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Toronto Notes

Who wants to buy the Cameron House?

A Queen West institution could be yours — for a cool $3 million

“That bar is old-school,” comments the receptionist at Toronto’s Royal Lepage office, when I ask to inquire about the property details of MLS®: C1734464 — a.k.a., 408 Queen W., a.k.a. The Cameron House. After 29 years, the famed boho bar/hotel/venue is up for sale, though the fate of this gritty relic of Old Queen West is unknown.

A page on the brokerage website Realtor.ca describes the property as a prime Queen West corner lot in the hippest neighbourhood in the city. The asking price to buy the property is $2.9 million dollars. A seminal fixture in the Queen and Spadina area, the one-time flop-house (whose history dates back over 80 years) reinvented itself as an art-bar and music venue in 1981, playing host to a multitude of aspiring artists including Ron Sexsmith (a former bartender there), Blue Rodeo and Prince, who used to drop by to play piano in its beautiful front room, adorned with a baroque ceiling mural. The building's famous façade of 10 giant ants crawling on the side of the building was designed by Cameron resident Napoleon Brousseau to build awareness for the city’s designation of the building as a rooming house prior to a 1984 papal visit.

Steve Duncan, the realtor affiliated with the property, writes in an email to EYE WEEKLY that he cannot release details of The Cameron House sale — or what the future could possibly hold for the building — without consent of the owners. As of this writing, the owners could not be reached for comment, though a Cameron House bartender confirms that the Queen West fixture is indeed set to be sold. Given the recent encroachment of H&M and Urban Outfitters into the neighbourhood — and Realtor.ca's encouragement that prospective buyers infuse the location with "your style and imagination" — could this long-time artist outpost get a big-box-retail makeover and get absorbed into what is becoming known as the “American Apparel ghetto”? EYE WEEKLY will report more details as this story develops… though in light of the recent news about another beloved '80s-era art-scene institutions, we don't have a good feeling about this.


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