The Drake Hotel is a hospitality venue on
Queen Street West
Queen Street is a major east-west thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It extends from Roncesvalles Avenue and King Street in the west to Victoria Park Avenue in the east. Queen Street was the cartographic baseline for the original east ...
in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
, Canada, near
Parkdale. In addition to a nineteen-room
boutique hotel
Boutique hotels are small inventory, design driven, unique hotels with their own character, personality and storytelling at the heart of their concept. Positioning is secondary for these hotels as they focus on authenticity and personalization ...
,
there is a restaurant lounge, corner café with street-level patio, Sky Yard roof top patio, and the Drake Underground basement nightclub and live performance venue. The Drake Underground primarily features indie acts, though past noted performers include
M.I.A.,
Billie Eilish
Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell ( ; born December 18, 2001) is an American singer-songwriter. She first gained public attention in 2015 with her debut single " Ocean Eyes", written and produced by her brother Finneas O'Connell, with whom ...
and
Beck
Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his Experimental music, experimental and Lo-fi music, lo-fi style, and became ...
.
History
The venue was opened in 1890 as ''Small's Hotel''. At the time, the area was a major
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...
hub near what was then one of the wealthiest neighbourhoods in the city.
In 1949, the hotel was acquired by new owners who expanded the building and renamed it ''the Drake''. The hotel eventually fell into decline.
James Earl Ray
James Earl Ray (March 10, 1928 – April 23, 1998) was an American fugitive convicted for assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. After this Ray was on the run and was cap ...
described visiting a bar around the corner—likely the Drake—while living as a fugitive on nearby Ossington Avenue in 1968. In the 1970s, it fell into use as a
flophouse
A flophouse (American English) or dosshouse (British English) is a place that offers very low-cost lodging, providing space to sleep and minimal amenities.
Characteristics
Historically, flophouses, or British "doss-houses", have been used for ...
like many hotels in North American cities. Other uses in the 1980s, and 1990s include a
punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
bar, and
rave
A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mus ...
den.
In October 2001, the hotel was purchased for by Jeff Stober,
who planned a Toronto equivalent of the
Hotel Chelsea
The Hotel Chelsea (also the Chelsea Hotel or the Chelsea) is a hotel in Manhattan, New York City, built between 1883 and 1885. The 250-unit hotel is located at 222 West 23rd Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, in the neighborhood of Ch ...
where creative individuals would work and live.
After in renovations
were completed, the Drake re-opened in February 2004.
[Drake Hotel] The current ownership has since expanded, opening a hotel in Wellington, Ontario, other restaurants in Toronto and the Drake General Store retail stores.
See also
*
Gladstone Hotel
References
Notes
External links
*
Live concert photos from the Drake
{{Authority control
Hotels in Toronto
Restaurants in Toronto
Music venues in Toronto
Nightclubs in Toronto