English Bay was named after the meeting of the English Captain Vancouver and the Spaniards Galiano and Valdes in 1792. (The Spanish are remembered with the naming of the bay-side Spanish Banks sand flats).

At one time there many homes along the sea side of Beach Avenue between Stanley Park and Sunset Beach. At English Bay itself there two large bath houses and a dance pavilion at the end of a wooden pier.
One bath house -- which once contained a public aquarium -- was removed in the sixties. Another is used for washrooms and lifeguard facilities. The final beachside building -- Englesea Lodge apartments -- was torn down in the eighties. The remains of the pier can still be seen at low tide.

From 1968 to 1970 I delivered the afternoon Vancouver Sun newspaper. I had more than a 100 customers in the north side of the three blocks between Denman Street and Stanley Park. In those days I spent many hours hanging out on the beach with friends.

The first beach to the west is named Second Beach. That would make English Bay to be First Beach but it is rarely called that name.

Vancouver has had some great fireworks events. The best views are from English Bay and Kitsiliano Beach.