Hello, Internet.

So, last week was National History Week, and in order to celebrate it we did a mini history project. We worked in small groups to research the history, and particularly the namesakes, of different places around Vancouver. Each group chose one place to research that they thought was interesting or iconic. The place my group chose was Blood Alley.

We then made a video about that place, in the style of this video.

Now, while Blood Alley is a somewhat gruesome name, the history of the alley, originally known as Trounce Alley after Thomas Trounce, is much less sketchy than it sounds. It was a pretty normal alley that was renamed in the 70s during Gastown’s rénovation into a commercial heritage district, as it was believed the name Blood Alley would interest more people than “Trounce Alley”.

Rumours were then spread about the alley having a grisly past for pretty much the same reason: to attract tourists. An alley that was said to have been soaked with blood each night after the butchers threw buckets of blood down it, or that was the site of public executions, or was rife with fights and other violence, is much more interesting than just an alleyway that nothing super notable happened on.

Here is our full video detailing the history and namesake of Blood Alley:

Toodles!