I've lived in South Etobicoke for over 30 years, and I think that people are really going to miss Cloverdale. It's so convenient for running errands because the bank, grocery store, hardware store, LCBO, tailor, drug store, Timmy's, Dollarama, dentist, MTO and hairdresser are all under one roof so you can accomplish a lot in one stop. A lot of seniors come to this mall to meet up and go for a walk. The Metro store is large. It's the flagship store. Metro has recently built a huge warehouse operation across the street.
I met my wife while working at Coverdale mall in 1985. I was working at a record store called Discus and she worked across the hall at a costume jewelry store across the hall next to Den for Men. We had our first drink after work together at Dantonis restaurant. Still together after almost 40 yrs. This mall has a special place in our hearts.
Oh wow, you've made it to my end of the city! Cloverdale is still really a much loved and used mall here in Central Etobicoke. Will be missed but sounds like a smaller shopping area will remain. Looking forward to the video, wish I had passed you so I could say hello!
Took my mother when she was in her ‘80’s shopping in Coverdale - post office, Blacks for film & photo printing (yep - elderly still do that) & Walking on a cloud for shoes - stores for elderly women’s clothing bookstore mostly to buy presents for her grandkids - then Zeller’s for household items & for lunch in their Diner so sad when F’en Target took over & it bombed & fizzled away). - around outside to Dr’s Appt’s - Downstairs was a dollar store - forget which - but we couldn’t get her walker down stairs easily - Weight Watcher’s down there, too. Then when all other shopping was done we did a big shop for her in Metro & packed it in car took her home - I brought everything up to Condo - packed it all away in fridge, pantry, etc. By then it was after 6 pm & I started my usually 1.5-2 hour drive home to Scarborough up Islington and across the parking lot called the 401! Sometimes we went to Appt’s at St Joseph’s hospital so shopped at Sobeys on Lakeshore and would stop at High Park for late lunch & walk around pathways to sit on benches amidst hanging gardens, there, winter spring summer & fall! My fav part of day! I did my best. R.I.P. Mom!
The area where Winners and Kitchen stuff plus is now was a Zellers in the 90's. There use to be an amazing water feature in the middle around the food court area as well. I'm going to miss it, very convenient. Also KFC use to be where the mobile repair store it.
The restaurant was our hangout in the 60s learned to drive in the parking lot 1969. It was open no roof over the centre. I have a memory of having to sit down on the sidewalk at Bloor and East Mall my friends made me laugh so hard. We live d there on East Mall and walked through the field to BCI.... loved that field, My Mom sang in the Valhalla Inn and the apts had a pool , we had transistor radios. I sound like my grandparents. Thanks
@@htmc2022 Burnhamthorpe Collegiate Institute 427 and Burnhamthorpe Etobicoke. A lot of young people from your area took dance lessons at my mother's studio at Bloor and Jane .... over 60 years
Thank you Jonny for a truly wonderful video of the shops in Cloverdall Mall. I used to work in Etobicoke and a lot of Seniors came to this Mall. They always told me how wonderful the Home Hardware Store was, it had everything. I enjoyed this very much. Sad to see Condos being planned for here.
When we first moved to the area, there was a Morgan's department store anchoring the north end of the mall. That location eventually housed The Bay, then Zellers and, for a relatively short period, Target. There have been huge changes over the years in terms of the mall's tenants and in its physical structure (uncovered versus covered, for example). I had a part-time job at what was once a Dominion store. It was so busy that sometimes two of us were assigned at the same checkout to parcel groceries (brown paper bags back then).
Thanks for filming our much beloved local mall before it gets flattened. Cloverdale was a great low key mall with all the necessities. I will miss Winners, Home Hardwear, the record store and all the little clothing shops. Grew up with this mall. It will be missed.
@ruthbickerstaffe1915 I'll miss them both. They'd been there for decades. I still miss The Panhandler gift shop that closed 20 years ago. It was at the Bay end of the mall.
@@missj2045 Yes, I understand. I lived and worked in Etobicoke for years. Even after we moved I always went back to Cloverdale. So many great places in Toronto area are changing.
Thanks. What about a shorter Part 2? If you travel along the side corridor to the main washrooms, there should be walls lined with framed pictures of the mall from its beginning in the 1950s. It was a rather impressive sight and added something special to the mall.
@@sos1691 No I don't remember anyone that worked in the mall. I do remember the owner/manager of the restaurant was a pretty nice guy who let us hang out in it. My son was born in 1970 when I had just turned 18 after I lost him I moved downtown to Yorkville.
I started going to Cloverdale Mall when I started working at Bloor and Islington in 2017. It's not the fanciest mall, but it has all the essentials you need (Winners, Kitchen Stuff Plus, Home Hard Ware, Metro, etc.). It's a shame that it will be closing down soon.
Prior to Hudson's Bay store that location was a department store called Morgan's. I remember the early days of Cloverdale well. When the centre part was open air there was an amazing concrete slide which I loved as a kid !
OMG! I had no idea this was happening and I live down the street. Thank you for sharing the news! Really sad to hear this mall is going it was one of the last affordable malls in the city
Thsnk you very much for this video on the Cloverdale Mall. I loved it ❤. My Nana would take ne here in the 70s when it was an outside mall. I thought it was so cool as a child. I spent alot of time there. We would shop at Dominion, go to the tecord store, and eat Kentucky Fried Chicken outdide on the bench. Grest memories here ❤ Thsnk you for sending me back to my childhood with my Nana shopping at Cloverdale Mall ❤
I lived several block away from this mall. Did a lot of shopping at The Bay, Zellers, Dominion, and many of the other retailers there. I bought my sewing machine at the Singer sewing store. It's sad to see it go. It had everything you needed.
Great memories going with my Mom and we would sit by the fountain and she would watch people go by. She loved Adele’s, they had the $5 mystery bags and she would buy them for her granddaughters. And they had a Zacks’s women’s clothing store and it was where I went to to get help to buy clothes to wear to the office, a kind woman helped me put together outfits, so helpful. And Cloverdale is where my Dad went to with wheeltrans all the time and he could get around in his walker and have some independence before he passed away. Beloved mall.
My family moved into the area in 1962 .we always went to cloverdale mall . I still go there 62 years later. I worked at the cloverdale dominion, and later the sherway dominion. The mall has a fraction of the customers it had from the 60s to the 90s. It was always packed.
Canada consumers need an enclosed mall for long cold winters. many will close as they are more valuable as living places. government should insist that ground floors have retail stores. parking might be limited, though.
theres this watch kiosk shop that does repairs and decades ago my dad wanted to replace a dead battery. the owner was drunk and not only didnt replace the battery, but destroyed the internals as he was too intoxicated to put it back together.
That was a trip down memory lane. When Cloverdale Mall opened it was an open air mall in 1956.no roof. Many of school friends and I had our first part time jobs at Cloverdale Mall. I worked at a lunch bar in Kresge's making 85 cents an hour, I believe. Also, remember going back when visiting from west to the Hot Oven Bakery.
A little sad that a local staple is being "improved" ... this is my closest mall, and was one of Toronto's original malls. It had everything I needed - groceries, pharmacy, Service Ontario, a bookstore, hardware store, alcohol, a Bulk Barn, some Mom and Pop stores, optician, shoe stores, cheap stuff at Dollarama, more expensive stuff at Winners .... but access to it certainly hasn't been pedestrian friendly. Can't see that changing with these condo towers etc going in.
Hopefully at least some of those stores return to be part of a mixed-use neighbourhood. More local and family-owned businesses are also welcome. Then with the new condos more people will be living closer to amenities.
You blew right past Taylor Somers menswear shop right next to Showcase. That place is fantastic for menswear, especially if you need to find a well fitting good quality suit. Ask for Claudio, he’s amazing!
I used to go to this mall as a kid. But yes sure is a dead dying mall. However. I know a lot of older. People that still go to Cloverdale as it’s smaller than Sherway Gardens and has many stores and services they need in one place. Hairdresser bank grocery etc I heard the new developer plans to build the new condos in stages thanks for the video Johnny
I am sure many of us can relate to shopping malls beginning from our youth. Sad that this mall is soon to be gone but to have been a source of shopping for people in this area for 68 years was a tremendously long run.😁
That empty lot you walk past at the start of your video used to have a gas station (A Petro Canada Station I think) back in the day! It was there until 2021, according to Google Street View, when they demolished it! You can see the station being demolished.
I've lived 40 years in this area .... New job now is in my future forcing me to move Eastern Ontario..... I'm already missing this city, and it never gets old for me
60s !!!! My goodness. It’s a totally different Toronto now. You used to shop here when most of us (including me !!!!) were not even born. So you have seen the changing of the city over the decades. Wow !!!
You know you are out of the times of the day when you cry when they shut down your high school. Yes so many changes. Landmarks are disappearing.@@abhijitguha494
Ha, Galleria Mall was always a big mistake!:- they built it as an enclosed mall ca 1974 to pull customers away from Dufferin Mall to the south but then Dufferin Mall expanded and became enclosed and swamped Galleria Mall and it languished and slowly died:- I think the owners kept it going only because they could not redevelop it for anything else but now the greater demand for condos has finally killed it to make way for something much more profitable.
Hi, the old Dufferin Racetrack was very stinky in the summer:- the Dennison family started it before 1900 and they also started another racetrack before that ca 1860 between Queen and Afton and Lisgar and Northcote (yes!!!):- racetracks could be very profitable because they were the only legal form of gambling for most of Toronto's history but bettors preferred to travel to the races by car after 1945 and Dufferin track could not keep up. The original Dufferin Plaza was much more profitable by 1957 and it was actually Canada's first actual "shopping plaza" and it was quite popular locally:- however after 1974 they enclosed it into an indoor mall and it became even much more popular to the point that it severely impaired retail commerce along nearby sections of Bloor, College, Dundas, and even Queen streets. Dufferin Mall is still very popular with working-class ethnic immigrants and it is one of the few shopping malls in North America which most shoppers visit by public transit or walk-in with relatively few drive-ins and most of the drive-ins are local shoppers doing heavy shopping for groceries or large items at the Walmart or for television sets etc. Btw, the site of Galleria Mall was occupied by all sorts of industrial loft buildings and light manufacturing since 1906 which were moving to more modern truck-accessible one-storey factories in the suburbs by the 1970s:- Galleria Mall was a gamble by the developers which survived only because they could attract a Zellers from the old Dufferin Plaza plus a supermarket but it was useless for the small retailers who languished there. In 1974 condominium apartments were still quite a novelty in Toronto and many people were suspicious of the concept and preferred freehold houses:- condos did not start to become somewhat popular until ca 1980 when two young "hotshot" real estate brokers, Harry Stinson and Brad Lamb, started promoting them to "dinks" (double-income no-kids couples) who preferred upscale apartment living and did not want the hassles of house-ownership):- that's why they did not build condo apartments there in 1974 despite the demand for apartments in Toronto at that time:- also the Davis government introduced rent-control which basically stopped all new rental-apartment construction so rental apartments for that location suddenly became an impossibility. @@dianaopolski869
@@eve-marie6751 Well, a bit less profitable. Rent-control only makes things impossible if you want to make x amount of profit and are unwilling to take in a bit less and go longer term.
In my small city malls are slowly losing their lustre which is a shame….thank you for the tour of Cloverdale Mall…hope it survives well into the future..👍💝
This was my local mall for the first twenty years of my life. It was an outdoor mall and a place where neighbours met up and and kids played. I went to Bloorlea Junior high up the street, and every day had lunch at the Kresge's counter. After that, I picked up my Chum chart at the record store, then headed to the first floor of Morgans to the candy counter. After that, I went upstairs to eat the candy while watching lunch hour game shows on the colour TVs for sale. I don't even recognize the enclosed mall that is apparently on the way out. It was never a place where condos would fit, instead, it was surrounded by small, cozy bungalows with big yards, where my friends lived. This is sad.
@@AlannahRyaneBloorlea 84….Burnhamthrope CI 86 transfer Silverthrone CI 89….still shop at Cloverdale when in town visiting my Mom that living by West Glen PS
@@farmatronica I went by my birth name then. It was such a memorable time especially for me cause I got pregnant in grade 11, then married then lost it all. Its actually the beginning of my spiritual memoir I am publishing soon. My son was born 1970 he is 54 now. I got him back ...
@@farmatronica I remember the walk along the glassed in wall over the lobby (?) was the girls favorite cause the older cute tech guys passed us! I can still remember 2 of them lol
My father was the manager of a large store in the Mall in 1965. He would go in on Sunday to do paper work and my sister and I would accompany him, the Mall and all doors were locked, so my sister and I got to enjoy playing with all the new toys that the store sold, sadly I can't recall the name, it was almost 60 years ago and sadly the memory doesn't improve with age
Was it Zeller’s? - that was the store there in the 2000’s - 2010’s until Target Took over. Target pulled out in a couple of years what a piece of poop that store was! But way back it was probably The Bay (Hudson’s Bay Store) because The Bay owned Zeller’s during Zeller’s last couple of decades - & The Bay would put Zeller’s in to replace a lot of The Bay stores that were in smaller malls. Glad you & your sister test drive the new toys! Hahahaha!
@@htmc2022 Cloverdale's original large "anchor" was "Morgan's", a stylish high end dept store from Montreal which was testing expansion possibilities and was quite far from the best fit possible in its new environment.
Hello Jhonny and as always beautiful sharing adventure documentary updated walk away tour and I really appreciate and enjoy watching your lifestyle documentary video channel .. thanks again
Missed a highlight there opposite the Sunrise Records. That hallway down to the Administration office is lined with historical photos of the glory days of the mall. Hope they land somewhere right.
My old stomping grounds (well Etobicoke). @AlannahRyane - I remember those days. Scruffy was a Kelsey's when I wrapped up high school. This is a worthy regen for the mall. Thank for the update Johnny.
I lived in Cooksville in the late '60's early '70's just after it became a part of Mississauga. I can remember going to Coverdale mall in 1969 with my father to a shoe store and I got my first pair of Adidas 3 stripe white running shoes. They were all the rage at that time. My father was shocked that he had to pay $15.99 for a pair of running shoes. I'll never forget that. Funny the wee things that you remember! Thanks for jogging my memory from 55 years ago or so. I was 10 or 11 at the time.
Do a successful mall series, we've all seen the dead malls, now show the people the horror of trying to park at Yorkdale on a Saturday or how bustling Sherway and Fairview are
I remember the restaurant in the Hudson's Bay/Zellers. Ate there quite often. Their wait staff were quite friendly and recognized the regular customers, like my wife and I.
Stayed with famiy in Etobicke while holidaying over a ten year period,2004- 2013,went to Cloverdale mall a lot,sad to hear it is being redeveloped,time moves on,thanks for bringing the video.
Their redevelopment plans look the exact same as the former Mr Christie area just up the highway. Gotta tear down everything historic, the NIMBYS wont allow any new land to be developed, sad.
I've been visiting that mall since the late 80s. My wife worked there when The Bay was still the North anchor store. I used to buy concert tickets at the Sunrise but for the last decade or so have only visited occasionally for the Winners.
I remember when Cloverdale Mall was packed in the 1980's. So many fond childhood memories. Appreciate the shoutout to Honeydale Mall. Did you see the new Tesla dealership that just opened across from Honeydale Mall? There also used to be a Dunkin Donuts in front of Honeydale Mall where the Enterprise car rental now sits.
I used to live near there with a psycho housemate. It's been an almost dead mall for some time since sellers became targets then Target folded and took a lot of the stores with it. There is a Heart Air store there that has an acrylic double dome over the receptionist station. It always reminds me of the Cone of Silence that never worked n the Get Smart TV show! I tried to tell the receptionist about it but she was too young!
Who wants to live in an overpriced, over taxed condo in an industrial area with a view of the highway? Maybe people will enjoy romantic walks along picturesque Dundas street to get to the Kipling Subway station. If it was close to the subway this location wouldn't be so bad. Then they could name the condo, "The Transformer."
I remember staying at the Valhalla Inn as a kid. It had a swimming pool where the diners could see you swim. Very unique layout and look. Northern European. So glad its a condo complex now; Toronto doesn't have enough of them.
I was expecting a ghost town mall.. but it's still active there. It's about the same numbers I've seen in other small malls. Or it could just be the time of day.
I live next to the Oakridge Park development in Vancouver. What they're planning at 3:46 looks very similar. Personally I think every major Canadian city (and especially Toronto and Vancouver) need a metric truckload of new buildings/housing so I personally so "bring it up" In the case of Oakridge, it was also build over one of Vancouver's "classic" shopping malls - Oakridge
I know Cloverdale because the 109S/N and 1C goes past this mall from and to sauga when I lived there in 2018 for a brief time. Recently, I picked up a rental at the Avis at Eglinton. The Honeydale mall is eerie to see from the street. The other concern is the Meadowvale Town Centre mal near the Medownvale TC and Community Centre… Without the Cdn Tire and the Metro there, this mall would not see much business.
I remember driving down the Queensway seeing a Zellers on the left thinking what is that place? Guess it was this mall. We used to go to the Zellers that was actually The Bay outlet store down the street. You could get insane deals on designer clothing and shoes and it wasn't all crap. They had good deals on slightly damaged furniture too.
I have a lot of great memories of this mall. I remember when I was a child going here with my parents and the mall was not enclosed. It was all open and I always remembered there was a chip wagon right in the middle of the mall before the roof enclosed it all in. That chip wagon smelled really good. In later years my wife an I shopped at Metro because it was close to where we lived and they had many Air Miles bonus items. I will be very sad to see this mall come to an end.
I used to go for ice cream there in 1960 after helping my brother with his paper route. The main store in this mall was Morgans. I remember my Dad calling to tell me they were making it an in door mall. I believe York Dale was the first in door mall. It was a smaller mall than it is now.
I have to reiterate what the other oldies but goodies are saying... In the 60s/70s this area was beautiful, green, peaceful, safe and a wonderful close community existed on that side of 427 up to Burnhamthorpe. And all of us walked through the field to the library to get to BCI. Still a shock to see the development in that old field.
They are doing the same thing here in Seattle to a mall called Northgate Mall, it was one of the first indoor malls in the early 1950s but was a major regional mall. The first chunks to go were the anchor stores, after that they tore down everything in the way of the new light rail station/elevated tracks, after that the main guts of the mall were mostly torn down with a section being renovated now called "Northgate Station" together with some of the detached stand alone stores. I do miss having Nordstrom/Macys I am really bad with online shopping so now I have to drive 20-30 minutes to somewhere else, it is what it is.
Like with many other underused shopping malls, the Cloverdale developer wants to transform this large tract of land into a real estate development with condos. This is the new way to modernize those large parking lots that were so trendy in the '50s and '60s. Today in Canada, we don't need so many stores, we need housing!
That is so sad, I was brought up in the west end and spent many a weekend going with my parents, going to the bakery and shops in that mall. More density coming. Where are people going to shop when the two groceries stores close and Home Hardware and others.
I remember my mother bringing me with her to shop at the Dominion …" mainly because of the meat " in the mid Sixties when I was a child, it was still open air in the center there was a neat concrete play structure, I loved the slide. My sister had a job at Open window bakery. We often had a bite to eat at S.S. Kersge ? I think. There was no Honeydale or Sherway Gardens then. The LCBO was originally over the counter service like filling a prescription back then ...funny the things you remember sometimes, it was too far to walk from my High School ,I wasn't near there for most of the changes
It was a sad day for Canada when Dominion became Metro. It is all downhill from here, if we don’t get a government that protects Canadian interests, not under the table labour and rental lords, freeloading off the masses.
Seeing this mall makes me sad for some reason. Huge part of my childhood, I remember it being bustling, especially because of a bakery but I don't think that's there anymore
The outside area is dirty , bleak and depressing with all the cement and no live landscape . I know it has to deal with Canadian weather , but surely we can do more in future to make our city look more pleasant. The inside of the mall looked fairly clean and useable still. Hopefully the new development will include a grocery store for those thousands of people, as well as hidden parking and some open areas. I hope urban planning has advanced since the 50’s .thanks for the visit.
I have not been down there in 40 years. So it seems the condo corporations will buy the land and put up more concrete high-rises. With the soaring rents the malls charge it is very hard for businesses to succeed in them. Amd the increase in internet shopping only hastens the demise of the shopping malls.
