A no messing around guide to the coolest things to eat, drink and do in Vancouver and beyond. Community. Not clickbait.

Spanish Banks

Welcome to the Vancouver Lexicon. Its purpose is to pin down the patois of the City of Vancouver by recording its toponyms, nicknames, slang terms, personalities, places, and other Van-centric things. Full A-Z here.

Spanish Banks | Toponym | A group of sandy, sun-soaked beaches facing Burrard Inlet, English Bay, the North Shore, and the city’s western skyline. They are located on Vancouver’s West Side between Locarno Beach to the east and UBC to the west. At low tide, the shoreline is one kilometre off the beach. The name “Spanish Bank” was first printed on charts as a nod to explorers Galiano and Valdes, who Captain George Vancouver met hereabouts in 1792 (even though it was their contemporaries Carrasco and Narváez who first sighted the long, broad tidal flat or “bank” in 1791). It has since been colloquially pluralised to “Spanish Banks” on account of its beaches being broken into three sections: Spanish Bank East, with its volleyball nets and skimboarders; Spanish Bank West, with its aromatic concession stand and van-living regulars, and Spanish Bank Extension, with its hundreds of off-leash dogs pissing and shitting everywhere. Fun fact, the city refers to it officially as Spanish Banks but the road sign on West 4th Avenue still has it in the singular: Spanish Bank.

Not a chain of financial institutions from the Iberian peninsula.

Usage: “Making sense of which beach is which at Spanish Banks is a tricky thing, even for lifelong Vancouverites.”

Spanish Banks
Neighbourhood: West Side
Spanish Banks Beach | Northwest Marine Drive

One of the Most Beloved Players to Ever Wear a Canucks Uniform

“I was there when Gino scored a penalty shot goal against Calgary. The way the crowd erupted, you’d think we had just won the Stanley Cup!"

How a Climate Change Event Created a Local 'Cause Célèbre'

"Is Barge Chilling Beach a good first date or nah?"

How Generations of Underaged Partiers Have Avoided Cops and Cover Charges in BC

"On our way up to Jones Lake on Sunday we had to wait for a slow convoy of hungover bush party survivors to pass..."

How Vancouverites Know a Targeted Hit on a Gangster Has Just Gone Down

"Like sunshine after rain and dawn after dark, a report of a burning vehicle usually means a gangster has just been shot at."