Let’s talk again about heritage buildings, parks, and their intersection.

Barclay Heritage Square came about in 1980s as a compromise between the park board’s desire for a large green space in the West End, and local residents’ desire to save a number of the old mansions that used to characterize the neighbourhood in Vancouver’s early days before the wealthy moved to Shaughnessy and other locales. 

The net effect is this charming collection of public heritage homes, winding walkways, a delightful gazebo and a couple of giant front lawns that double as a public park.

The only thing for children is a single small springy swing, and the green space is pretty much only fit for picnics, so your love for the park will depend a fair bit on how much you enjoy quaint homes from the 1910s. 

As a place to enjoy a quiet afternoon however, it fits the bill.

A large quiet field with a solid if unspectacular playground (filled with just enough slides and springy swings to keep a small child occupied), General Brock Park was named in 1975 for the War of 1812 hero, continuing Vancouver’s trend of naming things for people that had very little to do with Vancouver. 

The gentle upslope to the street at the edges provides a pleasing image, the bike paths along the side of the park helps for connectivity, and a small ball hockey court is surely welcome in a part of the city where big parks are fairly lacking. 

A very average park, in other words, and in a neighbourhood with so many good parks like Kensington-Cedar Cottage, actually underwhelming.

But it does have just enough subtle flourishes to provide a little extra. 

The only one of the River District parks* that could be said to be fully formed at this point, this plot of land is essentially an extra long pocket park, extending up several stairs and ramps so that it’s consistently surrounded by townhomes until it reaches the next block. 

But the lot is wide enough that the park never seems cramped, there’s a small but very good playground with a treehouse theme at the top, and there’s even a little rock climbing wall as well. 

It’s the type of smaller park that is becoming more common in Vancouver due to available parcels of land becoming smaller and smaller, and this one will serve the neighbourhood well for some time to come. 

*There are two other parks completed in the River District, but they are private, for the benefit of condo residences, and barred off from the public, such is the age we live in.

One of the parks created in Vancouver at a time when the city decided Marpole’s amenities were lacking, Ebisu has a curious split structure. 

One side is a children’s play area that is not huge, but quite well done, with a lot of interesting exploration spaces along with the standard slide-and-swings getup. 

The other side is a quiet garden area, more for contemplation, with a few small gardens and walking paths, along with a cluster of young pine trees.

Both of them are perfectly acceptable green spaces; that they don’t come together all that well is perhaps indicative of Marpole as a whole. 

Before there were stadiums, before there were rock concerts, before there were even radios, people gathered at Alexandra Park to hear the music play. 

They listened to music coming from Haywood Bandstand, that massive raised gazebo right in the middle of the park. When it was built in 1914, the park didn’t have nearly as many trees surrounding it, and the bandstand allowed musicians to play where people could listen and watch without having to be on the very crowded adjacent English Beach. 

As time went on, the original grandeur of the West End faded; bandstands became less essential, and the gazebo was renamed for a securities company that helped fund its restoration in the 1980s. 

It’s still a grand structure though, in a nice leafy park ideal for picnics. And in the last century, the trees surrounding the park have grown to where Alexandra is a little more walled off from English Beach, a shady little bit of serenity next to one of the busiest beaches in Canada.  A drawback is the aforementioned goose poop, and the lack amenities for kids.

The province gave these two city blocks of land along 4th Avenue to the city for park use in 1911 and it was promptly named for the sitting premier, Richard McBride, which is the sort of power move that would never happen today.

But as a park, it’s nice, though lacking in any real flow, owing mostly to the street that bisects that two parts. One side has tennis courts, washrooms and a playground; the tennis courts taking up 20% too much space to make it an interesting walk. The other side has an all-purpose field for soccer and baseball, with lush grass and tall trees blocking some of the noise from 4th. 

The playground is the real highlight, specifically a spinning climbing apparatus that is fairly unique in the city. We regret that it takes multiple strong adults to create any speed, but (insert 700-word rant here about how playgrounds need more TINY BUT MODERATELY REAL SENSES OF UNPREDICTABILITY). 

Anyhow it’s a good mix of stuff. Even though you can do more with a park, the things it does are good.

Admittedly, Earles is a fairly simple park. 

It’s a large park with a multi-use field on the west side, and a playground on the east side. Between the two is a large hill, which no doubt provides excellent tobogganing 15-30 days every decade.

The playground, with a firetruck theme, is good for 3-6 year olds, and there are a good number of tall trees in the middle slope where people can escape the sun and read a good book. 

If all this sounds fine but not particularly inspiring, you’re correct. It’s a solid neighbourhood park though, one that provides what a community needs, and specifically was the neighbourhood park for one of our rankers when they were growing up.

And if nostalgia tinged our score, doesn’t nostalgia tinge many of our times in a park when we’re older, as we see a hill that reminds us of a snow day and a chance to slide down a hill?