Photo courtesy: Jason Vanderhill

Matt and I were just talking about the Secrets of the City tours. Matt had no idea they existed and I explained that, as I work Wednesday nights and Saturdays, I always miss them. The tours have been to the Post Office tunnel that runs from Georgia and Hamilton to Cordova Street; the basement of the Vancouver Art Gallery; the Hotel Vancouver’s roof with the abandoned CBC radio studios; the back spaces and roof of the Hudson’s Bay Company; the Shaughnessy hospital steam plant and tunnels; the main ambulance station for the BC Ambulance Service; the Yip Sang building on Pender; and more. To educate Matt (and others) on these tours, I dug up some tidbits.

Turns out I’ve already written about the tours. Which turned out to be a good thing because John Atkin, the historian who leads the tours and he of Vancouver Neon curating fame (and author of Heritage Walks Around Vancouver and Skytrain Explorer, co-founderof Heritage Vancouver, etc., etc.), removed the link to his Secrets page. The Vancouver Museum also removed links to his page.

It also turns out that Vandigicam took in his latest tour, which might also be his last tour for a while. This last trip, on September 9, was to the Richmond Steel Recycling Plant. Until the next one, there are always photos of the tours.