I’ve seen this place (which I presume was once a section of Vancouver’s Napier Street) many times, but never stopped to look at it.
Sure enough, it looks like a West End traffic calming mini-park, and might give a few hints about the Arbutus Greenway. A local community volunteer group calls this “Napier Square Greenway”. It leads from Commercial Drive to the Britannia Community Centre (and back). And it’s a terrific people place.
[Click any photo to see a slide show of larger versions]
- The garden, maintained by the “Britannia Neighbours“. Recent Sunday work parties have focused on aphids and sticky oak leaves.
- Furniture — looking like furniture now appearing on Point Grey Road, and long in place in the West End.
- Decorative stonework, in the form of a meandering section set into the paving bricks, with a series of circular designs made out of coloured stones.
Reblogged this on The St Louis Contrarian.
Thanks for noticing the Napier Square Greenway! You’re right that it used to be a half block of street. In 2000-2001, Britannia Neighbours worked with the City to turn it into a Greenway; the City paid for the construction and the first few plants and the benches on the condition that the “community” would look after it in perpetuity.
A loyal group of five or six of us meet nearly every Monday (not Sunday) at 3:00 to work in the garden for a couple of hours.
At this point, 17 years or so into the experiment, it’s a great success but does now need a bit of expensive maintenance — the benches need to be repainted, for example, and with these hotter and drier summers, we really need to have an automatic sprinkler system installed. Other than that, however, our plants have matured and the garden looks lovely and inviting all year. Do visit our blog for more info … and if you’d like to join us for work parties, send an e-mail to britneighbours@gmail.com to get onto our mailing list.
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Hi Penny: thanks for the info. Much appreciated.
How about it, PT readers, anyone want to step up and help?