Towered
Superstar
It's better than the other shockingly bad towers that are increasingly marring the London landscape...
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Central London, Ontario
- Thread starter rdaner
- Start date
rdaner
Senior Member
rdaner
Senior Member
The CIBC building at 166 Dundas is actively being converted into residential units and should have a big impact as it is on a prominent corner. Another win for central London!
rdaner
Senior Member
Part Four in the series that I’m producing about the development of the old War Memorial Children’s Hospital and Victoria Health Services Buildings into... | By Laurence | Facebook
Part Four in the series that I’m producing about the development of the old War Memorial Children’s Hospital and Victoria Health Services Buildings into...
www.facebook.com
rdaner
Senior Member
A sneak peak at the Hard Rock Hotel
Canada's first Hard Rock Hotel is set to open in just a few months in the Old East Village. CTV London's Nick Paparella got a tour of the facility.
www.ctvnews.ca
rdaner
Senior Member
rdaner
Senior Member
Towered
Superstar
About a month ago I spent an hour in downtown London for the first time in many years, and it was...eye opening. I was there on a gorgeous, sunny Saturday around noon, and there was almost nobody walking around in the heart of the city, and 90% of the few pedestrians that I did see were dishevelled, shady looking characters clearly not of sound mind. I have to say it was unpleasant and kind of shocking because for some reason I believed London had improved over the years and had some urban vibrancy, but I didn't see any of that. I was not expecting a Hamilton-esque experience. Wow. It's got a long way to go.
rdaner
Senior Member
The first tower at the London Psychiatric Hospital is about to get going in East London and is a bit of a victory for heritage restoration. Despite so many negative comments I think that London is doing well with a lot of development in most neighbourhoods.
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Towered
Superstar
Just walk around downtown...
rdaner
Senior Member
No articles yet but a few tidbits about 2025 that flew under the radar:
•Hilton Hotel has converted ~150 rooms to rentals
•first office conversion now open
•TD workers now returning to work
•more purpose built housing, some quite large, are now occupied
•Hilton Hotel has converted ~150 rooms to rentals
•first office conversion now open
•TD workers now returning to work
•more purpose built housing, some quite large, are now occupied
flonicky
Senior Member
Uuuhhhhhh ... I spent a night in downtown London (often criticized in the Not Just Bikes video series) in November 2024 but I guess I never got around to posting about it. So here are my much delayed pics.
I would sum up the state of downtown London as: "At Least It's Not Worse."
I stayed at the Armouries just for fun, because I've always wanted to.
Toronto, you could have had one of these.
The interior lobby (and pool on the other side) is pretty nice.
The absolute best part of the trip was breakfast at Billy's Deli.
And the worst was the old Galleria Mall, which has mostly been converted to offices. I was going to high school in downtown London when this was being built and it was touted as "the project that will save downtown London the way the Eaton Centre saved downtown Toronto!" It is massive blight on the downtown core. One of the worst things in all of Ontario.
Most of the old mall is closed off but a small portion remains accessible to the public. When the mall opened, it was pretty ritzy.
This is where the original Eatons mall was and used to be a nice, bright open space. There is a solution to the problem of the Galleria, and that is to take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
This was the largest group of living beings I encountered during my stay. They did not ask me for meth. London, of course, is notable for being a city of nearly half a million residents that doesn't have a single, thriving main street.
As long as Call the Office is dead, downtown London is dead.
There are apparently reno plans.
I would sum up the state of downtown London as: "At Least It's Not Worse."
I stayed at the Armouries just for fun, because I've always wanted to.
Toronto, you could have had one of these.
The interior lobby (and pool on the other side) is pretty nice.
The absolute best part of the trip was breakfast at Billy's Deli.
And the worst was the old Galleria Mall, which has mostly been converted to offices. I was going to high school in downtown London when this was being built and it was touted as "the project that will save downtown London the way the Eaton Centre saved downtown Toronto!" It is massive blight on the downtown core. One of the worst things in all of Ontario.
Most of the old mall is closed off but a small portion remains accessible to the public. When the mall opened, it was pretty ritzy.
This is where the original Eatons mall was and used to be a nice, bright open space. There is a solution to the problem of the Galleria, and that is to take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
This was the largest group of living beings I encountered during my stay. They did not ask me for meth. London, of course, is notable for being a city of nearly half a million residents that doesn't have a single, thriving main street.
As long as Call the Office is dead, downtown London is dead.
There are apparently reno plans.
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flonicky
Senior Member
Where was I? Oh yeah, downtown London, F***ing, Ontario, hometown of My Singing Monsters and Nash the Slash. A place that has certainly hit rock bottom ... and seems to like it down there.
They did some kind of project to fancy up Dundas, London's main street. It doesn't really work and clashes with the surrounding buildings. London has always taken active measures to discourage street life and you can see that street life has been actively discouraged. In the 70s and 80s, downtown was still a place where people went but over the following decades the cultural memory of a downtown was lost and now it's just empty. But, cleaner, I guess. They are slowly building some really dismal condos but that hasn't translated into feet on the streets so far.
I've heard people fretting about the homeless problem on Dundas, but I only saw a very few homeless people who seemed fairly polite. I guess if you're walking on a street with no other people around and you have to pass three homeless people sitting on the sidewalk, that can feel like an assault. I've walked around downtown Oshawa on several occasions ... get some perspective, you precious London yokels. You don't know what grit is.
This could be some sort of cool summer patio. But, abandoned is also pretty good.
The bizarre condo in this photo sits on the site of London's first failed attempt at a downtown mall, the London Mews. London is really good at repeating mistakes. In the 80s, one of the draws to downtown was the Mew's movie theatres, which were the nicest place to see movies in the city because of their plush, comfy 1970s seating.
So that was my first real trip back since the pandemic. It was pleasant and empty and boring and lonely and sad and pathetic. Like Farhi's soul. London has been the victim of several waves of what Jane Jacobs called 'cataclysmic money'. The mall, the arena, the parking lots and even the current streetscaping were all supposed to be 'the big thing' that was going to turn it all around. London has allowed developers to pump money into 'big fixes' that never pay off while demolishing historic assets like the Talbot streetscape (which was going to be another fantastic mall that was never built). Little to nothing is done to nurture the smaller cultural things that bring life to a downtown. The city can't even retain an historic site.
But on the positive side, there's loads of parking.
They did some kind of project to fancy up Dundas, London's main street. It doesn't really work and clashes with the surrounding buildings. London has always taken active measures to discourage street life and you can see that street life has been actively discouraged. In the 70s and 80s, downtown was still a place where people went but over the following decades the cultural memory of a downtown was lost and now it's just empty. But, cleaner, I guess. They are slowly building some really dismal condos but that hasn't translated into feet on the streets so far.
I've heard people fretting about the homeless problem on Dundas, but I only saw a very few homeless people who seemed fairly polite. I guess if you're walking on a street with no other people around and you have to pass three homeless people sitting on the sidewalk, that can feel like an assault. I've walked around downtown Oshawa on several occasions ... get some perspective, you precious London yokels. You don't know what grit is.
This could be some sort of cool summer patio. But, abandoned is also pretty good.
The bizarre condo in this photo sits on the site of London's first failed attempt at a downtown mall, the London Mews. London is really good at repeating mistakes. In the 80s, one of the draws to downtown was the Mew's movie theatres, which were the nicest place to see movies in the city because of their plush, comfy 1970s seating.
So that was my first real trip back since the pandemic. It was pleasant and empty and boring and lonely and sad and pathetic. Like Farhi's soul. London has been the victim of several waves of what Jane Jacobs called 'cataclysmic money'. The mall, the arena, the parking lots and even the current streetscaping were all supposed to be 'the big thing' that was going to turn it all around. London has allowed developers to pump money into 'big fixes' that never pay off while demolishing historic assets like the Talbot streetscape (which was going to be another fantastic mall that was never built). Little to nothing is done to nurture the smaller cultural things that bring life to a downtown. The city can't even retain an historic site.
But on the positive side, there's loads of parking.
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Towered
Superstar
Very much echoing my experience last summer, I see. Yeah, the downtown is shockingly bad for a city of 500,000. There are countless tiny towns and villages in Europe that have better streetlife than this pathetic dump. The citizens and the municipal government really ought to be ashamed of themselves. Decades of poor civic leadership and mismanagement have led to this. Even Hamilton is far better, and that's saying something.
Any talk of a downtown renaissance is widely exaggerated.
JasonParis
Moderator
Sad to see Call the Office in that condition. I remember seeing Radiohead and Swervedriver there, and there used to be a popular gay bar next door too. Interestingly, the first picture actually looks quite vital, despite the tone of the post.