I had to leave my house during our endless stay-at-home order and take my teen to an appointment in Toronto’s Bloor West Village.
While she was busy, I went to the drugstore to pick up a couple of items and made the most amazing discovery.
How is it I have lived 17 minutes from here (by car) and have never heard about this?
They took an abandoned theatre, and converted it into a drug store.
I was totally stunned and completely impressed.
They did a really nice job.
It had three levels: the bottom was the cosmetics section plus hair, makeup and skincare, the middle by the main doors and cash/self-checkout registers had food and candy, and the top, on the balcony, was prescriptions, medication and hygienic/feminine supplies.
I like how they kept the integrity and design of the original theater.
Anyway, when I was done my stuff I went back to the house where my daughter had her thing and sat in the backyard. It just so happens it was on top of the subway. 😳 I could feel the ground shake and rumble below me each time a train passed underneath me. 😀
When my daughter came out, I told her about the theater drugstore, and she wanted to see it. We went and I made more discoveries…
They kept the old projector on the balcony for people to see and look at.
So there’s a little glimpse into a Toronto neighborhood for you. This part of town is north of where I live but still in the west end, formerly part of the borough Etobicoke.
Too bad we’re still in lockdown, which I hear they’re now extending until June or beyond, otherwise I might have been able to wander in and out of some cute shops along Bloor Street. They’re all closed and have been for months and probably won’t survive. 😭
I’m fine. Resigned and rage-y, but fine.
See you in the comments.
Writer of Words, etc 
This is very cool. I wish humans would do more recycling like this.
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Right? I wonder what other places have been repurposed….
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That’s neat. They repurposed the old Sears in our mall to a flea market with vendors setting up stalls and selling all sorts of wares. Other stores have been turned into an indoor dog park and a farmers market stand. Gotta applaud their creativity!
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So cool looking!
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That’s awesome. We have a few really old buildings that they are not allowed to knock down have found a new life in quite random ways.
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I like that, when they repurpose. I’ve been to the UK many times during my flight attendant days and appreciate wanting to preserve the history and architecture.
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That is very cool and worth a trip to your area, ya know whenever the hell Canada wakes up and changes it’s tune.
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I’ll be dead and buried by then. 🤪
There are some cool neighbourhoods in the West end but also throughout the city. Definitely worth it. 🙂
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How utterly fabulous! I love when they repurpose old buildings and give them a new life..
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It was such a highlight of my day and life in recent months. 🙂
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Nice unexpected find. This pandemic will end better days a head. Cheers from New Brunswick, a former torontonian
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Gosh I hope you’re right about the pandemic and welcome from New Brunswick. 🙂
What area were you in when you lived in YYZ? I’m from the burbs, but am raising kids in Etobicoke, SW corner. Only place I love enough to live in in this city… 😉
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I love it…..I’d like to work there, if I still had a licence.
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It is a cute neighbourhood to live, work and play in.
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I used to live on Bloor Str when I was a student, but down near Spadina….student housing.
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It’s a long street. 🙂
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What theatre was it before? I am a West End person, so I am sure I have seen a movie or two there.
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Well it’s still called Runnymede inside. I think I linked to the wiki page. There’s quite a bit of history there (I have more time today to read up on it than I had yesterday).
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I remember going to a movie there….but it was before I could drive because a friend’s father drove us.
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I love all the interior details. 🙂
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Just checked closer. It is Shoppers. So different from their normal cookie cutter look.
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Yes. I thought the layout was well organized.
It supposedly was a Chapters before.
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Would have been a beautiful book store.
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Yes. Too bad Indigo took over and abolished all the smaller bookstores into huge impersonal complexes…
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Very cool. So much character. Is it a big name store like Shoppers Drug Mart? Doesn’t look like it. I love all the individual neighborhoods in Toronto. Used do do a lot of walking around the city when I was a student.
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It is a Shoppers. It was very modern inside.
In my hood along Lakeshore, there are two Shoppers within my vicinity, one older and one those modern ones that include a grocery section. I like the older one for quick stops. The modern complexes are handy in lockdown I will grudgingly admit…
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Way cool! I love when old buildings are repurposed. I was sad to see another of our downtown brick buildings get torn down.
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I like it too. So much of modern life is cookie cutter construction…
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Yes, a bookstore in that space seems wonderful. I give them props for the drug store idea though, and for keeping so much of the original theater intact.
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Me too. Must have been a really great spot for local theatre performances at one time (and movies later).
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How cool!
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Nice repurposing! You wouldn’t think a retail store would rent such a space. How quaint!
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Apparently it was a bookstore before… But Chapters became Indigo which is much larger.
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