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

West Bay is the name of a bay and of the neighbourhood around it. The province's place name office puts the bay on the north side of Burrard Inlet, east of Sandy Cove. The West Vancouver Archives describes the neighbourhood as the land from 31st Street in the east to McKechnie Park in the west, and from the waterfront up to Mathers Avenue.

Marine Drive and a railway cross the area next to each other, close to the water. OpenStreetMap shows the tracks on the uphill side of the road for the whole width of West Bay, which splits the neighbourhood into three parts. Radcliffe Avenue, South Oxley Street and Maple Lane are between Marine Drive and the sea. Sunset Lane and Gables Lane are in the narrow strip between the road and the tracks. Oxley Street North, Hillcrest Street, McKechnie Avenue, Westholme Road and most of Creery Avenue are on the hillside above the tracks.

The ground rises from the beach all the way to Mathers Avenue, and some routes are for walkers only. OpenStreetMap shows a wooden stairway of 52 steps from Marine Drive down into West Bay Park, and Oxley Street North becomes a footpath partway up the hill. Walk from any house you like to the bus stop and to the beach before you decide.

In our view, West Bay suits a buyer whose first wish is a view of the water and who wants a beach within walking distance. A buyer who wants flat streets and a cafe close to home will be happier in Dundarave or Ambleside.

The West Vancouver Archives records a simple origin: the bay was named West Bay because it was the first popular bathing beach west of Dundarave. Its notes cite the BC Geographical Names Office and a 2004 book of place names by the West Vancouver Historical Society.

Officials once tried to change the name. In 1929, H.D. Parizeau of the Department of Marine and Fisheries in Victoria was concerned that many bays and coves along the coast shared names. He recommended Patterson Cove, after Captain Daniel Patterson, who was appointed a pilot at Vancouver in 1900. Local people kept using the old name and it was restored, the archives says. The province's record for the bay gives West Bay as the official name, adopted on May 5, 1949, and lists Patterson Cove as another name.

A third name came with the post office. When one first opened in West Bay, at the Black Cat Tearoom, it was called Wadsley, according to the archives, which cites the West Van News of November 23, 1928. The name never came into common use. The archives adds that the point of land between West Bay and Sandy Cove was once known as Brackenhurst, and that Henry Oxley, Andrew M. Creery and William Hayes jointly owned the Brackenhurst land in the 1930s. Today's map shows an Oxley Street, a Creery Avenue and a Hayes Street.

Trains once stopped here. The archives records that West Bay was a stop on the Pacific Great Eastern Railway, where the railway bridge crosses Oxley and Hillcrest Streets. West Bay Elementary School opened in 1950, according to the archives' record of the school. In June 2013 the District asked residents what they wanted for West Bay Park, and council later approved a plan for it.

West Bay is a place of houses, a beach and parks. The map data on this page shows no grocery store, cafe, pharmacy or clinic inside the area, and the tables name the nearest of each. TransLink's schedule gives the 250 bus three to four minutes from Marine Drive at Creery Avenue to 25th Street, beside the Dundarave shops, and 14 to 15 minutes to Park Royal.

Trains pass through the middle of the neighbourhood. OpenStreetMap names Canadian National Railway and Rocky Mountaineer, a passenger train company, as the operators on the line. Transport Canada's inventory of railway crossings, built from data as of December 5, 2022, lists five trains a day at the public crossing at the top of Travers Avenue, with a top train speed of 20 miles per hour, which is 32 kilometres per hour.

McKechnie Park, on the west side of West Bay, is one of 14 areas where the District lets dogs run off the leash. Dogs are banned from West Vancouver's beaches unless a sign says otherwise, so read the signs at West Bay Park before you take a dog onto the sand.

In our experience, the streets above the tracks are quiet. OpenStreetMap marks Hillcrest Street, Creery Avenue and the West Bay part of Mathers Avenue as having no sidewalk, so plan how a child would walk from the house to the bus stop.

West Bay Park lies between Marine Drive and the sea, beside the bus stops at Creery Avenue. OpenStreetMap shows a beach, a washroom, footbridges and two creeks that reach the sea inside the park, Cave Creek and Turner Creek. The District calls it a small waterfront park.

The District worked on the park for several years. It scheduled the old washroom building for demolition in October 2015, to be replaced by a single washroom built without barriers for people with disabilities. In December 2017, contractors were due in the park to remove invasive laurel and to replant. The District's project page now marks the work complete.

There are other ways down to the water. Oxley Street Park is a strip of park at the foot of South Oxley Street. OpenStreetMap also shows two short District footpaths from Radcliffe Avenue to the shore and one from Travers Avenue. We have not walked them, so try each one yourself and read the signs.

McKechnie Park is on the west edge of the area, and OpenStreetMap shows dirt footpaths and steps inside it. The tables on this page list Sandy Cove Park and Sandy Cove Beach to the west and the other parks nearby.