Just as furniture stores seem to end up clustering today on the south end of the Granville Bridge, in the 1920s you could find them on Granville on the other end of the bridge. We’ve looked at this block once already. William Worrall was an Englishman who arrived in the city in 1911 and by 1924 was an auctioneer on Pender Street. In 1926 (when this VPL image was taken) he had established a furniture store that could be found at 1058 Granville Street in a 1910 Parr and Fee designed building. Mr Worrall was already doing well – he was living in Shaughnessy Heights. By 1938 the store had moved to the 900 block into the building now occupied by Tom Lee Music.
When the Lion’s Gate Bridge opened Mr Worrall took a full page advertisement in the north shore newspapers pointing out his store was now only 12 minutes away and offered 42,000 sq ft of modern and period furniture on 5 floors. His store was more modest in 1926, as the Princess Rooms were upstairs.
Down the street you can see another furniture store, the Standard Furniture Co whose earlier location was in Gastown on Hastings Street. They occupied one of the few buildings on Granville Street not built by Parr and Fee, in this case a 1913 building for James Borland by Braunton and Leibert. These days the Vogue Hotel and Helmcken House (as they are now known) both have non- market housing on the upper floors.
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Changing Vancouver 