The Fox Cinema

Looking around Main Street today it's hard to believe the Fox has been gone for 4 years already. It was back in early 2013 that a "For Lease" sign went up at 2321 Main Street. The Fox was the city's last theatre to show XXX adult movies and had been doing so since 1983. In recent years I'm not sure how they made a go of it. In all the time I've been in the neighbourhood I really don't remember ever seeing many people frequenting the place. It was a pretty quiet looking on the outside but the exterior belied the unsavory activities taking place inside the theatre. This was brought to light before renovations began and photos of the interior were posted on the web and to social media. The interior was truly a bit of a biohazard as CSI type photos lit with blacklight clearly attest to!





























But after extensive renovations and lot's of hard work the theatre re-opened as the Fox Cabaret in the spring of 2014. Since then the area around Main and Broadway has changed quite a bit. With all the condos being built nearby the neighbourhood seems be going a bit more upscale. The closure of Reno's Restaurant in late 2015 also signalled a distinct shift in the hood. Also the arrival of Hootsuite software basing its operations close by is bringing about even more change. I'm not sure what all the new folks would have thought about the old Fox Cinema. But warts and all I kind of miss the old place as to me it was just part of the neighbourhood with its signed Ron Jeremy 8x10 photo in the window!

The Templeton

The Templeton Restaurant at 1087 Granville Street is one of the last retro styled diners in downtown Vancouver. The building it's in dates from 1909 and the place has been an eatery for many decades under different names. It's just a tiny place with only 30 seats. The interior is 50's retro with a long counter with stools and all the booths have a small jukebox. When I was downtown in the fall of 2016 I noticed the storefront had a bit of a makeover and their old hanging style sign was gone. Since then it's been replaced by a nice little neon sign that's on the front of the building with a spiffy new awning as well.

This is a cropped version of an old photo from the Vancouver archives (CVA 772-702). It's a bit soft but you can see back in the late 80's the space was home to the Top Top Restaurant. Granville Street was much rougher around the edges back then. The street got a bit of a makeover before the arrival of the 2010 Winter Olympics as many of the old XXX stores moved out. But today there are still a few empty storefronts as the more trendy retail shops seem to be having a hard time keeping a foothold on Granville Street.

This is an old photo from 2011 which shows the Templeton's old sign. At that time they used to have a bit more neon in the window as well. After doing a little searching I found the restaurant had changed hands back in 2015. A search of the City Directories found it was home to Adelle's Cafe back in 1952. With the Smile Diner property on Pender Street facing redeveloped here's hoping the Templeton will be around for many more years to come.

Elizabeth's Bakery

Elizabeth's was a charming little store that was located at 1303 Commercial Drive. I took this picture in December of 2014 when I was first contemplating doing a Storefront project. But time passed and I took many photographs throughout 2015 and I kind of forgot about Elizabeth's. It wasn't until later that year that I returned to The Drive thinking I might get a better shot of the bakery without the bicycles in front. But to my shock and amazement I found Elizabeth's gone and the store was empty! I returned home disappointed but after doing some searching I found the bakery was still around and had moved just down the block to 1399 Commercial Drive. It just goes to show you that if you see something that looks interesting in Vancouver you better take a photo of it as it might not be there the next time you visit!





























I'm guessing the reason Elizabeth's moved is probably due to rising rents. The recent closure of Wonderbucks could be a sign of more changes on the way for The Drive. I photographed the space at 1303 again in 2016 and it had become a store called Karma which sold athletic wear. It didn't last very long and was gone by the fall. In 2017 the space is still empty so I'll be keeping an eye on who moves in next. Hopefully they'll be able to stay around for a while!

Rupert's Place

Rupert's Place was one of those plain no nonsense little commercial shops that was located in Lower Mount Pleasant. Although Rupert's didn't look like much it did have a bit of a story. If you looked through the front door you would have seen the place was pretty messy inside. Messy to the point that it looked as though someone had actually ransacked the place. I guess that's just how they rolled at Rupert's Place. A search on the name brought up a comment on Yelp that Rupert was not the name of the shop's owner but rather the name of his cat!





























In the last few years there's been a huge commercial real estate boom in the Lower Mount Pleasant area with a big influx of fashion and high tech businesses (Hootsuite) as well as many new developments. The area is bounded by Main Street on the East to Cambie on the West, and from 2nd Avenue on the North to Broadway on the South. It's now nicknamed Mount Pixel. With all the new interest in the area rents and leases are starting to skyrocket and many of the old traditional service and supply businesses are disappearing being soon replaced by the more upscale. Sometime in early 2016 Rupert's closed it's doors and the space has now been taken over by a new bakery.

Corner Stores on Main Street

In December of last year I was walking up Main Street doing a little Christmas shopping when I noticed that the little corner store at 28th Avenue called C.K. Mart was closed. Not only closed but completely emptied out as well. I always thought it was a bit of an odd little store as I used to pick up a lottery ticket there once in a while. I'm sure times are tough in the corner store business but having a Nester's Market just half a block away surely didn't help. But I'm also thinking that rising rents along Main Street probably had something to do with the store's demise.

A bit further North at Main and 22nd Avenue yet another little corner store closed earlier in 2016. Again it was another small shop that looked like it was just trying to make a go of it.

This store also had a large Coca Cola sign hanging out front. It never worked but hopefully it'll stay put as these really are a rarity now with only just a few remaining around the city. I follow a sign blog from the US and apparently these type of Coke signs were only made for the Canadian market.

Now all of a sudden in 2017 there's a whole rash of stores closing down or moving on Main Street in the heart of Mount Pleasant in the Broadway and Kingsway area. They include The Foundation restaurant, Hot Art Wet City Gallery, Adhesif Clothing, RX Comics, and Scout Boutique. You can read all about it here in VanMag. All the craziness of Vancouver's overheated real estate market is starting to have a serious trickle down effect on many small independent businesses. It could be the little corner stores on Main Street were just the canary in the coal mine.

The Cellar

This is another older picture that was taken back in the summer of 2010. The abandoned building at 222 East Broadway was the only survivor of a mysterious fire that broke out early on Christmas morning back in 2009. Sadly the rest of the buildings at the corner of Kingsway were all destroyed. There were many artist's studios on the upper floors and many lost everything in the blaze. This little building sat empty until the spring of 2014 when it was finally demolished to make way for a controversial condo development.

Years ago I remember hearing that there had once been a club in the building. After doing some searching I found out that this had once been the home of the The Cellar Club. The entrance was at the back on Watson Street with the club being down in the basement. During the late 1950's and early 1960's it was the place for jazz in Vancouver. Many great musicians played there including Ornette Coleman. A few people have blogged about the club and there is a very good link with lots of info here. Back in 2014 just as the building was being torn down I ended up chatting with another photographer who was also getting some last shots of the place. It turns out his name is Chris Wong and he's working on a book about jazz history in Vancouver. He actually managed to get permission from the developer and got some interior shots of the Cellar before the building finally came down!

Back around 2010 CBC Vancouver posted a web gallery of old still images of sets at their studios as well as some old photos of Vancouver that were used as backdrops for their shows. Some of the images were of the Cellar Club. They were taken by Franz Lindner on March 21st 1961 when the CBC did a live broadcast from the club. It's great that CBC has these photos as the Cellar is just a memory now.

The Kingsway Laundry Mat

This colourful storefront is part of an empty complex at Kingsway and Earles Street in East Vancouver. From what I can figure all four stores at the corner have been shuttered since at least 2009. Since then it seems the property has been the subject of at least two failed redevelopment proposals. One was for a medical office complex and the other was for rental housing. The plan for the rental housing failed the City's Urban Design Panel back in 2014 and it looks like plans were permanently shelved after that. Of course as time goes by the corner looks more and more dilapidated as it's been abandoned for so long. It also makes you wonder that in a busy city with rising rents why the spaces couldn't have been rented out. I'm sure short term leases or pop up stores could have put the spaces to good use in the mean time. But instead they've languished empty for nearly 7 years.





























But being Vancouver, the most recent plan put forth in 2015 was to use the Laundry Mat space as a Medical Marijuana shop. Unfortunately the building has not been looked after very well so it's anyone's guess if the space is even useable after being empty for so long. You can see how the corner looked in 2016 with this link to Google Street View. The bottom photo is from 2012 when the strip still looked relatively presentable. Who knows what will happen in 2017 but I'll be keeping an eye on this corner for sure!