Hastings Street is one of the most important east-west traffic corridors in the cities of Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

 and Burnaby, British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, and used to be a part of the decommissioned Highway 7A. In the central business district of Downtown Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

 it is known as West Hastings Street; at Carrall Street it becomes East Hastings Street and runs eastwards through East Vancouver

East Vancouver

East Vancouver is a region within the City of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Geographically, East Vancouver is bordered to the north by Burrard Inlet, to the south by the Fraser River, and to the east by the city of Burnaby...

 and Burnaby. In Burnaby, there is no east-west designation. The street ends in Westridge, a neighbourhood at the foot of Burnaby Mountain

Burnaby Mountain

Burnaby Mountain, elev. , is a low, forested mountain in the city of Burnaby, British Columbia, overlooking the upper arms of Burrard Inlet. It is the location of Simon Fraser University, the Discovery Park research community, and the System Control Tower of BC Hydro and a new complex of...

 where it joins the recently built Burnaby Mountain Parkway

Burnaby Mountain Parkway

Burnaby Mountain Parkway is a major road in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. It runs across Burnaby Mountain and connects Hastings Street leading west to Downtown Vancouver and Inlet Drive that becomes Barnet Highway leading east to Port Moody with Simon Fraser University, the City of Coquitlam,...

 and diverges from the continuation of the former Highway 7A as the Barnet Highway, to Port Moody, British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

.

Formally named in 1885 for Rear-Admiral George Fowler Hastings

George Fowler Hastings

Vice-Admiral George Fowler Hastings CB was an officer of the Royal Navy, who saw service during the First Opium War and the Crimean War. In a naval career spanning over 50 years Hastings saw service across the British Empire, and rose to the rank of vice-admiral...

 of the Royal Navy, the street runs past such well-known Vancouver landmarks as the Marine Building

Marine Building

The Marine Building is a skyscraper located at 355 Burrard Street in Downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada near the Financial District, designed by McCarter Nairne and Partners. It is renowned for its Art Deco details....

, the Vancouver Club, Sinclair Centre

Sinclair Centre

Sinclair Centre is an upscale shopping mall in Downtown Vancouver, British Columbia. It is located at 757 West Hastings Street between Granville and Howe streets. The centre comprises four buildings that were restored by Henriquez Partners Architects in 1986 at a cost of $38 million. The main post...

, Harbour Centre

Harbour Centre

Harbour Centre is a notable skyscraper in the central business district of Downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The "Lookout" tower atop the office building makes it one of the tallest structures in Vancouver and a prominent landmark on the city's skyline...

 (once Sears and now the downtown campus of Simon Fraser University

Simon Fraser University

Simon Fraser University is a Canadian public research university in British Columbia with its main campus on Burnaby Mountain in Burnaby, and satellite campuses in Vancouver and Surrey. The main campus in Burnaby, located from downtown Vancouver, was established in 1965 and has more than 34,000...

, Dominion Building

Dominion Building

The Dominion Building , is a commercial building in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Located on the edge of Gastown , it was Vancouver's first steel-framed high-rise. At 53 m , the thirteen-storey, Second Empire style building was the tallest commercial building in the British Empire upon its...

 and Victory Square (the location of the city's original courthouse) and the Woodward's building

Woodward's building

The Woodward's building was a historic building in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The original portion of the building was constructed in 1903 for the Woodward's Department Store when that area of Cordova Street was the heart of Vancouver's retail shopping district. ...

; located in the old Dunn's Tailors building at Homer and West Hastings is the campus of the Vancouver Film School

Vancouver Film School

Vancouver Film School is a private entertainment arts school located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Founded in 1987, it has achieved international recognition. The Vancouver Film School has campus locations around Downtown Vancouver and comprises six buildings...

, while on the corner of Cambie is the Carter-Cotton Building, the former headquarters of the Vancouver Province newspaper. East of Woodward's, the street forms the heart of Vancouver's historic original downtown, once known as the Great White Way because of its neon displays, and which is today the troubled Downtown Eastside

Downtown Eastside

The Downtown Eastside is one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is known as "Canada's poorest postal code"....

 and a notorious open-air drug market. Through the East End, after a stretch of warehouse-type commercial and wholesale businesses, the street forms one of the commercial cores for Vancouver's Italian community in a mixed-ethnicity retail area in the area of Nanaimo Drive, just east of which the Pacific National Exhibition

Pacific National Exhibition

The Pacific National Exhibition is a non profit organization which hosts an annual 17-day summer fair, seasonal amusement park, and arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It usually begins in mid-to-late August, and ends in early September, usually Labour Day.-History:The exhibition has been...

 and Playland

Playland (Vancouver)

Playland is an amusement park in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is located in Hastings Park and is the oldest amusement park in Canada....

 are on the city of Vancouver's eastern fringe. After leaving Vancouver, Hastings forms the core of a Burnaby retail neighbourhood known as the Heights and then traverses Capitol Hill to the Lochdale and Westridge areas.

Hastings St. is infamous for being the skid row

Skid row

A skid row or skid road is a run-down or dilapidated urban area with a large, impoverished population. The term originally referred literally to a path along which working men skidded logs. Its current sense appears to have originated in the Pacific Northwest...

area of Vancouver but in reality, Hastings St. itself runs nearly twelve kilometers through two cities and to the locals less than two kilometers is considered "skid row."