Landmark Railway Club up for sale
Downtown Vancouver nightspot has been in the same location for 83 years
In its heyday, the Railway Club was one of Canada’s top live venues, the place where budding stars like k.d. lang, Blue Rodeo and Los Lobos played their first local shows.
But that was a couple of decades back. The Railway remains one of Vancouver’s key live rooms, but doesn’t have quite the same vibe it did in the ’80s or ’ 90s.
It also isn’t as busy. Where it once did a bustling daytime business, now it doesn’t open ’til four in the afternoon Monday to Thursday. And now it’s for sale, for $299,000.
“Rare opportunity to take over an ICONIC VANCOUVER LOCATION,” reads the listing by Royalty Group Realty.
“This is one of the longest standing liquor establishments in the city. Located (in) downtown Vancouver, (it) offers a liquor primary licence with late night service, a large floor area of around 4,125 square feet, large bars and years of history.”
It does indeed have quite a history.
It opened in 1932 as the “7 Railwaymen’s Club” on the second floor of the Laursen Building at 579 Dunsmuir. It started off as a private club for railway workers, which was a way to get around B.C.’s tight liquor laws.
Prohibition was only in force in B.C. between 1917 and 1921, when the public voted to repeal it. But the government was still leery of allowing the great unwashed to drink in public — it didn’t allow beer parlours to reopen until 1925.
Even then, beer parlours couldn’t sell hard liquor. But if you opened a private club, members could keep a bottle of hard stuff in a locker, which you could order from the bar.
Legend has it there was an Engineers Club for railway engineers, but they wouldn’t allow the regular railway workers in. So they formed their own club.
People were finally allowed to drink hard liquor in public when cocktail lounges were legalized in 1954, and many of the old private clubs died off. But the Railwaymen’s Club chugged along until it was purchased in 1981 by NDP powerhouse Bob Williams and some investors.
Williams hired his stepkids Janet and Steve Forsyth to run it. They would turn it in a funky spot with a toy train running around the ceiling. But Janet Forsyth said when they took it over, the Railway was totally old school.
“It was kind of like a Legion,” she said. “It was two separate rooms and there were paintings of trains, and terry cloth (covers) on the tables. The woman who owned it before us was named Dagmar, and she was quite a character. She used to sit in that little cage (by the door) and buzz people in.”
Because it was a private club, people going to the Railway were supposed to take out a membership, which was about $10 a year. But members could sign in visitors.
Forsyth started booking local bands, and it quickly became a favoured haunt of people from all walks of life.
“It had this kind of organic (feel); it just kind of changed naturally all the time,” said Forsyth.
“There was lots of left wingers and poets and posties and plumbers, it was all over the map, and that’s what made it special. The mix was kind of eclectic, and changed organically.
“We didn’t go with a lot of the fads, like making it a sports bar, having top 40 bands or whatever; we just kind of stayed the course. I think that’s why it did well and was beloved by a lot of people.”
It also had a unique ambience. Because it was on the second floor and had lots of windows, it was brighter than the standard dumpy bar.
“It was a very pleasant place to spend an afternoon for a lot of people,” Forsyth recalls with a laugh. “Far too long of an afternoon. Sometimes, people would be there for cocktail hour, shootin’ the (breeze) with everybody, and they’d wind up being there all night, listening to the bands.”
But spending your life in a bar is tough, and in 1998 the bar was sold.
“I’d been there for 27 years,” said Forsyth. “That’s a bit long in the tooth to be running a nightclub, you know? It was time for a change. It’s not good to be in your 50s working in a bar.”
The current owner is Steve Silman.
“My wife and I have been (running) it for more than seven years,” said Silman. “It’s wonderful, but it’s also a lot of work. I’ve been managing the bar and booking the bands and doing social media, and there’s just not enough hours in the day.
“After seven years of doing it, we thought we’d test the waters and see what the interest is in someone else taking it on.”
Silman said the club has a fiveyear lease on the second floor of the building, which is owned by Parpia Holdings of West Vancouver. The overall building is listed as a Heritage C on Vancouver’s Heritage Register, but it could be demolished.
The Railway’s unusual club licence was replaced with a regular liquor licence in 2013, so if the building was sold and demolished, the licence could be moved. And Silman says there’s still an appetite for the Railway’s forte, live music.
“It’s an interesting business,” he said. “People’s tastes change for music, entertainment, food and drink, but people still love to come out and see live music. As long as you give people a quality product at a reasonable price, they’re more than happy to come out.”