The Gastown Steam Clock looks like a Victorian curiosity, but it was built in 1977, reportedly to dress up a steam vent. Its inventor, Raymond Saunders, gave Vancouver a landmark that locals tease and tourists crowd around.

The name is generous. The clock isn’t historic, it no longer relies on steam to keep time, and steam clocks turn out to be poor timekeepers anyway. It still plays the Westminster chimes every quarter hour, and it is among the most Instagrammed sights in downtown Vancouver.

VoiceMap’s Gastown tour stops here for the local view: the jokes about the clock’s title, and the news of Saunders’s death in November 2024. Then it walks on to Maple Tree Square and the saloon of Gassy Jack.