Street art lends life to boarded up windows

 

So many storefronts feature boarded up windows and doors in East London that if it were not for the street art the street would be very dull.

476 Richmond is a heritage building

 

Immediately across from the Grand Theatre there is a wonderful, heritage building. Like many of the structures in downtown London, both new and old, it is owned by Farhi Holdings Corporation. The last report I read, said that Farhi Holdings at that time owned hundreds and hundreds of buildings throughout Ontario extending from Windsor on the west to almost the Quebec border on the east.

Street sweeper leaves dust cloud in wake

 

"We should have left on our masks," said the fellow walking beside me. We had both just left the Grand Theatre where wearing masks was demanded. Now, outside, maskless, we found ourselves choking from the dust stirred up by a nearby sidewalk sweeper. As it passed by, everyone in the area was left coughing and wiping eyes gritty with nasty sidewalk dust.

Grand Theatre

According to the published history, The Grand Theatre opened in 1901 as the Grand Opera House. The original owner and manager was theatre impresario Ambrose J. Small, who ran the theatre as a touring house for everything from road shows to vaudeville.

Ambrose Small disappeared on December 2, 1919 - never to be seen again. After his disappearance, Small's holdings, including the Grand, were bought by Trans-Canada Theatre Ltd which went bankrupt in 1924. The Grand Theatre was then purchased by Famous Players, the movie house company.

Today, it's days as a movie house are well past.

London Clay Art Centre

Much of the original streetscape in East London is gone but an architect told me that some of the remaining buildings have "good bones." The London Clay Art Centre is an example of the restoration possible with imagination and lots of craftsmanship. (Sorry about the use of a non-gender neutral word but what is the correct replacement. It has me stumped.)

My nephew and I read about the centre on the Web but we failed to notice that it is open only Wed. to Sat. from 11am to 3pm. We tried to visit on a Tuesday and found it closed. We discovered that many places associated with the arts have similar hours. Museum London and Eldon House historic home and museum are two others.

The place looked so interesting that I will definitely be paying it another visit, a midweek visit.

Once thriving businesses closed

Once East London was a thriving business district. When it started to die, the stores worked together to make the area more attractive. The main street running through the area was ripped up and replaced with a curved road. 

Why it was thought that a curved road would attract shoppers is a puzzle. It didn't. The businesses behind the curved road closed and the replacement businesses put part of the blame for the area's problems on the curved road. It was straightened. The area continued its downward spiral and most of the remaining stores closed.

Murals soften boarded-up-building look

 Many of the business which once lined Dundas Street in East London are gone and the former stores are boarded up. Murals soften the boarded-up-building look but the economic damage to the East London community is in no way mitigated. 

East London, once a rival to the downtown commercial core of London, is today an example of an urban renewal disaster. After a million plus dollars were expended by the city on the area, it is no closer to being a thriving  commercial area than it was some decades ago. In fact, it could be argued that the area is testing new lows as it continues its downward spiral. Very sad.