Doomed Plaza & Gerrard Square Shopping Mall | Toronto Walk (April 2024)

A Toronto walk near Gerrard & Carlaw past a plaza and No Frills that will soon close and be demolished to make way for an Ontario Line subway station. I then head through the Gerrard Square Shopping Centre and end up at Jones & Gerrard.
Recorded in 4K at 60 FPS on Thursday, April 4, 2024.
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[@martym61]

Glad you covered this before it's gone.

[@rayy12_]

Thanks for sharing! Use to live in the neighbourhood in the 90s and have only great memories of this place. Sad to hear it will be demolished so I appreciate you recording this before it's gone.

[@MsKleinlaut]

Thanks for bringing this to us. Sad to see the mall go but it had it's days and looks a little broken and cheesy now. Lotsa good memories when I lived in the area (40 yrs. ago) Sears was there at the time.

[@francescathomas3502]

I live in downtown Toronto, back across on the West side of the Don Valley, and I have not been to Gerard Square mall for many years. I don't think I have been there since 2007. So a lot has obviously changed... But where Walmart is now, used to be a ZELLERS store. That's part of why I stopped shopping there. I could get my clothes pretty cheap at Zellers. But I will never ever support Walmart. They pay their employees a pittance. I do remember when the Home Depot opened. I think that replaced SEARS which used to be there. I remember the Staples store. And I remember the covered parking garage at the back. We used to park there all the time. I dont recall ever visiting the other plaza mall part where the No Frills is now. That was across the railway line and the Square had a huge high wall running along the back of their property so we could only hear the trains but not see them. When was that Walk bridge built? Because I dont remember that either!! Actually now that I think about it, there was a walk way bridge, but it was not as fancy as this current one is. According to the Metrolinx Map, the Gerrard Square Mall is staying open. It's just the smaller plaza part where the No Frills is, that is being demolished.

[@Gledge9]

Great walk Johnny, the plaza that is getting torn down used to have Towers and Food City plus a Consumer's Distributing store that was my first job after school when I was 13, and I remember when they built Gerrard Sq. Me and my friends would go there regularly and we would run onto Kim Mitchell from Max Webster at the mall fairly regularly, he was such a cool guy and always had some time to talk to his fans. Great memories thx.😊

[@azamyahmad]

Welcome back Jhonny and as always beautiful sharing adventure walk away tour and your beautiful sharing adventure as always appreciated and you doing such an amazing job .. thanks again from Montreal QC

[@johnnyj3299]

Things are changing. Hope Gerrard Square is around for alot longer. Good little mall.

[@gabygaedecke2411]

About 3 years ago, I strolled through this mall and was frankly surprised it was still in operation - seemed doomed back then. Happy to see that this humble neighbourhood now has a selection of shopping options.

[@The-Tired-Drummer]

I believe it opened in 1973-74 I worked at the Sears Department Store, shortly after the mall opened. I had a 1974 car that’s how I’m remembering the year.

[@PaulYBreen-rc4rm]

Thanks Johnny. Lived at Jones and Gerrard on Bushell Ave from 2002 t0 2004. Thanks for the memories.

[@faithpatience.]

Beforehand the no frills used to be a knob hills farm.

[@MrEricandude]

I remember I was there when they first opened up.

[@user-uk9yw6go8h]

I enjoyed this virtual walk. It is an area of Toronto I'm not familiar with. Thank you.

[@xenax6242]

The two vacant shop fronts on the ground floor in Gerrard Square were The Source and Foot Locker and beside the stores, you showed on the corner of Marjory and Gerrard if you had walked back towards where you started on Gerrard Street from Marjory Gerrard Square has an HR & Block, Cash4You, Popeyes, Tim Hortons and a Mc Donald's on the corner at Pape and Gerrard. The last two mentioned were seen in this video though, For the Tropical Joe's it's basically like the Real Jerk but in my opinion much better and better portions!

[@Aggressive_Splooge]

I was just in that mall in August. Looks so different!

[@billjohnson7904]

To be fair, No Frills is a good grocery store if its well managed.

[@Gledge9]

And I forgot to mention the Maple Leaf Tavern used to be one of the biggest " blood and guts" beer halls ever.

[@Ann-hm7gj]

The Walmart is a bit cheaper in Canada surprising. But the u.s has a better selection of items.

[@bailyes29]

Love to shop at their Walmart.

[@bettinabrentano5440]

small but well-stocked. Used to be a Zellers, I believe.

[@mondsouza8601]

Make videos on the heritage houses/sites so that we took can go and see them. Great videos from you about Toronto.

[@robertsabharwal9787]

Say please.

[@babyshark5647]

Good morning

[@thefozzybear]

As a teen growing up in the area and working at GS it wasn't all that scary.

[@Ann-hm7gj]

O.g I remember that exact corridor. I use to go there when I use to visit my aunt's house. Haha That mall isn't that bad. That's the asian mall

[@Genious.]

I love that, living at Coxwell and Danforth, I can say to anyone in the neighborhood 'I have to go to Dirt Mall' and they all know I'm referring to Gerrard Square.

[@JohnnyStrides]

lol

[@Ann-hm7gj]

COVID caused this to dry up. It was so difficult to shop during COVID. I was scary

[@Ann-hm7gj]

Tropical Joe's food is bomb. All those restaurants are.bomb

[@canada_copwatch]

tropical joes jerk pork burnt ends r the best !

[@user-pz4el9mh1g]

Привет, Джонни! Ты правильно делаешь, что снимаешь Торонто, для истории и потомков будет интересно посмотреть какой был город когда-то, так как все стремительно меняется, застройки, новые здания что-то исчезнет, что-то новое появится. Спасибо за виртуальную прогулку.

[@Jax_Animates4836]

Is this pre-recorded

[@Gurtejbauer24]

Yes

[@StukInBuf]

Paused about 22 seconds in; in other words, about 40 degrees F.

[@JohnnyStrides]

It's actually 39°F which I did put on the screen for the metric-impaired viewers. Science is done with Celsius for a reason ;)

[@dantedante1111]

HAHA at The Real Jerk