By DAVID VAN DYKE Local photographer Chris Nicholls forwarded me this image of the IGA at Queen Street East and Lee Avenue with no specific date other than the early 1980s. I’m going out on a limb here and will say this photograph was shot in the month of October. Really, you’d think this grocery […]
By DAVID VAN DYKE In 2005, Fire Station 227, celebrated it’s centennial. This image on the left was taken more than 115 years ago by an unknown photographer and it is plain to see, apart from the construction site, there wasn’t much going on at the intersection of Queen Street East and Woodbine Avenue back […]
By DAVID VAN DYKE What’s the first thing you do when you want to build Toronto’s largest water filtration plant? Well, a fortified retaining wall is a good start! Construction of the R.C. Harris Water Filtration Plant began in 1933 (the year the photo above was taken by an unknown photographer) and became fully operational […]
By DAVID VAN DYKE If you want to do a little grocery shopping and park your car FOR FREE, yes for free, then Valu-Mart is it. The archival photo image above was taken by photographer Chris Nicholls in 1985. I lived around the corner from this Queen Street East store for 11 years, and just […]
By DAVID VAN DYKE Many Beachers will more likely remember the business that took over Tony’s Fruit Market in 1985. That business was Ends, now obviously also vacated for quite some time. Who among us didn’t purchase sweat socks or T-shirts from this establishment? The original image above was taken by local photographer Chris Nicholls […]
By DAVID VAN DYKE Linda Stoewner grew up in the Beach and lived in the area from 1961 to 1990. She was kind enough to send this photo of Glen Stewart Pastries and Delicatessen, which was run by her parents, Tony and Marianne Walthert, from 1954 to 1988. The store was located on Kingston Road, […]
By DAVID VAN DYKE Well, apparently there’s always a big blowout sale on the northwest corner of Waverley Road and Queen Street East. The original image was taken by local photographer Chris Nicholls in 1985. Danke schon, Chris for this wonderful contribution. If you’d like to see more of Chris’ work, check out www.chrisnicholls.live If […]
By ALANA RAYMAN Looking for something different for lunch? There’s a new sandwich shop to check out in the Kingston Road and Victoria Park Avenue area. Alen Zukanovic and his wife Sanja recently opened Somun Superstar, a cafe and sandwich shop that brings a traditional Bosnian favourite to Toronto. “Somun is the superstar of the bread […]
By DAVID VAN DYKE I’m sure many Beacher’s remember the most appropriately named Variety store in the neighbourhood. Crosswalk Variety was on Queen Street East, just across from Kew Gardens. This image was shot by photographer Chris Nicholls in 1985. Before Timmy’s came to roost, it was a video gaming store. Thank you Chris for […]
By DAVID VAN DYKE This delightful image was taken by photographer Chris Nicholls when he was a student in the mid 1980s. It’s on the shady side of Queen Street East on the corner of Kippendavie Avenue. You can just see the firehall tower peeking out on the right. Did you know that a very […]
