The Hudson's Bay flagship store (originally the Simpson's flagship store) is a

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...

building on

Yonge Street Yonge Street ( ') is a major arterial route in the Canadian province of Ontario connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Great Lakes#Geography, Upper Great Lakes. Ontario's first colonial administrator, ...

downtown Toronto Downtown Toronto is the main city centre of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located entirely within the district of Old Toronto, it is approximately 16.6 square kilometres in area, bounded by Bloor Street to the northeast and Dupont Street to the nor ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada. It was designed by the Burke and Horwood architecture firm for Robert Simpson, and opened in 1896; it replaced the first store on the grounds founded in 1894, which burned down in 1895. It was the flagship store of the Simpsons department store chain, was acquired by the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

in 1978, and was converted to The Bay flagship store in 1991. The store was rebranded to Hudson's Bay in 2013, and sub-divided to include the

Saks Fifth Avenue Saks Fifth Avenue (Colloquialism, colloquially Saks) is an American Luxury goods, luxury department store chain founded in 1867 by Andrew Saks. The first store opened in the F Street and 7th Street shopping districts, F Street shopping distric ...

Canadian flagship store in 2016. The previous Hudson's Bay flagship store was located several blocks north at the Hudson's Bay Centre on Bloor Street East, and existed alongside the Yonge and Queen flagship store until 2022. The Hudson's Bay flagship store spanned of selling space, making it one of the largest department stores in Canada. HBC sold the building to

Cadillac Fairview The Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited, branded as Cadillac Fairview, is a Canadian company that invests in, owns, and manages commercial real estate, mainly in Canada and the United States. As of March 2017, the company had 73 properties, enco ...

and officially became part of the

Toronto Eaton Centre CF Toronto Eaton Centre, commonly referred to simply as the Eaton Centre, is a shopping mall and office complex in the Downtown Toronto, downtown core of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is owned and managed by Cadillac Fairview (CF). It was named ...

in 2014, although the two buildings have been connected by skybridge since the 1970s. The companies maintain a

leaseback Leaseback, short for "sale-and-leaseback", is a financial transaction in which one sells an asset and leases it back for the long term; therefore, one continues to be able to use the asset but no longer owns it. The transaction is generally done fo ...

agreement through 2039, and the store was one of six locations the spared from the creditor protection and liquidation filed by HBC in March 2025. However, on April 23, 2025 due to court rulings deeming it "low probability" to find a buyer to keep the remaining six stores afloat, HBC announced the liquidation of all Hudson's Bay stores, including the Hudson's Bay flagship store, starting on April 25, 2025.The store officially closed on June 1, 2025.

History

1895–1991: Simpsons

The 1896

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

building located on Queen Street slightly west of Yonge Street was built by Toronto firm of Burke and Horwood for Simpson's Department Store in the

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...

style with Chicago School influences. The fireproof steel frame structure replaced the original 6-storey store that burned in 1895 just three-months after opening. The store was built to replace the original Simpson's dry goods business at 184 Yonge Street and was located directly across from

rival A rivalry is the state of two people or Social group, groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each ...

retailer's Eaton's Annex. The store's interior featured an open atrium that extended from the ground to the sixth floor. In addition to other departments, the basement featured a coffee shop and discount division. In 1954, it was connected to the Queen subway station and later to the

PATH A path is a route for physical travel – see Trail. Path or PATH may also refer to: Physical paths of different types * Bicycle path * Bridle path, used by people on horseback * Course (navigation), the intended path of a vehicle * Desir ...

network. In the early 20th Century, a

Dominion A dominion was any of several largely self-governance, self-governing countries of the British Empire, once known collectively as the ''British Commonwealth of Nations''. Progressing from colonies, their degrees of self-governing colony, colon ...

supermarket (City Hall Market) occupied the northeast corner of the ground floor. It closed in the 1960s. The store outgrew the capacity of the structure by 1900, leading to the first of several expansions. Burke and Horwood returned with additions in 1907 and 1923. The largest expansion came in 1929 with Chapman and Oxley's nine-floor

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

addition (facing Bay and Richmond) capped by the Arcadian Court. When construction completed, the store occupied two full city blocks. In 1969, John B. Parkin's Simpson Tower was added to the complex at the corner of

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 eas ...

and

Bay Street Bay Street is a major thoroughfare in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the centre of Toronto's Financial District, Toronto, Financial District and is often used by metonymy to refer to Economy of Canada, Canada's financial services indust ...

to house Simpson's offices. Unlike Eaton's, the store survived the remaking of the neighbourhood and retained the original look. A glass-enclosed bridge was added in the late 1970s to allow customers to access the

without braving the elements or traffic. '' Today's Special'', a children's television series that aired on

TVOntario TVO (stylized in all lowercase as tvo), formerly known as TVOntario, is a Canadian Public broadcasting, publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It operates ...

and in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

during the 1980s, utilized the location for several scenes.

1991–2025: Hudson's Bay

In 1991, the Simpson's name was replaced with the banner The Bay (amended to the current "Hudson's Bay" in 2013). The Bay Queen Street continued the Simpson's tradition of Christmas-themed display windows facing Queen Street West west of the main Queen Street entrance. The complex connects to the nearby

Bay Adelaide Centre The Bay Adelaide Centre is an office complex in the Financial District, Toronto, Financial District of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The first phase, a 51-storey skyscraper known as Bay Adelaide West, was completed in July 2009. The second phase, the ...

, Queen Station and shared underground parking complex. In January 2014, HBC announced it had sold the property to

through a sale-and-leaseback arrangement, with HBC leasing the property for at least the following 25 years (with options for a further 50 years). Under the deal, the store is for the first time considered an official part of the Cadillac Fairview-owned

. The main department store space was divided into two, with one side remodeled and opened in 2016 as a

, a luxury department store chain that HBC acquired in 2013, the other half retains the Hudson's Bay store. In 2016, a grocery store, Saks Food Hall, was added run by Pusateri's in the basement. It shut down abruptly in 2024 amidst Pusateri's bankruptcy filings, despite initial statements saying it would remain open. In 2023, a small section of Hudson's Bay in the basement was dedicated to the revived Zellers. The flagship store closed on 1 June 2025, along with all other remaining HBC stores in Canada.

Gallery

Hudson's Bay Queen Street Entrance Lobby 2021.jpg, Entrance Lobby Hudson's Bay Queen Street Level 2 2021.jpg , Level 2 Women Fashion Hudson's Bay Queen Street Level 3 2021.jpg, Level 3 Shoes Hudson's Bay Queen Street Level 6 2021.jpg , Level 6 Furniture

References

External links