From booming to boarded: Queen Street East businesses continue to disappear

Erin Horrocks-Pope: Posted March 11, 2020

As the Beach community continues to rise in both popularity and population - why do more and more shops seem to be disappearing from the Queen Street strip?

Over the years, Beach residents have become more and more desensitized to the seemingly endless string of boarded up local businesses.

Beach resident and photographer, Stephen Knifton, has perfectly captured the barrenness of Queen Street in a poster he has entitled ‘Doors of the Beach’.

(Local Photographer Stephen Knifton's poster - Doors of the Beach - shared to Facebook on Feb. 27, 2020)

Knifton recently walked the strip between Neville Park and Woodbine, photographing over 40 unoccupied storefronts.

“You can’t walk a block without noticing empty ones,” Knifton said to BlogTO. “It just seems out of control.”

(Intuitive Touch Therapies storefront near Woodbine and Queen, for lease since 2019.)

Even since Knifton shared his “final rendition” with the community, The Salty Dog Tavern, another favourite has disappeared and PetSmart has announced they are also in their final days.

Knifton’s poster has rejuvenated discussion about the bleak changes to a once business booming and bustling neighbourhood.

(Previously Beach Mac located near Lee and Queen.)

“When you see the heart of your neighbourhood start to decay,” Knifton said to beachmetro.com. “You start to worry about the culture and foundation of where you live.”

In a 2019 interview with CTV News Toronto, Beaches-East York City Councillor Brad Bradford announced he would be launching a campaign to “improve the vibrancy of east-end main streets”.

(7th Wave at Waverley and Queen has been empty since a fire in 2005.)

“It’s definitely not what people want to see on Queen Street or any of those main streets, for that matter,” Bradford remarked about the increasing number of vacant properties.

According to Bradford, the neighbourhood holds roughly a 12% vacancy rate, 2% higher than the citywide Toronto average sitting around 10%.