Six years since the iconic glittering signage gracing Toronto’s Honest Ed’s retail complex was disassembled and removed from the bargain retailer’s exterior, it looks like the famous Ed’s branding is about to make its return to Bathurst and Bloor.
Just not in the form you’re thinking of.
An enormous 30-by-60-foot sign made up of nine steel panels was just one of several vestiges of the bargain brand removed in 2017 to make way for the store’s demolition and the subsequent construction of the massive Mirvish Village complex, a mixed-use development containing rental apartments, retail, and community/public spaces.
After its careful disassembly in sections, a portion of the main sign was transported to Orillia, where it underwent preservation work overseen by Pattison Sign Group. That sign was intended to be reinstalled at the Ed Mirvish Theatre on Victoria St. the following summer, though this has yet to come to fruition.
But that was just one of the several Honest Ed’s signs on the property, and while some of the larger signs were not spared, others were held onto by developer Westbank for later reintegration into the replacement complex.
Years later, construction is now winding down for the five-tower complex, and businesses have begun to populate the retail and commercial units to finally bring some life back to this stretch.
The most recent Honest Ed’s sign-related news came when a cryptic signage application was filed in mid-April, revealing that one of the signs preserved by the developer will soon return to its original home at Bathurst and Bloor.
The April 17 application seeks approval “To erect and display one illuminated projecting sign,” further clarifying that “This sign is an old sign which has been refurbished and is going to be installed at the same location, ‘Honest Ed’s.'”
A City of Toronto representative confirms to blogTO that, sadly, this isn’t the enormous glittering sign set to (someday) reappear on Victoria Street, sharing images of a much smaller vertical marquee sign that formerly stood above the southwest edge of Honest Ed’s Alley, a mid-block connection being reinstated into the new development.
The restored Ed’s Alley vertical marquee soon to reappear at Mirvish Village. Renderings via City of Toronto.
Drawings indicate that the sign will be reinstalled at roughly the same position overlooking the alley as it stood for decades prior to the block’s demolition. Its restored lightbulb marquee and neon tubes promise to add some after-dark ambiance to the open-air space.
Though Honest Ed’s was a staple at Bathurst and Bloor for almost seven decades, the beloved circus-themed signs were actually much more recent additions, installed in 1984 as part of an expansion of the venerable bargain superstore.
This smaller marquee appears to predate that more recognizable signage by a few decades, and is arguably a more important historical marker for the site than the ultra-kitsch that came later.
The sign photographed in 2017. Photo by Kevin McBride/Flickr.
blogTO has reached out via email to Westbank and Pattison Sign Group regarding the fate of the larger restored Honest Ed’s sign destined for the Ed Mirvish Theatre, but none have provided a statement as of writing.