Gastown: Where Every Production Eventually Ends Up<\/p>\n
Start here. The exposed brick, the narrow streets, the gas lamps \u2013 Gastown looks like a period set that someone forgot to strike. Productions have been coming here for decades precisely because it can pass for almost anywhere: a gritty New York block, a 1940s back alley, a European quarter.<\/p>\n
Fifty Shades of Grey, Arrow, Supernatural, The Flash, I, Robot \u2013 they’ve all filmed here. The Steam Clock at Cambie and Water Street is probably the most-photographed corner in the neighbourhood. Kate Winslet and Idris Elba shot a scene right in front of it for The Mountain Between Us. It’s worth stopping for \u2013 the clock goes off every 15 minutes, and tourists always look mildly startled when it does.<\/p>\n
The Building Under Gastown That Started It All<\/p>\n
Here’s the story most visitors walk right past.<\/p>\n
At 142 Water Street \u2013 the heart of Gastown \u2013 stands a building most people don’t give a second glance. But it has more layers of history stacked inside it than almost anywhere in the city.<\/p>\n
In 1995, Jackie Chan filmed Rumble in the Bronx in Vancouver. The movie was set in New York, but the crew couldn’t hide the mountains in the background. Chan eventually stopped trying \u2013 figuring audiences would be watching the action, not the scenery. He was right. The film turned him from a Hong Kong star into an international one, and those Vancouver streets were where it happened.<\/p>\n
A decade later, the same neighbourhood got another attraction. TheStoryeum<\/a> opened in 2004 at 142 Water Street \u2013 a massive underground theatrical experience five storeys below Gastown, where 55 actors performed BC’s history for audiences carried down by giant elevators. A full-sized CPR locomotive. An indoor rainforest. Six hockey rinks worth of underground space. It only lasted until 2006 before it closed.<\/p>\n