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.
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- The scrubbed, restored exterior brick has had passersby gawking all weeek.<br /> <br /> <em>Corbin Smith/Torontoist</em>
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- Bathurst-side view of the building.<br /> <br /> <em>Corbin Smith/Torontoist</em>
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- And from the inside of the sparkly new windows, looking out.<br /> <br /> <em>Corbin Smith/Torontoist</em>
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- Gleaming wood and heaps of light. <br /> <br /> <em>Corbin Smith/Torontoist</em>
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- Pretty staircase.<br /> <br /> <em>Corbin Smith/Torontoist</em>
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- A bit of the Bop, for nostalgia's sake.<br /> <br /> <em>Corbin Smith/Torontoist</em>
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- Workers were putting the finishing touches on everything, but all seems in order and ready to go for tomorrow's official opening.<br /> <br /> <em>Corbin Smith/Torontoist</em>
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- In the very beginning, the building was known as Occident Hall. It was completed by famed Toronto architect E. J. Lennox in 1878, and served as a Masonic Temple for decades. The third and fourth stories, including the mansard roof, were removed in 1948 when the building was converted into the Holiday Tavern.<br /> <br /> <em>Photo taken September 23, 1928. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1244, Item 1162.</em>
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- Purple paint went on in 1990, marking the home of the Reverb, Kathedral, and Holy Joe's.<br /> <br /> <em>Joel Charlebois/Torontoist</em>
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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.