Ambleside, West Vancouver: Homes for Sale, Prices, Schools and Daily Life

Ambleside lies on the north shore of Burrard Inlet, west of the Capilano River and the Lions Gate Bridge. Marine Drive crosses it from east to west and is lined with shops. South of Marine Drive are apartment buildings and a line of public parks on the water. North of it, the numbered streets climb toward the Upper Levels Highway (Highway 1), crossed by avenues such as Duchess, Esquimalt, Haywood, Inglewood, Jefferson and Mathers. Most of the houses listed for sale stand on those avenues.

The District of West Vancouver describes Ambleside as an early subdivision laid out on a grid, with a strip of shops along Marine Drive. In 1959 the District changed its rules for 20 hectares of land so that dozens of apartment buildings could be built in Ambleside and Hollyburn, and it names the Crescent Apartments of 1961 as West Vancouver's first high-rise. The result is the neighbourhood you see from the pier: towers near the water and houses on the hill behind them.

The shore is public for a long distance. Ambleside Park begins at the foot of 13th Street, parkland continues west to John Lawson Park at the foot of 17th Street, and the Centennial Seawalk carries on from 18th Street to Dundarave. The District's waterfront plan aims for one unbroken public walk beside the sea from Ambleside Park to Dundarave.

In our view, Ambleside suits a buyer who wants a house within a walk of shops, a library, a beach and frequent buses to downtown Vancouver, and who accepts either an older house or a higher price for a newer one. A buyer who wants a larger lot and less traffic will find more of both up the hill in the British Properties.

The District states that West Vancouver is on the traditional and unceded territories of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam Nations, and that the Squamish people have lived on and governed this land since before written records. Its history page says the village at the mouth of the Capilano River, east of Ambleside, became the Capilano Indian Reserve (Xwemelch'stn) in 1923. The reserve is a separate legal body from the District.

The District's page for John Lawson Park says Navvy Jack Thomas built his home on that spot in 1872 and that John Lawson settled in the same house with his family in 1905. A history essay on the District's Time Walk site records that Lawson and three partners started the West Vancouver Ferry Company in 1909. The boats ran from Hollyburn Wharf at the foot of 17th Street to the foot of Columbia Street in Vancouver.

West Vancouver became its own municipality on March 15, 1912. Until then the land was part of the District of North Vancouver. The new council bought the ferry company that year, and in 1913 it built a terminal with offices at the foot of 14th Street. That building is the Ferry Building at 1414 Argyle Avenue, which the District protected as a heritage property in 1987 and now runs as an art gallery. The province's place name office records that Ambleside was once listed as a steamer landing, the end of the West Vancouver ferry route. It credits the name to Morris Williams, a tailor who arrived in 1912 and had lived in the English Lake District, where Ambleside is a town at the head of Lake Windermere.

Two decisions explain what came next. The District says its first community plan, written under the Town Planning Act of 1926, banned new industry and called for larger lots than elsewhere in the Lower Mainland. That attracted British investors led by the Guinness family, who began the British Properties in 1932 and paid for the Lions Gate Bridge. The bridge opened to cars on November 14, 1938. The Time Walk essay says the bridge ended the need for the ferries, that the Second World War kept them running a few years longer, and that the last scheduled sailing left Vancouver for Ambleside at midnight on February 8, 1947.

Most errands can be done on foot along Marine Drive. The counts on this page show the cafes, grocery stores, pharmacies and clinics mapped inside the area. For a larger shopping trip, Park Royal is 5 minutes east on the 250 bus, and the table on this page gives the straight line distance to it, to downtown Vancouver and to Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver.

The West Vancouver Memorial Library is at 1950 Marine Drive. It opened on November 11, 1950 as the community's memorial to residents who died in the Second World War. The library's own history says 2,000 members of the public gave money toward the first building. Since then it has added a youth department, a hall for concerts and meetings and a recording studio. Memorial Park is across the street, with the Memorial Arch and a pond where young salmon are raised beside MacDonald Creek.

The West Vancouver Community Centre and Aquatic Centre stand beside the library, on its west side. The District lists a leisure pool, two main pools, a water slide, hot tubs, a sauna and steam room, a sports gym, a music hall and art studios there. The pool closes each year for maintenance, and for 2026 the District gave the dates as November 27 to December 20.

Ambleside is also where West Vancouver holds its public events. The Ferry Building Gallery shows up to eleven exhibitions a year, by the District's count. The Harmony Arts Festival, which the District lists among its festivals, is based at 1564 Argyle Avenue on the waterfront. In 2025 it ran from August 1 to 10 with live music, visual art and food. In our experience, the streets near Argyle Avenue are crowded on those evenings and parking is hard to find, so residents walk.

Ambleside Park lies at the east end of the shore. The District lists sandy beaches with a swimming area that lifeguards watch in summer, a playground, a skatepark, a basketball court, three tennis courts, four pickleball courts, sports fields, a fitness circuit, a duck pond and a par 3 golf course on the water. Leashed dogs may use the paved paths only. Pay parking applies all year, and a West Vancouver resident can apply for a yearly pass at no cost. The lot beside the tennis courts has a three hour limit for everyone.

West of the park, the District has been joining the waterfront into one public space since 1975. Its project page records 32 lots bought along Argyle Avenue since that year. In March 2025 it announced the purchase of the last one, at 1444 Argyle Avenue, and said the joined park space between Ambleside Park and John Lawson Park should open by spring 2026. John Lawson Park, at the foot of 17th Street, has a pier, a playground, a splash pad and sheltered picnic tables. Dogs are not allowed in that park.

The Centennial Seawalk starts at the foot of 18th Street and runs 1.7 km beside the water to Dundarave Park. Leashed dogs are allowed on it, with a limit of two dogs for each owner, and a fenced path between 19th and 24th Streets lets dogs run off the leash. Hay Park, north of Marine Drive, is another of the District's off-leash areas.

The Spirit Trail passes through Ambleside Park. The District describes it as a path for walking, cycling and wheelchairs that will in time reach from Horseshoe Bay to Deep Cove. Bikes, skateboards and rollerblades may use the Spirit Trail in the park but must stay off the waterfront path. Shared electric bikes can be rented at the foot of 13th Street.