The 1990s doesn't seem so long ago, but after browsing through photos of Toronto from the period, the decade is sure to feel strangely remote. The clutter of the 1960s and the sleaze of the 1970s is absent, but with these sanitization efforts, the city feels rather empty. Where are all the condos we have today?
Perhaps more than anything, Toronto appears like a city in transition during the '90s. The condos were coming, yes, but neighbourhoods like West Queen West, Liberty Village, and the Distillery District were entirely different than they are today. To think, the city has transformed itself almost completely in the last two decades. It's remarkable and almost a bit scary.
There are other visual cues that makes the '90s seem like a distant memory. At the outset of the decade, PCC streetcars were still common on city streets, trolley buses ran up and down Bay St., and taxis were hulking American cars like Chevrolet Caprice Classics.
Throw in film processing shops, tons of newspaper boxes, Speakers Corner and MuchMusic on Queen West, gas stations that only sell gas, a lack of big brand stores on downtown streets, as well as the perpetual presence of squeegee kids, and you have a recipe for some potent nostalgia from those born in the 1980s. This was the city they grew up in.
For all the wistful glimpses at photos of the '60s, '70s, and even the '80s, the '90s is the decade that people my age remember best — and, in our weaker moments, miss the most.
Behold, the remote allure of Toronto streets in the 1990s.
Trolley bus at the foot of Bay St. Photo by mightyleap.
Looking west on Queen at Spadina. Photo by David Wilson.
Looking east on King at Yonge St. Photo by mightyleap.
Dundas just west of Yonge. Photo by David Wilson.
Looking west on Queen from the junction of Roncesvalles and King. Photo by David Wilson.
299 Queen West. Photo via the Toronto Archives.
Abandoned Gooderham & Worts Distillery. Photo via the Toronto Archives.
Southeast corner of Avenue Road and Eglinton. Photo via the Toronto Archives.
Film lab at the corner of Britian and George. Photo via the Toronto Archives.
Roncesvalles just north of Queen (former Edgewater Hotel to the left). Photo by David Wilson.
Bay looking north beyond College. Photo by David Wilson.
Looking south on Bathurst from King. Photo by David Wilson.
Northwest corner of Queen and Bathurst. Photo via the Toronto Archives.
Parliament and Front. Photo via the Toronto Archives.
Lakeshore Boulevard at Superior. Photo by David Wilson.
Queens Quay looking towards Rees. Photo by David Wilson.
Queen West at Markham. Photo by Ivaan Kotulsky via the Toronto Archives.
King and Bay. Photo by David Wilson.
Yonge at Balmoral (wow). Photo via the Toronto Archives.
Queen and Connaught. Photo by David Wilson.
Southwest corner of Parliament and Front. Somehow still a Budget lot. Photo via the Toronto Archives.
Yonge just north of Millwood. Photo via the Toronto Archives.
Front and Princess. Photo via the Toronto Archives.
Union Station. Photo via the Toronto Archives.
Queen West and Walnut. Photo via the Toronto Archives.
Squeegee kid on Spadina north of Queen. Photo via the Toronto Public Library.
by Derek Flack via blogTO
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