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Stanley Park

   

Stanley Park

Stanley Park is a 404.9 hectares (4.049 km2) urban park bordering downtown Vancouver. It was opened in 1888 by Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor-General of Canada.


It is more than 10% larger than New York City's Central Park and almost half the size of London's Richmond Park.


The park attracts an estimated eight million visitors every year, including locals and tourists, who come for its recreational facilities and its natural attributes. An 8.8 kilometres (5.5 mi) seawall path circles the park, which is used by 2.5 million pedestrians, cyclists, and inline skaters every year. Much of the park remains forested with an estimated half million trees that can be as tall as 76 metres (250 ft) and hundreds of years old. There are approximately 200 kilometres (120 mi) of trails and roads in the park, which are patrolled by the Vancouver Police Department's equine mounted squad. The Project for Public Spaces has ranked Stanley Park as the sixteenth best park in the world and sixth best in North America.


Stanley Park contains numerous natural and man-made attractions that lure visitors to the park. Unlike other large urban parks, Stanley Park is not the product of a landscape architect, but has evolved into its present, mixed-use configuration.


Recreational facilities are abundant in the park, having long co-existed, albeit uneasily, with the aesthetic and more natural park features preferred by those looking to the park as an enclave of nature in the city. The most heavily used and the favourite facility of park users is the seawall encircling the park’s perimeter. Construction of the 8.8 kilometres (5.5 mi) seawall around the park began in 1917, but was not declared finished until September 26, 1971, and did not fully circle the park until 1980.