Dickens, Vancouver

Street and houses in the Dickens neighbourhood of East Vancouver (with North Shore Mountains in background)

Dickens is a small neighbourhood in East Vancouver, Canada.

Boundary

Its areas is from East 12th Avenue (northern boundary) to King Edward Avenue (southern boundary) and from Fraser Street (western boundary) to Knight Street (eastern boundary). Kingsway runs diagonally through the neighbourhood.

The neighbourhood lies within the city-defined community of Kensington-Cedar Cottage.

The area is named after the schools in the area, both named Dickens (Charles Dickens Elementary School and its Annex), which are rated one of the top forty schools in Canada.^[1] (broken link)

Amenities

Parks in the Dickens area include Glen Park (adjacent to Charles Dickens Annex) and Sunnyside Park (adjacent to Charles Dickens Elementary). The Windsor Way bike path travels past both schools and provides a traffic-calmed north-south route through the neighbourhood.

The community library is on Knight Street and is part of the King Edward Village condo-shopping project.

The City of Vancouver has recently invested $2.7 million in traffic-calming and beautification measures in the area. This includes improved sidewalks and streetlights, new street trees, sidewalk benches, and others.

Active community association

Annual Dickens Community Multicultural festival in East Vancouver

An active neighbourhood association (the Dickens Community Group) works to improve the area.

Activities include community gardening projects, working with city planners on zoning and related issues, garbage clean-ups, hosting celebrations (such as the annual Dickens Multi-Cultural Festival or "music in the park" evenings) and community-safety foot patrols. A running group ("Run like the Dickens") was started in 2006. All events are led by local residents.

Notes and references

External links

• Charles Dickens Elementary School website

Neighbourhoods in Vancouver, British Columbia
Downtown neighbourhoods	Alberni District Coal Harbour Chinatown Davie Village Downtown Eastside English Bay Financial District Gastown Granville Mall and the Granville Entertainment District International Village Japantown Robson Stanley Park Victory Square West End Yaletown
West Side neighbourhoods	Arbutus Ridge Dunbar–Southlands Fairview False Creek Kerrisdale Kitsilano Marpole Oakridge Shaughnessy South Cambie West Point Grey
East Side neighbourhoods	Grandview–Woodland Hastings–Sunrise Kensington–Cedar Cottage Killarney Mount Pleasant Renfrew–Collingwood Riley Park–Little Mountain Strathcona Sunset Victoria–Fraserview
Other locations	Champlain Heights Commercial Drive Granville Island Greektown Little Italy Punjabi Market/Little India Uptown South Main University Endowment Lands Hogan's Alley Stanley Park
Italics indicate neighbourhoods now defunct.