Corner of Yonge and Dundas in 1992

Corner of Yonge and Dundas, pre-Dundas Square, in Toronto in 1992.

[@KINGGOD69]

Im glad some one captured these moments,..

[@rbl777]

dirtiest intersection ever

[@CinHalCedHerChance]

@@rbl777 ever? You sure?

[@D33Lux]

@@rbl777Yeah, it had a element of danger. I saw alot of shit go down there in the early 90's. You quickly learned how to have situational awareness and knew who and which places to avoid. It was still better times back then, it was a dangerous freedom, but still free.

[@rbl777]

@@CinHalCedHerChance just plain dirty. no there is worse in South America the least and what not but for toronto. disgrace

[@CinHalCedHerChance]

@@D33Lux I don't remember it being the "dirtiest intersection ever", I remember it being one of the most colourful and it had this energy to it you can't explain, compared to today's clinical looking boring counterpart.

[@CinHalCedHerChance]

Great time to be alive in Canada... I was a young kid then, but so much fun going there.. shopping, arcades, head shops (loved the posters lol), HMV, Sam's, World's Biggest Bookstore, Eaton Centre-movies...... .... someone really needs to invent a time machine.

[@d33763]

Back when you went and experienced the world...........not through the screen of your phone.

[@ALuimes]

@@d33763 Yup. The digital age has in many ways made the world more boring. Many young people don't go to the movies or even restaurants much anymore. Some of this had already started in the 80's even before the internet with VCR's. If you look at old films or pics from before then there were lots of garish neon signs for clubs, etc, in the main strip of every big city.

[@TheElvisgratton]

@@ALuimes I'm from Montreal and the first time I went to Toronto was in September 2001 and I've been going there on a regular basis since around 2008 and the longer it goes, the more the city empties, especially in the city center, I I liked Toronto because there were a lot of good little places to go and all these places closed one after the other. I remember that there was a 50's style restaurant in Dundas Squares, there was also a Chalet Swiss restaurant, an HMV store, future shop, an internet café on Yonge Street and other businesses that sold items let's say more for adults too. It may seem stupid like that but there is no longer a laundry room in the city center and if you are a tourist and you stay in Toronto for a while you have to go crazy to go and wash your clothes . There is the Bond Place hotel which is also closed and is being transformed into a shelter for the homeless. There is the bar opposite which is still open but for how long the last time I was there I think I was the only customer and usually this bar is often busy. There are 3 strip clubs that are still open but for how long?

[@CinHalCedHerChance]

@@ALuimes I was just 2 blocks north of there last night at McDonald's and holy shit, it's 100% unrecognizable. It looks so dystopian, the personality and character is gone, it's just a bunch of Uber and Skip guys on ebikes Plus the entire east side just north of Zanzibar is being built into a super condo/thing. All glass, with a funky angle on the south side. Toronto is officially no more, thanks for this video.

[@rogergoltz6672]

Back when the world was normal I miss those days.

[@miloplokes1983]

That's for sure.

[@johnmcgahern3946]

Just days before the twats and their rioting...

[@raymondraffoul2402]

Same here

[@christopherwelch136]

Lol! It’s still a -- hole.

[@CinHalCedHerChance]

@@christopherwelch136 Today it is yah, it's so clinical and doesn't have that "Canadian" vibe anymore. It's a shadow of its former self, no character at all.

[@danzman101]

Wish it was still like this

[@rezaicq]

Young and Dundas old , good days . My first job was in blocks away . Bring me Memory and Tears in my eyes .

[@liamwatson5125]

I loved Sam the Record Man!

[@filocoque2875]

That was the Dundas/Younge area that I knew .moved to Toronto from Europe in 1985,very young ,watching brake dance in front of Eatons ,going up and down 100 times ,the noise of the cars cruising ,the sleaze establishments .My cousin had told me that Young st was the longest in Ontario só one day I decided to see how long it was ,started on Queen st and up as far St.Clair .Had to give up and walk down again .I did not know the extent of Younge st .Came back home and my cousins burst out laughing .was a different feeling than today .The female and male prostitutes around Church gave it a feeling of sleaziness( back then there was no Gay community on Church ,was mostly restaurants that catered to the Maple leafs aficionados )I had a good time back then .And people were friendlier and approachable ,not like the stocked up people of today.

[@D33Lux]

Had a rougher vibe back then like Times Square NYC 1970's. I recall the row of drug dealers from the big slice carton street, to Dundas and alot them hanging around the outside of Eaton Centre. The strip joints, back then no one carded, not even the liquor store. I don't recall much gay's around there either and the gay people I knew were awesome, down to earth people, not unfriendly or politically aggressive like LGBT now. Life was more underground back then, the danger was there, but if you knew how to avoid it, it was cool. People survived and were tougher, not like now.

[@moehong9255]

The good old days

[@miloplokes1983]

I like how it use to be in the 90s too I remember when I first bought a cassette tape at HMV in 1994 next to Sam the Record Man. I'll never forget.

[@raymondraffoul2402]

Which tape?

[@JohnnyT002]

When I would visit Toronto on vacation from New York City, I would stop in at the HMV and I did find a few CD's that I couldn't get in New York. I also stopped in at Tower Records and Sam the Record Man.

[@miloplokes1983]

@@JohnnyT002 Yeah, but too bad they're now gone Johnny. Wish these stores could've stayed around.

[@JohnnyT002]

@@miloplokes1983 At one of the HMV's I went to I brought a Beaches International Jazz Festival CD back in 1999 and I have not seen that CD any place else.

[@teagoldleaf4137]

Oh my goodness, Toronto was such an amazing place to live in back then. I miss those days.

[@njam101]

The old Harvey's logo!!

[@shellyj8623]

So much has changed. I miss those days.

[@katosworld756]

This is amazing footage.this is the Yonge/Dundas i remember,miss these days so much! 😢😢

[@k_won456official2]

The Arcade on Yonge. Those were the good ol days

[@user-tl4fi6oy8d]

Funland, just up Yonge a little, across from Sam the Record Man. The last time I was there was probably the early 2000s.

[@rackrawan3191]

This makes me feel so happy to see these days I miss them this is my childhood.

[@hadihatab3126]

Reminds me of that Degrassi Jr High episode where Wheels finds his dad and they eat at a restaurant around this area.

[@JeSuisHulk]

went back to Toronto for the first time in 2022 after 20 something years couldn't recognize anything.

[@undeadnightorc]

OMG, I remember that Pinball arcade. They used to have a Galaga '88 machine near the front I would play a few times a week. And right across was the even bigger Funland Arcade. 1992 would have been about the time SF2 was getting really big and Funland had two massive SF2 machines at the front with a large crowd around it almost every night. Ah, the memories.

[@jabmalassie]

Remember the big security guard. lol He used to chase us out of there.

[@seferino]

I haven't played pinball in ages. The good ol days 🥲🥲

[@d33763]

Lol, I remember placing your quarter on the screen to deem that you had next. Half the screen would end up being lined with quarters.

[@KannibalKrunch]

I came to live in Toronto in the spring of 1989. This is what I remember. It had a small city feel. Being in New York for a visit, and then returning to Toronto, was like coming home to a village, but it was home... I really miss this too!

[@tartrazine5]

The WEF types had different plans for the country.

[@stingkirk]

"We may think we have everything now, but we actually had more back then" Awesome times, thanks for posting

[@Rob78169]

Ah, the start of two World Series titles were on the way!! Going to games with my dad🙏Not many empty seats at the Skydome back then.

[@BthereorBsquared]

This Toronto you older folk had looks miles better than the one I’m growing up in. I’m 23 years old and I feel like a tourist in the one city I’ve known all my life. Maybe it’s because of personal circumstance but it’s just not what it used to be.

[@denniscarrion746]

I spent many hours in that arcade

[@StarFyreXXX]

Yup yup :) and the one on the west side of yonge

[@katosworld756]

Yep me too!! Good ol days 👍😁

[@D33Lux]

Sold some pot at that arcade. LOL

[@NoName-vx6up]

​@StarFyreXXX In its heyday, there were 3.

[@josephmuglia976]

It brought back memories of my teenage years spending summers in TO. Things change, but it does look much nicer. Less personal.

[@CinHalCedHerChance]

It's too clinical now. When you compare then and now, I'll take the 90s any day of the week, so vibrant and tons of character.

[@andrewhoran8765]

God I miss Lick's.

[@C-mac_in_the_6ix]

haha! That's the first thing I thought when I watched this clip. I used to go downtown on my day off like clock work around 11am, do some shopping, then hit Licks at some point around 2, that way I could be back on the train to up town before 330pm when school students were getting out.

[@Aces77777]

Thank you so much for filming this, it's definitely going to be worth a lot anytime soon

[@Stecbine]

So Dundas Square didn't exist then? Wow what a different world Toronto was then compared to now!

[@ALuimes]

Nope, it didn't

[@filocoque2875]

No it didn’ and those stores they turned down were quite dark on a Saturday night

[@fOXXrOXTAH]

I was just talking about this corner pre-dundas sq. We couldn't remember what was there before!

[@larrysincredibletrailers2213]

The biggest thing there was the DOWNTOWN Cinema.

[@a.arghash3200]

Short Circuit 2 was filmed in TO with a whole segment filmed around Dundas and Young @5 minutes 56 sec into the movie. Mr. Submarine shown in the background.

[@lvfreeAdventures]

Thanks for sharing, awesome to see 90's

[@blueblaze9862]

I remember this...when yonge and dundas felt more local

[@cwazychik]

Local meaning?

[@blueblaze9862]

@@cwazychik Like smaller, less commercial, less touristy

[@sos1691]

@@blueblaze9862 Is that video footage really taken in 1992? Where is the Eaton Centre? It was build in the year 1977, and extends from Queen Street up to Dundas Street.

[@blueblaze9862]

@@sos1691 Eaton Centre is on the corner from where the person filming is at. Basically right behind him/her

[@sos1691]

@@blueblaze9862 So if the Eaton Centre is behind her, what direction is the camera facing? North East? or South East? What corner is the Scotia bank sitting? What corner is Mr. Submarine? Too bad the video maker did not capture the most important landmark of all. I lived in Toronto during the 60s and 70s and visited the Eaton Centre many times after it was built in 1977. Also I remember the theatres across the street from there.

[@nachonightmare148]

I miss not feeling like a stranger here.

[@jackietrujillo9612]

I remember this in the 90's . That sub haunts me thats where Emanuel hang out as a shoeahine. Now its condos everywhere. I miss Sam the record man. Eaton's cebtee was small.

[@washingtonredskin6574]

The Yonge Street that I first remember. Back when it was a sketchy flea market.

[@stanleyshtilman5636]

Now just a bunch of highrises...

[@redcomic619]

Much likes Times Square during the same time period.

[@D33Lux]

It was great, like an underground black market. If you knew where to look, you could find ANYTHING!

[@maxstone776]

What I would give to have those days back again, when cash was king, women were feminine and life was simple. I was trained at that exact MR. Submarine store Yonge & Dundas that was owned by the head office, when I purchased a franchise in Kitchener Ontario back in 1981. I really miss the good old days 😥

[@sloppypoppie]

I used to play at that arcade

[@shivercanada]

I was living there in 92, so wish I was walking by when this was filmed!

[@cheesyrider6914]

WOW,can't believe how much it's changed.

[@MohamedIlNasrani]

I miss this.

[@NECHOII]

*IT'S ACTUALLY THE ILLEGAL ALIENS, NOT BROWN PEOPLE EXCLUSIVELY!*

[@EdVanWest]

Oh I still remember those days. It’s Been 30 years. 🎉🎉🎉

[@_quinndama_]

Thank you for capturing this .. wow .

[@MatrixDiscovery]

Thanks for the memories. I started University in 1995. I remember this section well.

[@sos1691]

Where is the Eaton Centre? It was opened in 1977. No sign of it in this video.

[@rev000088]

@@sos1691 the Eaton Center is behind the person filming. The video pans from the North West corner, to the North East corner, to the South East corner and then back again. The person filming and the Eaton Center are on the South West corner.

[@sos1691]

@@rev000088 Yes I realize the Eaton Centre is or should be behind the camera. The question is: Why would the person filming not think the Centre important enough to swing the camera around to include it? I guess only the camera person knows the answer. All the best....

[@ALuimes]

@@sos1691 You're right. I should have filmed it.

[@jennc4242]

My first adult-free trip downtown involved lunch at the Licks.

[@jesusonXTC]

Wow big difference now

[@tagger38]

Love the Honda CRX! And I used to go to Mr. Greenjeans inside Eatons Centre for lunch in the late 80s.

[@GoatedAimz]

I was born in 2006 I wish I was born in 1980 or something my dad was born in 1975 he’s lucky it was so cool back then

[@CinHalCedHerChance]

I bet he's told you some great stories... it was a good time. Ask him about the car shows on Yonge St... everyone driving up and down Yonge St.. almost every Friday and Saturday night with their tuned up cars, neon lights (under the cars), music blasting, girls everywhere... real good times.

[@D33Lux]

@@CinHalCedHerChance Yeah, the car shows was awesome. Everyone would go downtown even after the clubs closed down at 2 a.m. to pound their car systems on the week-end with Euro dance or rap music. Greatest of times!

[@unrulysue6927]

Seems like yesterday, I was in my 20's. This is the Toronto I remember. Go there now and there's the horrible Dundas Square.

[@greatunz67]

I used to go down there all the time around then, It would be so weird if i saw myself walk by in this video, like time travel

[@magneto8002]

The good days. Now its sad there.

[@user-rh5yf2wz8l]

Now it's attempting to emulate Times Square . Ahh gentrification.

[@bskinny9009]

Those were the days my friend.

[@andoy8449]

Thank you for sharing this i was only been in toronto around 2012

[@hahamitch]

This is like a shot of nostalgia to the heart. The Licks! Mr. Sub! The giant mobile cart of hats & sunglasses pushed by that awesome Jamaican guy. My mom and I would sometimes watch the cart for him when he went to the washroom. The only thing this shot is missing is the street drummers. Good times.

[@PWingert1966]

And the guy who did the incredible chalk art! Don't forget Zanta!

[@CinHalCedHerChance]

lol I remember the Jamaican guy, such a cool dude. Always said hi to him every weekend my high school buddy and I went downtown to the arcade and world's biggest bookstore. One time I saw a pair of glasses I liked, but I blew all my money.. he said pay me next weekend. I couldn't believe it! WHAT?? Anyways, paid him the following weekend and my Mom had me give him some pierogis which he said he loved to eat. Nothing remotely close to that happening today.

[@d33763]

That Licks was incredible, 2 stories, remembering them singing all the time..... and that place had the best poutine.

[@rickallen9099]

The street drummers are a public nuisance noise disturbance. Good riddance to them.

[@groaningmole4338]

This was the last summer I lived in Toronto. Brings a few memories back.

[@sonnimonni2482]

April 28, 1992. Right on my 17th birthday 😮

[@edwardbliss8931]

That Shopping Mall store (beside Harveys) was my go to place for walkmans, watches, and cassettes for years. I wonder whatever happened to those 2 Russian guys who manned the booth at the back

[@azbishakiri6604]

Edward Bliss I used to go to that same mall to buy my video games.

[@rlam905]

@@azbishakiri6604 Yes I used to buy and sell used games there because I was a poor kid who's parents thought video games were a waste of money. It was in the back corner and I think it was called Game Shack or something.

[@NinjaWarriorDude416]

@@azbishakiri6604 the brown guys moved across the street in the basement of the Atrium.. bottom of the main escalators.. then they moved a few years ago to Orfus Rd.

[@okachobired5856]

Damn, this corner has changed so much. If anyone asked I wouldn't remember these stores but it's all right there. Before the theatre and Dundas Square.

[@tamjohn]

In 92 I was at Ryerson Polytechnic (now Ryerson University) You can see the top of the school behind the "Shopping Mall" @:44 Loved Toronto then. I have visited several times since but don't like what they did to that corner.

[@rozkidd8645]

That was Harold's stand and Mo at the Toronto Star box. If this was from a year or 2 previously, Mary the red headed flower seller would have been where the drummers set up now. Thank you for posting this.

[@user-yc3pb1ij7g]

I had just moved to Toronto and signed up for a math course at Ryerson. I lived near Logan and Danforth.

[@BORNKINGMALLAH]

I use to work in that shopping mall at a clothing booth called "the spot" wow the memories

[@galafly]

I lived in Toronto from 1992 to 2002 and this is what I remember. A city that had character, grit, it was fun and it was oh so very cool. Now, not so much. I barely recognize the city today, with a condo on every corner and retail hipster stores that have replaced the one of a kind shops you see in this video. It's become a generic, overblown, uninteresting place drowning in its own self-indulgence... all flash and no depth.

[@frankihatch]

Bruna gentrification

[@filocoque2875]

I agree.

[@D33Lux]

Bang on!

[@ponyrang]

My best friend, Great Good... !!! I wish you every day of your development.

[@ALuimes]

???

[@harleykaruliscreativity7467]

I miss those days!

[@SanjaySharma-sf8ed]

This intersection looks much better now

[@evan2635]

So cool.. I remember the area just like that being down there as a kid..

[@L1V2P9]

Anyone remember Half Beat Harold's, the Brick Shirt House, United Clothing and the Queen of Sweden?

[@2braindamage]

thanks for the video

[@infoupdater582]

It's shame there is no many videos available from old Toronto. What was the Government role and responsibility back in the days ??? ! ! !

[@727killuminati]

Wow amazing video!!!!!

[@dominicbriganti5710]

Look at that intersection now versus then

[@SHOWSTWOWATCH]

good old day bought so many jeans at that store

[@NoName-vx6up]

While watching it, I was saying not there, not there, still there.... I believe the jewelry exchange is there but more south? Oddly enough, yesterday I walked down Yonge from Bloor, and maybe a handful of businesses are left. Coaches Restaurant, not only noodles, a thai on Yonge, ABC books, and the Nutrition store across from Marshall's. It was sad to see the Surplus stores and Warriors go in the last couple of years.

[@canadianraunchycomediess4379]

WAY DIFFERENT NOW

[@kamalaparadise2269]

Looks like a great city back in the day. How did it go downhill so fast since then?

[@tamaragirlw26]

City looking so much better

[@17MJG93]

I was only a kid back then, so i always assume my memories are flawed, biased, etc... but the streets look cleaner, there's no zombies walking around screaming non-sensically, I don't hear gunshots in the background... life seemed so much better.

[@valentinaamigo3621]

Hello Andrew, Amazing video and quality! We would like to use part of this video for a student documentary at Humber College if you agree. I would like you to know that we will give you credits. And share with you the final result if you would like. Please let me know if it's okay with you. Have a great week!😃

[@FilCanJay]

I miss the early 90s.

[@potsy9973]

This got me a little emo. The 90s were the best.

[@CHICOandtheVAN]

Toronto was the best back then...all downhill from here....

[@Ynalaw]

I remember when Jane Creba was out Christmas shopping and she took a stray bullet from a group of "I can't say which type of people."

[@billjohnson7904]

Yonge St used to be a great street, now its all gone.

[@youbetcha6880]

I remember when Yonge and Dundas looked like this. Yeah, it was sleazy, but it was my kind of sleazy. BTW, whatever happened to the old man at the northwest corner who used to cry, "Jesus saves!"

[@saynotohookups]

He's still there. I saw him when I went downtown recently.

[@seferino]

He now cries " Trudeau saves " 😆😆

[@kmoore506]

Memories!!

[@dadgarage7966]

Ah, the good ol' days. Before anyone knew anything about anything.

[@sweetbutterfly9137]

Excellent

[@JEFFMAN90]

So thats what downtown Toronto looked like the year I was born

[@keironforbes9512]

I was also born that year, October 16.

[@D33Lux]

Yeah, and it was awesome back then.

[@infoupdater582]

I am traveling from Future .Please Help me .I'm Lost in 1992 in Yonge and Dundas.

[@energizerfuck]

Omg wow it has really changed wow so surprising.

[@AZGT350]

Who remembers the Silver Rail restaurant on Younge…

[@wokerdomelamestream4647]

This is like, mid fall? Halloween? Little before? I was in town then. I can almost smell the street meat carts... Edit: Watched twice. Thanks.

[@qna95B]

the date says springtime

[@BeyondChange]

The 90s looks like the 70s.

[@jvcpaints]

There was a dude in the "SHOPPING MALL" that sold video games that had two thumbs on one hand I shit you not.

[@user-rh5yf2wz8l]

Rockwell Jeans covered up. Library PUB, George 's Chicken , Filmores & George 's Spaghetti House jazz club east over _yonder_ along Dundas... Filmores, 1992. Right before lap dancing encroached upon our fair city.

[@YellowWalkman]

Why is no one carrying their cell phone like a digital leash?

[@bobbiedylan9758]

God I miss Licks 😭

[@nachonightmare148]

There was a music scene and everything imagine that

[@marquefan1]

Sunfoka Square?

[@JREVY22DECEPTICON416]

Throwback Thursday

[@matteovitacco3735]

Omg omg so different this is

[@178laaleros]

Holy shit looks way different than today