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Once a gritty industrial sandbar in the middle of False Creek, Granville Island has been transformed into one of Vancouver's most beloved destinations, a peninsula crammed with a public market, artists' studios, theatres, shops and eateries beneath the great span of the Granville Street Bridge that passes overhead. The land itself was created early in the twentieth century by dredging and filling the shallow creek to make an island for factories and sawmills serving the booming city, and for decades it was a smoky, working industrial site; as industry declined it fell into disuse, and in the 1970s a far-sighted redevelopment reimagined it as a place for people, deliberately keeping the rough industrial buildings and corrugated sheds and filling them with new life rather than replacing them. The centrepiece is the Public Market, a covered hall brimming with stalls of fresh produce, seafood, meat, baked goods, cheeses, flowers and prepared foods that draws food lovers and visitors in great numbers, while around it a maze of lanes contains craft workshops where artisans can be seen at work, galleries, a renowned art and design school, specialty shops, a marina, breweries and a cluster of theatres that make the island a centre of the city's performing arts. Street performers entertain the crowds, and small ferries connect the island to the downtown shore across the water. Lively, creative and unpretentious, Granville Island is a place where commerce, art and food come together in a setting unlike any other in the city. The redevelopment of Granville Island in the 1970s has been widely studied as a model of how a derelict industrial site can be revived without sweeping away its character, for rather than demolishing the old factory sheds, the planners chose to retain the rough, utilitarian buildings and insert markets, workshops and theatres within them, and a few industries were even kept on. The Public Market is the great draw, its aisles crowded with vendors of fruit and vegetables, fish, meat, cheese, bread, pastries and ready-to-eat foods, and on a busy day it can be hard to move for the throng and the buskers in the doorways. Beyond the market, the island is a creative quarter, home to a respected art and design college, the studios of glassblowers, potters and printmakers whose work can be watched and bought, theatres that anchor the city's live performance scene, galleries, a marina and craft breweries. Reached by car, on foot or by the small ferries that cross False Creek, it offers a rich, informal blend of food, art, theatre and industry.