Knights.Ĭlub David’s added new possibilities to the mix when Jay Cochrane and Sandy Leblanc opened it in the spring of 1975.Īll photos in gallery by Alice Andersen, Wonderland PhotographyĪrticle originally published Maby The Grid online (). Charles Tavern were gay hotspots, as was intimate Isabella Street disco Mrs. Nearby Yonge Street bars The Parkside Tavern and St. Joseph was home to popular all-ages gay male dance club The Manatee. As with a number of neighbouring structures, it was also erected by Rawlinson. A small tunnel, thought to once hold a conveyor belt, connected it to the building directly north, at 11A St. Moving and storage company Rawlinson Cartage constructed the building at 16 Phipps in the late 1890s. Nicholas alleyway, to a barely-there street called Phipps. Here, we visit a prior decade to travel a short distance south, down a once-existing strip of the St. Joseph area once held for creatures of the night has been detailed in a number of previous Then & Now pieces, including those about early 1980s venues Voodoo and Club Z. History: The allure that the Yonge and St. In its brief lifespan, this ‘70s hotspot served as both a gay disco and punk-rock haven-before it all ended in a mysterious fire and murder.
Photo courtesy of Wendy Peacock.Īrticle originally published Maby The Grid online (). “Eventually Mike’s dad, Bob, suggested that we should get our own space, and he funded the creation of Empire with a quarter-of-a-million dollar investment,” says Craig.Īllan Bell a.k.a. Phyllis (left) with Sister Rock-On at David’s. As their crowds increased each week, so too did the building manager’s rent demands. Together, they produced events including The House, a weekly underground jam held at the Party Centre at Church and Shuter. Craig left TKO to join a new crew, Romantic Sounds, which was started by Marier. As a teen, Craig had been an MC and DJ in TKO Sound Crew, a popular group that was eventually inducted into the Stylus Awards Hall of Fame in 2008. Charles was a shadow of its former self and closed.Ī year later, the upper level would re-open as Empire Dancebar, a versatile venue dreamed up by friends Dave Craig and Michael Marier. By 1987, following years of neglect, the St. A club called Y-Not also operated upstairs in the mid 1980s. A number of discos opened above it over the years, with the most popular being The Maygay and Charly’s. Charles, while also remembered as the focus of homophobic attacks (especially at Halloween), remains one of this city’s best-known gay bars of all time. It, along with the nearby Parkside Tavern, became a significant gathering spot that would help hasten the development of queer social life anchored around Yonge during the 1970s. 3, which remained at the address until its move around the corner, to Grosvenor Street, in 1929.Īfter the hall closed on Yonge, that building was occupied by retail businesses until the St. It was built in 1870, as part of the original Toronto Fire Hall No. History: In a city where history is so often obliterated or obscured to make way for the new, there’s something comforting about the old clock tower still found atop 484-488 Yonge.
This edition of Denise Benson’s Toronto-nightlife history series tells the story of how a local gay-community landmark was reborn in the late ’80s as a cutting-edge alternative club where you could dance to acid-rock and acid-house alike. Photo courtesy of Michelle Fabry.Īrticle originally published Octoby The Grid online (). The Empire crew is decked out and ready to dig Psychedelic Wednesdays.