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cityscape

Scene: The Restored Big Bop Building, Inside and Out

An advance look at the beautifully restored building at Queen and Bathurst, which re-opens as furniture store CB2 on Saturday.

By Hamutal Dotan • Photos by Corbin Smith


WHERE: Queen Street West and Bathurst Street

WHEN: Thursday, 5 p.m.

WHAT: For two years, the building that once housed the Big Bop has been shuttered: first a forlorn, fading purple reminder of the shows we’d inevitably been to, then a tarp-covered mystery renovation. Those renovations were in anticipation of the new tenant, mass furniture behemoth Crate and Barrel, which would be installing a location of its younger, cheaper offshoot, CB2—and they are a mystery no longer. As much a restoration as a renovation, the building at the corner of Queen and Bathurst is a sharp reminder that Toronto has a lot of architecture worth saving, much of which is hidden in plain site. Under the gaudy paint was stunning brickwork and, dare we say, a great deal of elegance worth celebrating.

CB2 launches tonight with an invitation-only party, but we were able to walk around yesterday and get a sneak peek at the spruced-up interiors. Doors open to the public at 10 a.m. Saturday morning.

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Comments

  • Anonymous

    Are they still going to have live music there?

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Cassandra-Tgf/100002718955641 Cassandra Tgf

      In a town committed to re-zoning for shopping and daycare facilities where nightlife used to be? I don’t think so…

      Shop, shop till you drop. Soon it’ll be all you have left to do.

      • downtowngirlbornandraised

        Whoa, what’s with the hate for daycare facilities? Seriously though, I think you’re a little off base with the comment. You’ll find that it’s not just a lack of affordable day available in Toronto that people complain about, but daycare period. It’s recommended that in order to get a daycare spot that coincides with the end of your one year mat leave, you get on at least two different daycare facility waitlists as soon as you’re aware that you’re pregnant. That’s almost a TWO year waitlist. I’m pretty sure that Toronto is not committed to re-zoning for daycare facilities. Shopping on the other hand….. you’re absolutely right about ;

    • Anonymous

      Only if you bring a guitar and see how long you can get away with busking on a couch.

  • Anonymous

    Kinda sucks in a way that a furniture chain has taken over the site, but wow, I never knew it was such a beautiful building. All those times playing Battle of the Bands there as a teenager back in the 90s, I always thought it was such a dump. Glad to see they finally fixed it up.

  • Anonymous

    Now this is how you do it. Painting over beautiful brickwork should be a crime.

    • Anonymous

      Unless it’s graffiti.

      • http://www.facebook.com/paullloydjohnson Paul Lloyd Johnson

        Especially if it’s graffiti.

      • Anonymous

        Well it already is a crime.

        I, personally, would never paint over exposed brick.

  • MrOrnot

    Hallelujah! Not for the opportunity to shop, but for the restoration of a heritage building by a legendary Toronto architect. (Too bad they didn’t restore the third floor and the Second Empire roof.)
    I’m very glad to see corporations do something useful and contribute something to culture instead of merely siphoning away citizens’ cash. When Crate and Barrel goes away someday, the building will still be there.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000003977507 Ltwo Threer

    I’m tempted to go around in there and reenact my activities at the Big Bop… jumping off what is probably now a desk onto what hopefully is a bed instead of floor, sitting on a couch for hours and hours “I’m just testing it; yeah”, and other things that are inappropriate to be writing about ;)

  • yikes

    I am glad they did not join the dreadful trend of covering up bricks with a stucco exterior. Why would anyone choose stucco? WHY???

  • anindividual

    This place was at it’s best for a brief period when the Holiday was revamped as a live music venue (before that they had strippers). It didn’t last and became the Big Bop. I remember living near there and all the amateur drinkers coming out of the Bop would throw up on my door step and get into fights their Canada Post box on the corner. I guess that crowd now terrorizes the Entertainment District and Parkdale.