The Lamplighter opened in 1925 inside the Dominion Hotel at 92 Water Street and paid $750 for BC Beer Licence number one, the first beer licence the province ever issued (Daily Hive). It turned 100 in 2025.
It was also the first Vancouver pub to serve women, and it carries the name of John Clough, the one armed keeper of Gastown's gas lamps.
Freehouse Collective runs it now, after a March 2022 reopening. History on the walls, DJs on the weekend.
About 100 seats across booths and high tables, plus a patio onto Water Street. Waterfront station is three minutes away.
Tripadvisor reviewers knock the beer list's breadth and the weekend noise. Both complaints are accurate. Neither is the point.
Friday and Saturday run DJs until 3am, the latest close in Gastown. Monday the doors stay shut.
By 11pm on weekends the room is standing room and the queue runs onto Water Street.
Wednesday trivia starts at 7pm and fills by 6:45pm. Power Hour pricing runs Friday and Saturday, 9:30pm to 10:30pm, and the 3am close makes the three minute walk to Waterfront station matter.
What to order
- 01
A local pint at Power Hour
- 02
Wednesday trivia and a pitcher
- 03
Burgers and wings