rutt, aka, Billy the Rat, 11 January 1902. He was sentenced for stealing blankets from an Indigenous woman. City of Vancouver Archives #480-456.

Squatting Early Vancouver Part 1: Tar Flat

30 Mar 2022

Quick Summary [By Lani Russwurm] Like many cities grappling with skyrocketing housing prices, makeshift squatter communities have become a hot button political issue in Vancouver in recent years. But throughout the city’s history, these...

Georgia Medical and Detnal Building, ca. 1950 - City of Vancouver Archives: AM1517-S1-: 2008-022.040

Vancouver’s First Art Deco Skyscraper Crumbles Down

20 Jan 2022

[by Glenn Tkach] Quick Summary: Does Vancouver’s first Art Deco skyscraper look familiar? You might mistake this building for the iconic Marine Building on the corner of Hastings and Burrard Streets. But this one was...

Granville Street, 1959: City of Vancouver Archives - AM1531-: CVA 672-1

Theatre Row, All Aglow

16 Dec 2021

[by Glenn Tkach] Quick Summary: Look at the neon! Vancouver once had as many as 19,000 neon signs. Would you believe that was more than Las Vegas? But by the 1970s, we in Vancouver were...

Casting Call: Lost Souls of Gastown Storytellers

14 Nov 2021

**We are no longer accepting applications for this recruitment cycle. Check back for future opportunities at Forbidden Vancouver!** Vancouver actors! Were you put on this earth to entertain people? Do you love Vancouver and its...

Theatre Under the Stars at Makin Bowl, 1954. Postcard via @Rob on Flickr.

An Illustrated History of Malkin Bowl

14 Oct 2021

Quick Summary: Nestled in Stanley Park, Malkin Bowl is Vancouver’s premiere outdoor performance venue Home to Theatre Under the Stars, a Vancouver summer tradition since 1940 Opened in 1934 for the Vancouver Symphony Opera and...

Vancouver Museums: The Forbidden Five

16 Sep 2021

Vancouver museums are special. While a walking tour engages you in history where it happened, a museum brings it all together in one place. Here at Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours, we certainly have our own...

The Orpheum Theatre in 1929. Leonard Frank / Courtesy Vancouver Public Library

The Orpheum and Its Drag Queens

24 Jun 2021

[by Glenn Tkach, creator of the Really Gay History Tour] This is the Orpheum Theatre on Granville Street, just two years after it opened in 1927. It’s been dubbed “The New Orpheum” because it is...

Black History Month: The Remarkable Scurry Family

18 Mar 2021

[By Lani Russwurm] Hiram Scurry escaped slavery and fought in the US Civil War. In 1886, he moved to Vancouver with his wife Martha and six children to open a barbershop in Gastown. Find out...

Microsoft & Tech Loves PRIDE: Really Gay History Tour Special Event Series 2020

10 Jul 2020

This August, we’re staging a special series of Really Gay History Tours just for Microsoft employees, members of the Vancouver group “Tech Loves PRIDE,” and educators based in the Metro Vancouver area. The series is...

Vancouver Bookstores: The Forbidden Five

31 Jan 2020

Vancouver bookstores, just like the old books crammed onto their shelves, contain some strange stories of their own. It’s so much fun to wind through the nooks and crannies of these eccentric shops, to find...

The Hollow Tree

24 Dec 2019

[by Glenn Tkach] The Hollow Tree in Stanley Park is one of Vancouver’s most well-known attractions. This photo should give you an idea of how large it is – it has a circumference of about...

Save-On Meats in the Downtown Eastside. Photo by Mark Faviell via Flickr, Creative Commons licensed.

Vancouver Diners: The Forbidden Five

28 Nov 2019

With rain soaked neon glistening outside and the promise of hearty comfort food inside, Vancouver’s historic diners have been serving up nostalgia for decades. So in the spirit of starting any adventure with a full...

The Lions Gate Bridge – and the Lions Who Guard It

15 May 2019

The Lions Gate Bridge [by Glenn Tkach] The Lions Gate Bridge arches proudly over the First Narrows. It is visible from the Stanley Park seawall, and a major feature of The Dark Secrets of Stanley Park...

Vancouver’s Top Five Places to Visit for Spring 2019

25 Apr 2019

Now that Spring has finally sprung, we give to you Vancouver’s top five places to visit for Spring 2019. These are the five attractions in Vancouver you won’t want to miss during your springtime visit!...

Emily Pauline Johnson: Meet a Woman of Two Worlds

20 Mar 2019

Emily Pauline Johnson was born in 1861 to a Mohawk Chief and an English woman. She would go on to become one of North America’s most celebrated poets and performers, and would finish her career...

Vancouver women's hockey team - The Amazons

Vancouver Women’s Hockey Team Makes History: Meet The Amazons

14 Mar 2019

A Vancouver women’s hockey team made history in 1921. On The Forbidden Vancouver Tour, you’ll discover how women in Canada fought for recognition. And their fight to play in the political arena paralleled their struggle...

Lurancy Harris is one of Vancouver's First Policewomen

Vancouver’s First Policewomen – Meet Lurancy Harris

06 Mar 2019

Bigamy, murder and (gasp!) female impropriety – we discuss it all on The Forbidden Vancouver Tour. And it was all in a day’s work for Vancouver’s first policewomen: Minnie Millar and the woman pictured above, Lurancy...

Vancouver History Blog

VANCOUVER HISTORY BLOG