Ambleside

     Ambleside was one of the first places to draw people to West Vancouver. The  beach was the lure that drew people over from the big city of Vancouver beginning around the 1880’s, and transformed into a popular summer destination.  People would canoe, and later ferry, across the Burrard Inlet and set up camp along the shores of Ambleside. Around this time, West Vancouver’s population fluctuated around 300, consisting mostly of the temporary summer visitors who would ererect a temporary tent city on the beach. Interestingly, originally most of the grassy area that we associate today with the terrain of Ambleside park was actually swamp land.