BC Sugar refinery and terminal (Vancouver)

 production, sugar refinery, historical building, 1900s construction

A large cane sugar refinery with a berth for importing bulk sugar. It produces the familiar Rogers brand of products. Now owned by Lantic Inc. Sweet!

The refinery was Vancouver's first substantial industry not based on forestry or fishing. Production of refined sugar commenced in 1891, with raw sugar imported from Asia. This industrial complex has several impressive buildings erected as the company expanded. The oldest is the 1902 Refined Sugar Warehouse, a spectacular brick building reminiscent of the best British industrial architecture of the 19th century.

The BC Sugar Museum was located here for many years but closed recently due to security restrictions in the Port area.


www.portmetrovancouver.com/users/landoperations/termina...
www.lantic.ca/about-us/facilities.php?lg=en
www.vancouverhistory.ca/archives_bcSugar.htm


Sugar has been an integral part of the local economy for 120 years through the BC Sugar Refinery. The complex on the east Vancouver waterfront dates to 1890, when the City of Vancouver was only four years old.

The refinery's ancient brick warehouse along the CPR tracks is Vancouver's most familiar industrial site. But hidden behind the brick buildings is a whole world you can't see from the street.

The BC Sugar property is 5.46 hectares (13.5 acres), and includes 20 buildings, a dock and a little park. There are a couple of art deco buildings from the 1940s, a 1950s-modern office building, and a 91-metre long, 15-metre high storage facility packed with mountains of raw sugar. When you walk through it, the air is thick with sugar; when you come out, you feel skim-coated in the stuff.

BC Sugar is still a fully functioning refinery, producing 100,000 to 120,000 metric tonnes of sugar annually. That's almost 10 per cent of Canada's sugar output.

The complex also has become a favourite spot for film shoots, with more than 120 productions shot there in recent years, ranging from TV series like Dark Angel to features like Cat Woman and music videos like REM's Animal.


Read more: www.vancouversun.com/sweet+history+Vancouver/4454309/st...